Lilac yarn

This is the finished yarn that I made with the merino I dyed recently. I divided the top into 5 parts lengthwise, then pre-drafted a little bit. I was trying to spin thicker yarn than I've been spinning lately, and to spin it thick and thin. But it turns out that once you've been spinning for a while it starts to get a bit automatic. So this yarn turned out thinner than I planned and more even.

You can see the thick and thinness in the picture of the single above..

And this is the result. When I first started to spin I really wanted to spin thin yarn, but it can be time consuming and I thought it would be nice to have a thick single with this yarn. Anyway, as the single turned out a bit thinner than expected I ended up doing a 2-ply after all.

I kind of like the way a yarn will kind of develop as you spin and you sometimes end up with something you didn't expect. In this case I like the way the colours blend together and I'm happy with the results.

Thank you Kristyn for the tips on leftover singles. In this case there was hardly anything leftover and I decided to just keep the last scrap of single and wash it to set the twist. I think I'll make a tiny pincushion with it or something like that. I actually like the single a lot, so in future I think I'll try keeping more of my handspun unplied.

Thank you to all you spinners who leave me tips and suggestions as comments, I appreciate every one and do always get around to trying them eventually!

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Purple plum spiral handspun yarn

This is a yarn I made a little while ago. I had to hold onto it for a bit but it's up for sale in my shop now. I spun it with some roving that was included with the spindle (pictured above). I wish I knew what the fibre was, because it was lovely to spin. I dyed it with a variety of purples then pre-drafted it into a nice soft big ball of roving:

This is the finished single:

Just to make it come out even I Andean plied it:

I know it looks a little crazy and maybe Andean plying is meant for smaller amounts of yarn. I do like plying with bobbins (I'm going to show how I do that soon), if I have enough yarn, but sometimes when there's just 2 ounces or so I'd rather Andean ply and not worry about having leftover singles. I find it works really well, as long as the single isn't too fine, which can cause tangles.

One new technique I tried while plying was adding little coils/spirals into the yarn by pushing one strand up while the other strand is held in place. Here's a close up so you can see the spirals:

 

The final effect was subtle, but I thought it turned out well, quite pretty.

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Navajo plying on a spindle

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm completely obsessed with spinning right now. It's a shame because I'm already a jack-of-all-trades and I really didn't need yet another craft to keep me busy. But there you go, it's something I can't help.

Anyway, here's something I've just learned. Navajo plying on a spindle! Before I finished the candy cane yarn I posted recently, I had finished spinning a single from the first batch of roving that I dyed with red, pink and green.

I forgot to take a picture of the single. I wish I had because it was incredibly fine. It took days to spin. I actually began to regret spinning it so fine, but decided to finish so I could see how it would turn out.

After reading a comment on my blog about Navajo plying, I looked it up and tried to discover if I could do this on my spindle. Thanks for the suggestion Rachel! I thought this would be a good solution for this yarn because I had spun it so fine that it would have been difficult to wind it in an Andean bracelet and it would have gotten really tangled. (I've learned I could wind it onto a nostepinne, but I don't have one yet.)
So here's what I've learned about Navajo plying on a spindle (with a reminder that I'm hardly an expert at this point):

What is Navajo plying?
Navajo plying is essentially the same as creating a crochet chain, but with long loops. As you pull the loop through, the two strands it creates combine with the original single strand and you spin all 3 to ply them together.

Why bother?
The benefits are that in the end you have a 3-ply yarn that maintains the colour sequence in your single. Also, as with Andean plying, you use every bit of your yarn and don't have to try to divvy up yarn into equally sized balls to ply together.

How do you learn how to do this?
I figured out Navajo plying after watching this video and this one (and a few others) a few times. Then I had to think about exactly how I would do it on my spindle.

My big confusion was about what happens to the "knot" in the chain. The answer is that it is there, but it can hide a bit behind the twist. This is one reason though, why you might want to make longer loops. Longer loops = fewer "knots". However, the length of the loops also affects the way the colours blend together.

Navajo plying on a drop spindle
This how I did it, but of course there are other ways. I decided to try it with parking the spindle and very long loops. It's probably not as fast as short loops without parking but it's a good way to learn.

Get Ready
Wind your single onto a spare spindle, or onto a bobbin, or something that will allow you to draw up the single easily. If you have it on a spare spindle you can hold that between your feet so that the shaft is pointing up and the yarn winds off easily. I don't have a spare spindle or bobbin, so I wound my single onto my niddy noddy and asked my husband to feed it to me. This isn't a long term solution as he is starting to resent spinning. I would like to get some bobbins and a Lazy Kate.

Get Started
1. Create the first loop (a slip knot - like starting a crochet chain) and attach that to your hook. The next loop will be pulled through this loop that has the hook in it. It's awkward but after this you'll be winding plied yarn on to the hook in the usual way with the loop (held open by your thumb) just above.
2. You'll be spinning counter-clockwise to ply. This is assuming of course that you spun your singles clockwise.

Plying steps
1. Park your spindle and draw a new loop through the existing loop. Make the new loop as long as you can. Align the single with the two strands this creates so that you have three strands. Always keep the loop open at the top by keeping your thumb through it. Tip: I found it easier to pull the loop through at a 90 degree angle rather than straight up. There's a risk of breakage, especially with very fine singles.

2. Spin your spindle until the three strands are plied and look the way you'd like them to. You can compare to other pictures of plied yarns, to see the angle of twist that seems right.

3. Wind the plied strand onto your spindle and repeat.

Afterwards
As usual, set the twist by washing your skein in warm water and hanging to dry. A nicely balanced yarn shouldn't need to be weighted to dry.

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