The spinning process transforms the fiber into a wool yarn. It consists of pulling the fiber and winding it on itself. This twist will give this yarn some resistance with the help of the spinning wheel. Before spinning, the fibers are first washed. Carding or combing cleanses the animal fleece of herbs, thorns and droppings.
The plying process is the fact of assembling several strands between them in order to obtain a strand of thick and soft wool. Two or more single yarns are twisted simultaneously to make one. By this action in the opposite direction of the initial spinning, the yarn will not tend to twist on itself.
A "single yarn" or "spun yarn" is a set of aligned and twisted fibers. The greater the torsion, the stronger the yarn is, because the contact points between the fibers have been multiplied. More abundant are the yarns in the yarn construction, the higher the yarn quality.
Yak or camel wool curly in skeins in their natural color are ready for dyeing.
To be dyed, the wool skeins are immersed in a boiling solution for a specified time. They are removed when the desired color is reached and then dried in the sun.
Accomplished manually and with skill by women, the winding returns to undo the wool skeins to wind them on small cylinders, called coils. The yarns are thus ready for weaving.