
A Plying Time
Last week I wrote about knitters persisting despite how much goes into it. The same is even more true for spinning and plying yarn. Today is the culmination of a months-long project spinning up a gorgeous blend of fibers from Tommy and the Minnesota Woolen Mill.
Plying Tommy’s Preferred Blend
For those who followed my progress on spinning this glorious fiber, I was able to finish plying the singles into a wonderful yarn. So I settled in to ply it up. Fortunately this process goes a lot faster than spinning singles.
You’ll notice I’m wearing the socks I made using the first batch of Tommy’s yarn! Even at the faster pace, I wouldn’t want to put anyone through the fiber-equivalent of watching paint dry. So I time-lapsed the rest of the plying.
After all was said and done, I ended up with a little over 200 grams of yarn, measuring approximately 840 yards. It’s similar to the first batch of yarn I made with Tommy’s yarn. Equates to a fingering weight yarn or slightly lighter. This weight worked extremely well in my antique sock knitting machine, so I hope it will again with this yarn.
The resulting yarn is more tightly plied than the first batch. It is therefore much more balanced (the singles twist is offset more equally than the plied twist). I couldn’t be more thrilled with how this turned out.
Current Knitting
The See Grass Shawl is still moving along. Though with all the plying (and editing of time-lapse movies), it doesn’t look like much progress.
It’s at about 12″ so far, so I’m more than halfway through! But still a while to go.
Joe, you make it look easy. I know it requires practice but I think I still will buy yarn.
Thanks for showing.
Joe —-
Will you be sharing this pattern?
—- Tom
It won’t be published as a pattern per se, but I did write up the basic instructions at the end of an earlier blog entry – https://queerjoe.com/2019/08/21/a-bounty-of-excellent-mens-knitting-patterns-mens-nordic-collection/
Thanks!