When I spin braids with clear color breaks, sometimes I don't care if the colors get muddled, but sometimes I want the colors to be as clear and long as I can get them.
When I want long colors, tt drives me nuts when I'm just halfway done with one color and the next color below starts creeping in.
I finally figured out the fix is in the tension.
Not the tension that winds my yarn on, but the tension between my fiber hand and the wheel that allows me to draft.
Usually I hold my fiber like in the photo. I use my thumb on top, and fingers underneath the fiber to create a point of tension between the fiber and wheel to draft against.
The tension point of my thumb is where the fiber draws from when I draft.
I have removed my drafting hand from the photos in this post, so you can see what’s going on better. When I spin, my right hand is in the front doing its drafting thing, and my left hand (like in the photos) is controlling the fiber mass.
If I keep my thumb static, the fiber keep drawing from when my thumb is positioned. Pulling fiber from the color below as well as gathering fiber from either side.
In the photo to the right, I can see the purple pulling up through the middle of the blue and see it marled in the yarn.
It doesn’t matter if I’m drafting woolen or worsted, if I have a fixed point of tension in my fiber supply hand, the fiber mainly drafts from that point.
If I move my tension point, moving my thumb slowly across the fiber while spinning, it’s easier for me to exhaust one color before it switches to the new.
It took a lot practice to be able to move my thumb across like a typewriter. I learned I couldn’t slide it (it would rumple the fiber), but I had to pick it up and put it down cleanly in little increments.
My patience was further tested by the fact that the fiber doesn’t move as fast as my thumb. I spent a lot time starting at the fibers watching a few at a time catch. I also can’t move my thumb in both directions, I can only move it left to right. When I get to the right end I flip the fiber and start from the left again.
This method of working across the web of the fiber works for me every time now, and when I want it I can get long and clear runs of color from my braids.