How to Tie a Bobbin Leader

If you’re wondering “why won’t my spinning wheel feed yarn onto the bobbin?” at the start of a spinning project, you’re in the right place because nine times out of ten, this simple trick will fix your take-up issues. Especially on wheels with slippery plastic bobbins like the Electric Eel Nano.

Although problems with take-up can happen for other reasons, the most common is that your leader isn’t secure and is just slipping round and round the bobbin. Like tying your shoelaces, tying a secure leader becomes a reflex and it’s a critical lifeskill for spinners.

Leader Material

I like to make my leaders from a piece of cotton or grippy wool yarn, about 1.5m/5ft long (I use my wingspan to guesstimate).

Method

Step 1

A: Fold the leader in half, forming a loop in the middle. B: Pass the folded end under the bobbin from right to left. C: Bring the loose ends over the bobbin and through the loop. D: This is a single larks head knot which will hold when the bobbin rotates in one direction but will loosen and slip when the bobbin goes the other way. To prevent this and make the leader secure, we add another larks head knot.

Step 2

E: Make another loop on top of the bobbin, facing to the left. F: Bring the loose ends under the bobbin and up through the loop. G: Pull the loose ends to make the knots snug. Your leader is now secure and you should now be able to rotate the bobbin just by moving the leader.

H: I like to tie two knots at the loose end of my leader, a couple of inches apart. Between those two knots is where I join my fibre for spinning or plying. Other folks prefer to leave the ends loose so do whatever works for you.

Extra tips

The beginning of your spinning may be influenced by how thick your leader material is, so some people prefer to match the thickness of their leader to the thickness of the yarn they want to spin. I just go with whatever I have to hand (usually leftovers from knitting projects) and accept that the first couple of metres of my handspun might be slightly thicker or thinner than the rest of the skein while I get into the groove!

If you continue to have issues with take-up, you should take your bobbin off the flyer and try the following:

• If the leader is still able to slide around, try taping it down.

• Try loosening your brake tension all the way, then gradually increasing it a little bit at a time until the yarn feeds onto the bobbin.

• Check that the yarn isn’t wrapped around, caught on or otherwise impeded by the flyer hooks.

• Check that the flyer shaft and bobbin bearing (the hole through the middle) are free of fibres.

• Check for anything around/inside the orifice that the yarn could catch on.

• Put a little bit of oil on the flyer shaft where it meets the bobbin bearings.

• Try a different bobbin.