I got to spend the afternoon trying out my first ever spinning wheel. I love love love my wheel and I'm so sad that I have to hide it at mom's till I'm able to clear out enough space (as dictated by Carl) to bring it home. I guess I'm going to be spending a lot more time with mom. Anyway, today a managed to spin up a 4 ounce batt of merino and tencel that I bought from CJKopec a long long time ago and its beautiful. Ok it lumpy and bumpy but it still beautiful to me. I only have the one single so I wonder what I will ply it with...also I probably should invest in a lazy kate so plying will be easier. Anyone have any pointers for plying?I'm sure I'll spin up something this weekend and will want to ply right away.
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4 comments:
Thats brill, nice to see you spinning! The yarn looks lovely. I am certainly no expert but I have plied with a commercial yarn to get the feel for it. There is also Navajo plting (chain plying) which is great if you don't have a lazy kate.
Mine's an old wheel and only has one bobbin, no Kate. If I only have/want one bobbin's worth of singles, I wind it off into a ball, then start a centerpull ball from that, so I have two approx equal balls (centerpull a bit bigger) joined at the center. Start plying from the center and when one ball (regular one, this is why the centerpull is made a bit bigger) runs out, use the center tail of the second ball as the new second ply, just overlap it with the old one. Then you're working (carefully, so you don't tangle it) with the two ends of the centerpull, and work to the end. No leftover little bits also, from having two different length balls. Whew!
'Course, you could also wind it up and save it to ply with something else for a novelty yarn, or do the Navaho plying if you want a thicker 3-ply yarn (and if a 3-ply fits in the orifice of your wheel). Lots of possibilities!
That's awesome! You are surely going to work on that squeak though, right?
Congrats on the wheel! it will get smoother. :)
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