Thursday, May 27, 2010

The Single(s) Life

Single? Me? Oh right. You should know better that it's always yarn related!!

This past week I've been on a bit of a campaign of sorts. Singles. Non plied yarn spun perfectly so that it is not over twisted. Why? Well, I read something in SpinOff a couple of years ago. A spinner said, why should I spin the wool twice??

Now, I know there are plenty of good reasons to spin yarn "twice" or more, for a lovely plied yarn. It creates a more "balanced" yarn that's stronger. But here I am, buying Malabrigo lace and Noro which are both single ply lovely yarns. When I ply handpainted rovings the color gets at least a little mixed up, mostly to good affect.

Call me lazy, but I wanted to start spinning yarns that didn't need to be plied. I just wanted to be done, first time around, for a change.

I started with Silk/Merino blend. The first skein on the right came out just right and the one on the left is just a bit over-twisted. (click image to see closeup)
Then comes some Corriedale pencil roving that I really wanted to keep true to its vibrant color. (This colorway no longer available)

On the bobbin
Post niddy noddy and pre-soak
Off the nostepinne

I'm thinking about crocheting some of this yarn. No real plans, but I am really happy with the results and I should mention that in the rinsing, I did slightly felt the yarn per the suggestion of another spinner, but I wouldn't have to do that. It did give it a nice halo to do that.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it! Try the single life, it's kind of exciting ;-)

1 comment:

Bobbie Wallace said...

What about Andean plying to retain the color changes? I found a video (link on my blog) that shows and easy method to Navajo; tried it a couple days ago, took awhile but it does work better for me now.