What is a diz, and why do you need one? Together with a good set of hand carders and a flicker, a diz may be one of the cheapest and most useful fibre prep tools you can get. If I had to choose, I would go as far as having a set of hand carders and my set of dizzes as my only fibre tools. They are versatile and extremely compact.
What’s a Diz For?
After you jump out of a flicker or the “dog brush” (as your first fibre tool), most people acquire a set of hand carders. Hand carders are an incredibly handy tool. It allows us to blend colours, as Diana Twiss shows us in the Colour & Fibre Play course adding Spinning Mix-ins for a textured preparation. Some fibre artists only use them to prep rolags, but what if you want a fibre preparation closer to commercial roving?
That’s where the diz comes into play. A diz, as explained by School of SweetGeorgia instructor Kim McKenna in The Ins & Outs of Diz Design, is a tool used to remove a length of fibre, called a “sliver,” from your wool combs or a hackle. If the fibre is removed from hand carders or blending boards, it is called “roving.”
The Ideal Diz
The diz is a small disc or plate with a hole in the centre. The hole, when fibres are pulled through, separates and organizes the fibres into a consistent and even strand. A well-designed diz will help you work smoothly with a beautiful sliver or roving ready to be spun.
The ideal dizzes are 2″ / 5 cm in diameter and lightweight. They also have either a more concave or conic shape. The higher the curvature, the denser the sliver produced will be. Watch Kim McKenna’s lesson for an explanation of the anatomy of diz and dowels.
Also shown is my diz threader and SweetGeorgia Corriedale fibre in the Farm to Table colourway.
Worsted Spun Preparation
A diz is typically used when preparing fibre for worsted spinning, where all the fibres are aligned in the same direction. Worsted spinning produces a smoother, stronger, denser yarn with less air trapped inside, making it ideal for fine yarns and knitting and weaving.
When using a diz, the fibre is combed first to align the fibres in a parallel manner. Then, the diz is used to pull the prepared fibre through the hole, creating a continuous strand of evenly distributed fibres. This fibre preparation spun with a worsted draft, will create a smooth, dense yarn.
Woollen Spun Preparation
Woollen spinning, on the other hand, produces a loftier, fuzzier yarn that’s better suited for items like blankets. But, sometimes, you may want your yarn to be lighter and loftier than a worsted yarn but still be smoother and denser than a woollen yarn. That’s when opening up the fibres passing through carding cloth, whether it’s from a blending board or a hand carder clamped to a table, and dizzing off (or doffing) with a diz will be just the right balance for the yarn you want to spin.
You can see a demonstration of Kim McKenna dizzing off roving from a hand card in her course, Nuances to Spinning Better Yarns, and you can watch a tutorial here.
If you like loftier yarns, this preparation is a dream to spin. Just remember to write down on your control card how you prepped your fibre so you can do the rest of your fibre the same way.
I am curious to know if you have used a diz before for your fibre prep. Do you find it as useful as I do?
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Original publication: April 13th, 2023; Refreshed: March 20th, 2025
Where did you find your wooden diz set?