I am on my way to Ohio this morning so while I am driving the day away I'll complain a bit. My latest spinning adventure is off the wheel and I am pretty disappointed.
Once again my plying is terrible. I've got a wispy, too loosely plied skein that barely resembles yarn.
I check it often while I am plying and it looks fine between the bobbin and my fingers. Whatever is going on past that is just a mess-a mess that I am not sure how to fix.
My singles seem fine so it has to be my plying technique.
I am hoping Craftsy comes to my rescue once again. I found this class. It was even on sale.
Now I have the gold part of the fiber being spun and since I need the gray and gold to work together I can't correct my technique just yet as much as I want to.
I need this half to be a wonky as the other. Experience tells me once knit it won't look too bad but that's not good enough anymore. I really have to get this fixed before I massacre anymore pretty fiber. MDSW 2017 is right around the corner.
And NO...we did not get any snow out of yesterday's storm. Just wind and cold which is a good thing seeing how I need to be somewhere.
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Ohio? That's quite a drive isn't it? Be safe. I'm no help with the spinning. That's a lot of the reason I sold my wheel. I could never get the plying right and I would just get frustrated at the waste. But then again, I didn't have any classes to take or people I could ask for help. So much has changed since then. I know you'll master it very quickly.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Betsy
You can re-ply the underplied yarn. Simply wind it into a ball (or, if you can get your swift and spinning wheel to play nice, just put it on the swift)and put more ply into the yarn.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful visit in Ohio, say Hi to my son if you see him. I think your spinning loos wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI used to ply on the 'one whorl smaller' until I forgot once and it looked so much better, I always do it on the same one now. I like a tighter or more twists per inch, too, so I have to work on it to get it. This yarn is very pretty, though, so don't be discouraged!
ReplyDeleteDo be careful. Dont 'be so hard on yourself, please. I don't even spin, or make soap or weave. I just knit . Wishing you open roads, no traffic and a great great visit.
ReplyDeleteI sure can't help with the spinning either! But safe travels to you. We did end up with about 5-6" yesterday...enough that I had a snow day from work.
ReplyDeleteSafe travels. Good luck with the plying, the whole process leaves me clueless, but kudos to you for looking for resources to improve! I have a kit sitting in my craftsy cart ... just sitting there you reminded me of ...
ReplyDeleteI don't think I could handle the frustrations of spinning! Luckily for me, there is plenty of yarn to buy!
ReplyDeleteLooks good to me! Good luck with the competitions; I hope it's not too cold in Ohio.
ReplyDeleteI move the band up to the larger grove on the whorl when I ply. Seems to work pretty good for me. Hope your trip goes well.
ReplyDeleteI was really interested to read this post because for years my plied yarn looked seriously underplied, despite the fact that I carefully check my balance as I ply. I sometimes even ran the yarn through the wheel once more to add more ply twist.
ReplyDeleteI've spotted a number of things that might be responsible or partly responsible. Not least that the act of the yarn winding on to the bobbin seems to remove some twist.... And I think this may be true. Think 'stick spinning' - you can wind fibre onto a stick and then pull it off to add twist. I think that the act of plying and then pulling the yarn off the bobbin sideways mimics stick spinning, and I now pull my yarn back through the orifice (ie the reverse of how it went on) when making my skein.
Another possibly cause is that singles relax a bit on the bobbin and then the twist re-activates in water, so checking for balance while you're plying could be deceptive.
There are a few other things that might be responsible, but in short, I now aim to overply in order to end up with a properly-plied yarn!
Thank you!! It all makes perfect sense now. I can't wait to give it a go and see what happens.
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