Q&A – plying

Posted on | February 26, 2007 | 1 Comment

Woo hoo, aren’t I the big fallutin blogger – answering questions in my posts!  Let’s just say I’m distracting myself from the fact that my cardi sleeves are using two and a half balls of yarn instead of the allotted two balls of yarn, which means I have only three balls with which to knit the yoke, button bands and seam.  To say that I’m nervous would be an understatement.  I’m finding it hard to catch my breath.  The back and fronts are blocked and drying, the first sleeve is finished and I’m about a third of the way done with the second sleeve.  The moment of truth will soon be upon us.  Or me.  I like to think you guys are in this with me, ready to pick me up off the floor when despondency strikes.

Anyway.  Angela asked in her comment yesterday:

How did you ply it? I have to learn this next. I want to know what kind of plying this is.

When I started to spin this, I knew I wanted it to be sock yarn.  I’ve read that 85% wool, 15% mohair is a very good blend for socks because mohair provides strength, the same as nylon does in commercial sock yarn.  I drafted it thinly and used the second to fastest whorl on my wheel (11:1).  For plying, I used the fastest whorl (14.5:1) because I wanted a lot of twist in the ply.  I probably over-plied it, but it wasn’t twisting back on itself in a snarly mess and a lot of the excess twist relaxed on its journey from bobbin to niddy-noddy.  Put simply – when making sock yarn, Koigu is my goal.  And Koigu is tightly plied.

What if you’re using a spindle and want to ply?  To ply on my spindle, I created a po’ man’s lazy kate out of a large shoe box, two metal knitting needles, Tinkertoys and rubber bands.  (I’m embarrassed to even show this picture.  Look at how lumpy and thick the yarn is!  I can’t believe I plied it; you’d need tree branches to knit with it!  Egad!)

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I filled my spindle up as much as I could, then wound the yarn off on my knitting needle makeshift bobbins for plying.  Since plying adds double the amount of yarn on the spindle, I taped a cd to the top of the spindle for added capacity (top left of picture).  I tied the two ends of the yarn together, then plied them in the opposite direction from which I spun (in this case, counter-clockwise).  There are excellent tutorials, articles and videos in the sidebar under “Spinning tutorials and helpful links,” particularly icanspin and Spin-Off. 

In all honestly, I could not have spun sock yarn using my Louet spindle, it is simply too heavy.  It is possible to spin sock yarn using a lightweight or supported spindle. Pamela Kite at Fiberlife has an excellent post devoted to spinning for socks in her November 15 entry.  So I guess what I’m saying, Ang, is that I know spinning and plying for socks on a spindle can be done – I’ve just never done it. 

Which likely means I have no business writing a Q&A post.  I hope this was at least a tiny bit helpful, if not for my own content, then for the links to people who REALLY know what they’re talking about! 

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Category: spinning

Comments

One Response to “Q&A – plying”

  1. angelarae
    February 26th, 2007 @ 6:17 pm

    Awesome! Now that’s my kind of lazy Kate…jury-rigged! You make beautiful yarn…you know what you’re talking about, ‘kay? Thanks, just tightly plied…not ‘navaho plied’ or ‘twisty plied,’ etc…but tight enough to be sock yarn. Wool and mohair. I like it:)

    Ang
    ‘