Learning to Ply

When I went to set the twist on the dark brown yarn I’d spun earlier, I realized the skeins were way underplied. I ran both skeins through the wheel again, adding more twist.

The smaller one is now a pretty tight 2-ply laceweight (around 30 WPI), 60 m/10 g (that’s 66 yd to .35 ounces).

But, I didn’t know what to do with such scratchy laceweight so I decided to try cable-plying with the larger skein. I divided the skein on two bobbins and cable plied those together. The other bobbin ran out first (as is their way) so I tried Andean plying with the other half. Had some, ahem, technical difficulties with the bracelet so the other end is a little overtwisty.

The larger skein resulted in 210 m and 87 g (230 yd/3.1 oz) of DK weight (14 WPI). And I managed to find the tag for the fiber while organizing my stash: it was dark brown Ashford Corriedale and not Black Welsh after all.

Learning to ply, indeed! First wheel ply, first 2-ply, first cable ply and first Andean plying bracelet. And now the hard part, what to knit with it?

#spinning #handspun