Ways to Wet-Set: How to Intentionally Finish Your Handspun Yarn

If you’re a spinner who utilizes the exact same twist-setting process across a wide array of yarn preparations and structures, it may be time to revisit your finishing options and the reasons behind them. When and how we set the twist, aka finish our yarns, is as important a step in the spinning process as any, and not one to be skipped (unless done intentionally) nor chosen arbitrarily. Setting your handspun with a soak or a steam, combined with your choice of a snap or a thwack—or possibly even a shock—re-activates and redistributes its twist energy throughout the hank, while also stabilizing the yarn to prevent it from untwisting. Which finishing method(s) you employ depends on the structure of your yarn, its fibre makeup, and the traits you’d like to highlight in your finished yarn and chosen project.

Wet Setting and Steam Setting Your Handspun

All yarn finishing revolves around water, be it in the form of liquid for soaking or droplets from steam. This hydration is needed to help saturate the fibres themselves, which restores some of their original crimp and staple length traits. This introduction to water is the first step in setting the twist and finishing your yarn to your preferences. Note that whichever method(s) you choose, you should always start with an equally tensioned and well-secured hank of yarn from your niddy noddy or reel.

As always, be sure to finish a sample length of your spinning before committing to the whole project or skein.

Wet Setting Your Handspun

Most of us are familiar with standard wet finishing. Here, we soak our yarn in warm to hot water (depending on the fibre used and the result desired) and a drop of gentle soap or wool wash to help ease those fibres open for better absorption and to remove any mill oils, followed by a snap or a thwack. Take care to:

• Use the right water temperature for soaking and rinsing. I choose my temperature based on the specific fibre and yarn I’m working with. For example, if I’m finishing a yarn that began as fine fleece and still has a touch of lanolin, I’ll soak it in hotter water than when finishing a dyed commercial top. (Note: I gauge by feel and use water from my kitchen faucet, but you can use a thermometer if that makes you comfortable.) Warm to hot waters tend to work well for most of my yarns. However, I’ll choose a cool or lukewarm water when finishing textured or art yarns, (more to come on that topic).
  
  If rinsing the yarn afterward, submerge it in the water of a similar temperature, as the inner hank tends to hold onto the heat from its initial 15–20-minute soak, though a rinse generally isn’t necessary for yarns washed in wool wash specifically.
  
  Worried about accidentally felting your yarn? Don’t (worry, that is). True felting takes more than just a subtle change of water temperature—it also requires agitation of the fibres themselves, which is accomplished through stark water changes (with hot to cold being the greater “shock” to the fibres within), deliberate rough handling of the yarn, and/or the inclusion of soap. So long as you’re handling your yarn with care and moving it to basins containing similar water temperatures, your yarn will be just fine. Avoid super-hot and very cold waters for added safety.

• Soak your yarn for an appropriate length of time. If you don’t soak the yarn for long enough for the water to permeate fully through the yarn’s surface, you’re missing out on achieving optimal results. However, if you soak it for too long, any oils or lanolin can resettle, becoming more stubborn to remove. Fifteen to twenty minutes is ideal.

• Roll it up in a towel to remove excess moisture. After soaking, remove excess moisture from the skein by rolling it up in a towel. The longer you leave it inside the towel, the more water is drawn out from the skein. Alternatively, stand on the roll for faster absorption. Both draw up a surprising amount of excess wetness, leading to quicker air drying. Avoid wringing out the soaking wet hank to minimize any surface abrasion, but a light squeeze is fine.

Snap it or Thwack it

• Snap it or thwack it. After removing the skein from the towel, you should notice an overall decrease in kink and twist, but snapping or thwacking your damp yarn will help the fibres to further relax. Snapping and thwacking are not interchangeable actions, though. Snapping the skein between your hands helps to pull the spun fibres back into something of an alignment while thwacking it lightly abrades the yarn and forces air and the fibres outward, yielding a fuzzy surface and maximum bloom. Almost any yarn can benefit from snapping, but thwacking is much more specific.
  • To snap your skein, hold it extended between both of your forearms or palms (whichever is more comfortable for you), palms facing inward, toward each other. Now “snap” the loop by sharply forcing your arms outward against the tension of the hank, simultaneously rotating it until
    you’ve snapped the whole loop’s worth.
  • The majority of my yarns are wet-set and snapped, but if you’re looking to gently abrade/strengthen your yarn and help it bloom in thickness and in a more woollen/fuzzy manner, go ahead and “thwack” it several times against a hard surface such as your home’s exterior or a tiled wall, or even against the bathtub or floor, again rotating the full circumference of the hank. (Be sure your skein is secured with multiple figure-eight ties before attempting this!) You can always opt to thwack after snapping if you’d like, but you can’t undo the thwack if you change your mind afterward.

• Hang your yarn to dry, unweighted. If your yarn is for knitting or crocheting, let it dry unweighted. Any twist that gets pulled out with weight may return when you re-wet and block your finished project. Also, blocking your yarn diminishes any of its natural elasticity, making for less pleasant knitting and crocheting. If, however, your yarn is meant for a tightly tensioned weaving warp (such as that used on a multi-shaft loom), weighting/blocking the skein is fine since the yarn will be under similar tension throughout the weaving process until the cloth is cut from the loom.

Fulling/Shocking to Finish Your Handspun

Fulling, or lightly felting, is the ultimate finish and stabilizer when you want a strong, hardy yarn with woollen characteristics. It’s especially useful when applied to singles yarns and makes them so strong that some say it’s possible to knit a long-wearing garment out of fulled singles. The results are truly remarkable.

• To full your yarn, wet set it in very hot water, soaking for approximately 15 minutes. Remove the skein and immediately dunk it into an ice-cold basin of water (I even put ice cubes in mine for an added bit of agitation). You will see the yarn begin to react immediately, puffing outward and fuzzing. Let it soak for another 15 minutes, then check to see whether you want to run it through another round of shocking, as a little fulling goes a long way.
• Roll the skein up in a dry towel, snap or thwack it, then hang the yarn to dry.

Steam Setting Your Handspun

Use a steamer, an iron, or a simmering pot of water to steam-set your yarn in this third means of wet setting.

• Hold the looped hank between your hands, carefully passing it through the steam, being extremely careful not to pass your fingers or hands through the heat! (Consider wearing heat-proof gloves when steam-setting your yarn).
• Hang to dry.

Should You Always Finish Your Yarn?

That depends. Classic lore suggests that knitting and crocheted yarns should be set prior to use and weaving yarns should be set after weaving, as completed cloth; but I prefer to finish even my weaving yarns before use. That’s because I want to experience their drape, their hand, etc. before finalizing my sett and dressing the loom—and I’m also quite partial to pairing my handspun with my rigid heddle loom, which uses less tension than a multi-shaft loom and is therefore more forgiving than a floor loom. The exception to this is when the twist energy itself is the star of my project, knitted or woven, such as in a collapsed weave or directional knitting. Otherwise, setting your handspun is a good idea since yarn should be usable and not merely attractive.

Conclusion

If you’re a spinner who tends to let their unset but otherwise completed hanks of handspun pile up as they await their finishing, you’re missing out on a satisfying and vital part of the hand-spinning process. Setting the twist in any yarn can become a favourite part of your spinning process too, as the transformation from bobbin to set skein is so satisfying to behold.

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