When I first began woolcombing I did not appreciate how much the act of dizzing would improve my spinning skills. Not only did dizzing reveal the best draft length for the fibre at hand, learning to draft out a consistent tape of fibre trained my hands in how to work with the fibre. I learned how to work more efficiently and became more proficient. My sliver became more consistent in density, with very few thick and thin spots. And as my grist of sliver became more consistent, my spinning too improved in consistency of grist. So no wonder the more skillful I became at dizzing, the better my spinning became.
Very excited as my new dizzes arrived and I hope hope hope that I can carve some time out and get back to my combs and wheel.
Thank you so much for this timely (for me) share! Just today I thought, “this dizzing seems like a waste of time” just because it wasn’t the better of the two preps I did on some fibre I dyed naturally. The balls of dizzed fibre semi-felted while the folded up batts did not. However, I’m a new spinner and have only used my diz 3 times, so I’m very inexperienced. And I totally appreciate what you say about how dizzing gives my hands some experience with that fibre before I even sit to spin it. Thank you! I will continue to practice and watch and wait for a defining moment and not dismiss what has come to prove so valuable.
Glad you found the post helpful. I place my dizzed fibre in a bowl. I will post a photo for you. I put the tail in the bowl, allow the fibre to “puddle” on top of itself and lay the end I will start to spin with over the edge at the 12 o’clock position. The next sliver goes in the same way and the end lays a bit to the right of the first…and so on. Then I pull off the slivers counterclockwise when I go to spin. I prepare anywhere between 20 and 40 grams at a time. Spin that up and then go back and diz another 20 to 40 grams. It does take a while to get the hang of dizzing, but once you get it….what a beautiful fibre prep! If you get Spin Off magazine I wrote an article on Woolcombing and The Importance of planking for their Fall 2020 issue…you might find that helpful. Kate Larson (Spin Off Editor) also did a short video to support the article so people could see dizzing in action (I think that appeared on their website in January). Thank you for your note and good luck with your fibre prep and spinning! Cheers, Kim