I recently read an interesting discussion on one of the Ravelry boards about the pros and cons of drying your fresh hand-spun yarn under tension. This gets into complicated territory where there is no single right answer, just a lot of people who have personal opinions that they often present as fact. Just sayin'.
The "under tension" crowd feels that the tension helps set the twist of your yarn, even out the twist throughout the length of your yarn, and basically create a more consistent product. The most common "under tension" method is to get the yarn wet and then hang it up to dry with a weight hanging from the bottom.
The easiest way to do this is to use a coat hanger at the bottom to hook a plastic grocery bag to your skein of yarn. Then put a can or two of food in the plastic bag. However, you can also buy a specially made reel which will crank out your yarn under tension while it dries. This suspiciously torture-looking device is most commonly used by weavers to prep yarn (not just handspun but commercial yarns as well). Because when you are weaving, you absolutely need to have yarn which is straight.
The "Free To Be You And Me" crowd feels that yarn should be wetted then hung up to dry. Whether you dampen it with steam or give it a full soak, this camp believes that the yarn's own weight is sufficient to do the trick, and that adding more weight will only throw the whole thing off. If it curls or twists a little, just let it do its thing. All-natural, baby!
Personally, at this point in my spinning career, I am in the latter camp. I mistrust blocking in any form, frankly. In my experience, the harder you block your knitting (or your yarn) the faster it will snap back to its natural form the instant it has the chance.
Image courtesy Flickr/bill_canada
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