Winding
After being spun on the mule spinners, the yarn is moved to winding. The winding machine undertakes quality control processes and also winds the yarn from the cops onto cones. The cones are what the yarn will be sold on and usually weight 1kg. We buy our yarn in kgs; the cones arrive ready to be threaded up to our knitting machines.
The winding machine also checks the yarn for any inconsistencies. Sometimes, if the yarn is required to be thicker, it is taken to the twisting frame and it will be twisted to the necessary ply (ply means thickness of yarn). This machine twists together 1-ply strands from the cones to the desired thickness of yarn onto other tubes to create double knitting wool (2 strands), Aran wool (3 strands) or chunky wool (4 strands).
From cops to cones
Winding is the process of transferring the yarn from cops to cones, which you may remember from Spinning.
The cones are ready for the stock room or for sale.
Making the yarn 2/fold
This is the pre-twister, which takes the yarn onto a bobbin ready for uptwisting. Uptwisting makes the yarn 2/fold.
Getting the right thickness
After the pre-twister, the Up-Twister machine will make 2/ply yarn.
