Knerdy Knitting
where spelling isn't as important as awesome

Inspired by the Ravelry group Ply-By-Night, some of us at Corvallis Ravelers decided to have a spin-a-long using wool from Bellwether Wool Company. (Whew! That’s a lot of links!)

Here’s how it worked: we each got the same 4 oz of roving (2 oz of aqua, 1 oz of blue, and 1 oz of lime green) and then secretly, under cover of darkness, spun it up any way we pleased. The goal was to see how different people could start with the same roving and get wildly different yarns.

I decided to card my roving with hand carders, just barely mixing the colors. I mixed half the the aqua with the green and then the other half of the aqua with the blue. Here are a few photos of the process.

I then spun two singles, one from each of the mixes. I spun fairly loosely (as is my tendency) using a long draw. This, along with the carding, made for super fuzzy yarn.

I then plied the singles to create a balanced yarn. I believe I described it at Knit Night as “cat yak,” and I’m sticking to that. Not pleased with the results at all. But maybe with the right project it will look lovely. Here’s hoping!

I learned pretty much all I know about spinning at OFFF. One thing I noticed in particular was that the veteran spinners would spin a single, wind it off the bobbin into a center pull ball, and then ply the two ends of the ball together. Ta da! You don’t need to worry about having more on one bobbin you’re plying from. You always end exactly in the middle! I had to try this.

I’ve experimented with various ways of creating my own center pull balls. They have almost all failed miserably. Or at least in a tangled mess. But I got a new toy…. a wool winder! I’ve seen them work! They make magic center pull balls! I’ve seen it! How hard can it be?

Setting the Stage

Here are my weapons: a wool winder, Cynthia, and a slightly smelly single of mohair spun from the lock. I will use them to make yarn! I hope.

Step One: Spin a Single

Done and done. It’s some of my first spinning, and so dreadfully underspun. It barely hangs together. But I was so proud that I could spin thin! And I still love how it smells — a little like a goat dipped in Kool Aid. Funny that.

Step Two: ????

So I put the bobbin on Cynthia, strapped down the wool winder, and went to work. Getting a wool winder to, say, wind wool isn’t as easy as it would at first seem. The wool kept catching on the bottom disk and twisting around the base of the unit instead of around the post. And somehow I ended up with…. two center pull balls? On top of each other? Did I try to wind too much at once? I don’t think that’s it. Further study is clearly necessary.

Step Three: Profit!!

Now, to ply the yarn. I cut the mushroom into a top and bottom to make things easier. It’s actually really easy to ply from a ball like this. You sort of slip your index finger through the center of the ball and hold the outside loosely, rolling your wrist in a figure eight. And the ball doesn’t fall apart or get tangled! It’s awesome!

So that’s my 2-ply experiment. I think it yielded interesting results and merits further investigation at a later date.