KnitMe

I Ply

I spy a 3 ply yarn. This is an astonishing development, believe me.

What's even more astonishing is that once I'd fine-tuned my wheel setup, I think it won't be that difficult to finish the batch.

I really wanted to stick with scotch tension for plying this - I don't want to have to go back to double drive for anything. This means that I use the larger bobbin end - more surface for the brake band to grab on. At first I left the small whorl on - reasoning it'd give me more twist more quickly. However, I soon decided that was not the best decision. In order to keep the whole flyer going around with the brake band set for a strong takeup, I had to screw up the wheel tension so much that it was getting hard to treadle. When I switched to the larger whorl, I could relax all that, and the reason was the same: more surface for the drive band to grab on. Once I got there I was fine.

I did break my hemp brake band in the process, but a quick trip to the drawer for cotton twine fixed that.

The spice cap was an incredible thing - I am not sure I could have managed this otherwise. With the spice cap I could always see the little triangle where the twist was taking the singles, and manage it evenly. And, if I had to stop I could push it all the way down to the lazy kate and it would stay put. This was a good thing, as at this gauge it took me about 2 hours total to fill that bobbin.

I plyed hard, so when the hank came off the niddy noddy it had quite a torque in it, but a very hot bath and good tension while drying straightened it out nicely.

In the end I got about 320 meters of yarn and I'm guessing it to be fingering weight. If I keep up at this pace I should get 1500 or 1600 yards of yarn, which would be quite respectable and useful.

I'm sort of amazed by this whole thing. There was a beautiful hank of natural-colored fingering weight corriedale yarn hanging up at a booth in the main building at MS&W and I said to Sam, "This is what I want my cormo to be like." It is actually coming out kind of like that. The experienced spinners will laugh at me, but when I looked at the hank all dry, I thought for the first time as a spinner, "I would actually buy this yarn."

It will probably be a month before I can show you a whole pile of little hanks like this, but won't it be delicious when it happens!

Posted by Prudence at May 29, 2005 08:31 PM