How to Spin a Batt

We're having an informal Spin Along over in the Ravelry group, everyone's welcome, and you're not too late to join in. 

There's lot's of great information being shared, and plenty of advice being given. One of the things that popped up was that a few people loved how batts looked, but were unsure about how to deal with them. Many spinners now learn using combed top, so getting the fibre as a giant rectangle can be a bit daunting. 

I suggested that I could put together a video showing some tehcniques, and quite a few people seemed really keen to see it.

One afternoon later, and it's ready. So even if you've spun from batts before, there might be some new ideas to try out. As well as telling you how to split up the batt, I've also tried to say what sort of yarn the different methods will produce, and why you might want to use them in different circumstances. It's not the definitive list of how to spin from batts, and if you do it differently then please share how you do it, the lovely thing about this craft is that you never stop learning, and I love seeing new-to-me ideas. 

Each section was done in a single take, and it was self filmed using my regular camera on a tripod. As a result it's not the highest quality production, however, it's free, and I think it's clear enough for you to get the idea. 

We do own a proper video camera, I need to wrestle it back from my little brother. If you like this video, and can think of other things you'd like to see me demonstrate, then I'll have a go at filming them.

If you like looking at videos to learn new skills then there is a collection of tutorial videos right here on the Hilltop Cloud site, these are, in my opinion, amongst the better videos out there. Not every tutorial on You Tube is well filmed, and whilst I am a firm believer that there are no spinning police, there are several that really aren't the best method to use, and some, particularly drum carding ones, that are just wrong.