Comments on: Plying, with video!

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 13:13:25 +0000

Thanks for the video. Now I know I haven’t been doing it all wrong (even though that’s what I’ve been told by the “more experienced”)!

You truly are the spinning bandit.

I particularly like what you’ve been saying lately about “underspinning, overplying and then setting the twist aggresively”. Another manipulation I hadn’t thought of. (Yeah, I know, it won’t wear well, but it sure looks pretty. All pearly and bumply.)

A. Tripod sure can hold that camera steady. I don’t think I saw it move or shake once. Sure is hard to find good help these days.

Can’t wait for the sequel.

Jim

By: minnie

minnie — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 03:22:41 +0000

i am SO bookmarking this! and, apparently, i seem to be doing it right, except for the boilingly hot water. i just finished up some sockweight superwash that kinked like crazy (not quite as badly as yours, lol) and i think i’ll be soaking it in hot water again tomorrow. thanks!

By: Nora

Nora — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:36:06 +0000

Thanks for the informative series and the video. As many others have mentioned before me, I have been mystified as to why my “balanced” yarn looks so crappy. You’ve done a great service for this newbie in explaining the business of plying and overplying, and how settled twist affects the process. I rarely ply anything that hasn’t been sitting on a bobbin for at least a week, so this has been a big help. We won’t go into the maximum length of time singles might spend on a bobbin in my house:-)

I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

By: Jen

Jen — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 02:13:29 +0000

Your blog is amazing! That you SO much for making your experience available to those of us that can learn from it. I taught myself to knit from books, but I haven’t found a book that has helped much with spinning. Your blog and now videos has been the best reference I’ve found.

I don’t have anything to ply right, but I’m more eager to try plying than I’ve ever been. The lesson for me was seeing you let the wheel practically pull from the lazy kate. I tried this a little last time I plied, but I was getting a lot of twist and was afraid it was too much – and now from reading and watching your video I think I was probably ok.

Is there a ratio that you typically ply at? I’m assuming it will depend on the yarn a bit.

I was not taught yarn finishing (I did take a one day spinning class about a year ago) and so I’m intrigued by what you described. My last batch is still on the kniddy knoddy, cause I just really wasn’t sure what to do with it.

You mentioned a couple of times fresh and, I think, settled singles. Is there an advantage to letting singles settle or to using them fresh?

Thank you again for the amazing blog!!

By: jazz

jazz — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:56:55 +0000

so detailed, clear, and informative! thank you so much for these tutorials. you truly are a treasure to the spinning community.

By: --Deb

--Deb — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 14:19:58 +0000

SO much really great information in this post . . . and I haven’t even watched the video yet. Excellent, and thank you!

By: Lola LB

Lola LB — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:37:02 +0000

Will you be including Navajo plying? That’s one form that has me flummoxed because Ii can’t work it out in my head as to how to do it and I’ve never seen anyone in person doing this.

By: sarah

sarah — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:50:54 +0000

This is so helpful, it really is. I’d noticed that if the 2-ply didn’t twist back on itself I thought the finished yarn was too loose, but other sources said a balanced yarn should have little/no twist. I am really looking forward to your lessons on plying from spindles and chaining, as I really messed up trying to combine those two last week. Some bits of the end result are good, but the skein as a whole is a lesson learned instead of useable yarn.

By: TheKnittingBee

TheKnittingBee — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 10:31:52 +0000

This is really useful – I find there’s always lots of ‘learn to spin’ videos around, but not so much dedicated to plying. I’ve always felt I was just winging it and probably do it ‘wrong’, but it was good to see that I’m not!

By: abigale

abigale — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 08:07:55 +0000

Wow – thanks for that Abby! I’ve always felt my plying was my biggest weakness in my repertoire… A big part of that was simply because I was really afraid of overplying, and would look at what was going on with the yarn going upstream… I was always slightly mystified as to why it looked so good going up, and then wasn’t plied enough on the bobbin.

I also developed the method of washing in hot hot water (I will swish it around in the wash water to full it and floof it slightly) – abusing, thwacking and swinging the yarn around. I’d much rather abuse the yarn in yarn stage as opposed to nasty surprises at laundry time.

Anyway – thanks for the wonderful video! As someone else said, your hands are so graceful when switching around the different positions.

Abi