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2 ply Australian merino, a custom colorway, Cranberry Cove

I am by no means an expert, and I taught myself how to spin so I may do something ‘wrong’.

But I made a video on how to ply for someone who needed help, and now I am wondering if anyone would be intrested in me making more videos on spinning?  I have a few ideas but I have no idea if anyone would even be intrested in it, and, I feel like a huge dork doing the one I did soo .. input please!

Here is the one that I did on plying:

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I added a new category to my gallery devoted to my customer’s finished objects made with my yarns or rovings.  So if you’ve ever purchased from me and finished something with it, I would just love it if you could please allow me to use your image to display in the gallery!

Also, while I’m at it, if you are a member of Ravelry, I would appreciate it if you could stash your yarn/fiber from me under my brand name.

If you do either, I will give you a discount of 10% off your next order from me!  In the case of Ravelry, you will have to comment here, email me, or send me a PM on Ravelry.

Please bear with me, there was a glitch in the blog and I lost all my newer posts, and layout.

Ok as I write this it is midnight, and I should head to bed.  But I thought I would write up a few of my ’secrets’ to spinning a nice, as-consistent-as-possible single, and a nicely balanced plied yarn.  Just bear in mind I’m dog-tired right now, in case something doesn’t make sense, mmk?

Starting with your roving, I like to split it.  I take the entire piece of roving, 4 oz lengths are good – and split it in half after un-seaming it (find the seam, and unzip it with your fingers).  Take a half, and split again, one of those halfs and split again.  Keep splitting until you’ve split the entire piece of roving, oh about 12 times or so, and the pieces are about as big as a pencil.  Thus, pencil roving!  I find that this helps me to spin more consistently.  And it’s a heck of a lot easier and less time-consuming than pre-drafting.

Another secret I’ve figured out with singles, is that you always want to spin them smaller/lighter than what you really want.  If you want a 14 WPI single, spin it at 16-18.  Because when you’re finished with the yarn, and you wash it, and set it, and dry it, it will fluff up.  So if you want a 2 ply worsted weight yarn, spin 2  24-28 WPI singles instead of 2 22-24WPI singles.

Now, I’ve found in singles, if you’re going to ply the yarn, you want to overtwist the single a bit.  Why?  Because when you ply it, you’re letting out some of the twist.  You don’t want that single to fall apart on you or have barely any twist at all once plied do you?

When I ply, I treadle, and count the number of times one foot treadles.  I treadle until the yarn looks good between the orfice and my pinch finger.  Then I stop treadling and loosen the tension in my hand, so the yarn lays relaxed.  Does it twist on itself right away?  Too much twist.  Is the plying really loose?  Too little.  If you relax the yarn enough, it will twist back on itself lightly, and this is ok.  You’ll straighten that out later when you set the yarn.

I hope some of my tips will work out for you.  I’m no expert, but I love to share some of the knowledge I’ve discovered to help others.

Update:  I’ve already finished that roving, plying and all!  I love spinning with the WW.  I even started a new BFL roving

My WooLee Winder came yesterday!  I got to spin with it for about 30 minutes, and it is awesome!  Their website claims you can spin more consistently but I don’t find that to be true.  BUT!  It does take less time to spin.  I spun a 2 foot length in about 30 minutes and that usually takes me 40 mins.  And I just LOVE how evenly it winds on!  It’s just so pretty!  The hills and valleys of a hooked flyer just bugged me so much.

That is my Cupid’s Arrow merino roving