Winding a Pirn

I recently saw a piece on the correct way to wind a pirn and thought I’d share it. Is it just me or does everyone want to spell pirn with an e, ala Anne McCaffrey’s novels? I have been working on winding a pretty pirn for quite a while and while it’s still hit or miss for me I am improving.

I owned a really nice Swedish pirn winder for a while, but found the vertical mount didn’t work for me, so back to this Leclerc horizontally mounted one. I have my bobbin (pirn) winder mounted on the Leclerc Holdsall which is a great little piece of equipment. The cone of yarn sits below on a shelf balanced on a hollow peg and the yarn is fed through a series of holes that bring it right up to the bobbin. The true function of this set up is as a doubling stand as there is another identical shelf below my yarn which will hold another cone, which is fed up inside the first tube and then they can be wound together to double your yarn.

Have you ever wondered what the notch in the pirn is for? Apparently it has a use!

You thread your yarn into the center of the pirn and then shove it on the bobbin winder. The thread is held firmly in place.
Sorry this photo is a bit blurry, mea culpa! You then bring the yarn up through the notch and start winding. No more fiddling around to get it started. Perfect!
When the pirn is wound, keeping the yarn in place in the center you mount it into your end feed shuttle. I really can’t believe I didn’t figure this out yonks ago!
Here’s my pretty pirn! Of course this works with a regular bobbin too....eazy peazy!

AMWG starts on Thursday and I will be there, so if you’re attending please keep an eye open for me…..I’d love to meet you!
Weaving Words
The word gauze is named after the middle eastern city of Gaza where it was first woven as a veil or mosquito netting.