From Wool to Yarn

by PWCraddock

I visited Bradford Industrial Museum with the intention of recording Greg Kotovs demonstrate some of the textile machines in his care. We focused on the can-gill machine – an unassuming mechanism that starts 'drawing' combed wool into roving. Drawing sits somewhere in the middle of process for manufacturing worsted yarn, and for this story I wanted to put the can-gill machine into context with the entire procedure.

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https://vimeo.com/760271269/a40b89d4c5

Greg Kotovs talks through the first part of worsted yarn manufacture, from sorting wool to combing. After the process of combing, we are left with parallel strands of wool, ready to be drawn and reduced in thickness.

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Here Greg feeds the can-gill machine at the Bradford Industrial Museum, with combed wool. The wool is fed through a series of rollers and combs, which operate at different speeds. At the end of the process, the wool is four times longer and four times thinner.
https://vimeo.com/759691403/3da37bdc12

Here was the focus of my visit to Bradford Industrial Museum: recording Greg operating the often-overlooked can-gill machine. It's the first of six machines in the Bradford Open Drawing System on display. At the end of this 'drawing' process, the fibres are ready for spinning.

The can-gill machine in the last video is the first of six machines in the Bradford Open Drawing System, explained here by Greg Kotovs.
https://vimeo.com/760266852/04d9c35a06

By the time the combed wool has made it through all six machines of the Bradford Open Drawing System, we end up with roving. The fibres are ready for the next, and final, stage: spinning.
https://vimeo.com/760262938/cc19341857

Page 28-35 of this document describe and illustrate the drawing process in more detail.
https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/books/warpweft_02.pdf

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Greg Kotovs explains the final stage of worsted yarn manufacture, from spinning to twisting.
https://vimeo.com/760290862/1aec434afc

Here, Greg talks us through the final stages of spinning and twisting, and see the dolly twister in action.