Playing With Plying
I've been wanting to take the time to try some new to me spinning techniques, and finally managed to do just that. The first was pretty simple - plying a bulkk/slubby single with thread. This is half of a "vintage" HelloYarn Fiber Club offering, a merino top called "Maldives", about 2.5oz/135 yards. Very easy to do - I just used plain old cotton sewing thread in a pale blue.
Next on my list was super-coils. I used this Knitty article for guidance. I spun the rest of the Maldives into an over-twisted bulky single, wound it into a ball, and started coiling with some white crochet cotton thread as the base. It took me 2 hours to make just 6 yards of yarn, but I love what I made. I have plenty of singles left so will try again, hoping practice might make things go a little quicker. My main slowdowns were the over-twisting of my base thread (needed to spend lots of time letting the trailing end untwist) and the fact that I had to hand wind the yarn onto the bobbin - I was using the Louet and her hooks, while very generously sized, still hung up the lumps and bumps.
I can totally see why people get addicted to making this kind of yarn - it is really, really fun.
Next on my list was super-coils. I used this Knitty article for guidance. I spun the rest of the Maldives into an over-twisted bulky single, wound it into a ball, and started coiling with some white crochet cotton thread as the base. It took me 2 hours to make just 6 yards of yarn, but I love what I made. I have plenty of singles left so will try again, hoping practice might make things go a little quicker. My main slowdowns were the over-twisting of my base thread (needed to spend lots of time letting the trailing end untwist) and the fact that I had to hand wind the yarn onto the bobbin - I was using the Louet and her hooks, while very generously sized, still hung up the lumps and bumps.
I can totally see why people get addicted to making this kind of yarn - it is really, really fun.
posted by Pumpkinmama at Tuesday, December 02, 2008
8 Comments:
I love the look of the super coils but that sounds so time consuming!
Dang! THAT is some cool-looking yarn. I love your photos - the yarn looks great!! You are brave for not spinning bland 2-ply/autopilot yarn.
That is very cool looking yarn. What would you use the coil yarn for?
Wrap and roll! SpinOff had an article on that. Used a spindle for the base yarn....ask Cheryl.
Very cool! Yes, I saw the same Spin-Off article this summer.
They look great! I'm tempted to play with these 2 techniques again. I need to remind myself that if I don't get perfect results on attempt #1, I might just need more practice!
Way cool.
Laurie's right, we learned this wrap and roll technique at Soar, where you use a spindle and the wheel at the same time! The spindle untwists the core yarn while the wheel adds twist, leaving you with a balanced core. Pretty cool stuff. Kelly's wicked good at it.
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