Lesson 4! Plying!Alright! so you have two singles and you are ready to ply! but wait, what do we need to succesfully ply? at least 1 thing:
A Lazy Kate. Now there are several types. You can buy beautiful ones, made of wood and finish them up all pretty or you can go function over form and save yourself some $$ (sometimes lots of $$$$)
Fancy homemade wooden kateOr you could make a really simple one out of a shoe box and a couple knitting needles or chopsticks.
Or yet another, and my first Kate, was a basket from the dollar store, and I have multiple toy wheel spindles, so I would just stick the spindles into the holes in the basket!
Now, you do have other options when plying, and I'll go into that at the end of this lesson. Let's just stick with the idea that you wound off onto toilet paper rolls and are using a lazy kate.
Direction of spinDirection of spin is really important. Lets say you spun your singles clockwise. You are going to want to ply OPPOSITE the way you spun, so counter clock wise. Always opposite! if you ply the same way you spun, you would have quite a mess indeed.
Tensiontension is important too. Your yarn needs to be taught between your hand and the Kate, AND between your hand and the spindle. Even tension between your hand and the spindle will insure an even ply. This can be tricky, but with practice, you will get it!
TechniqueAlright, we have all the tricks and the tools, but how?
-Set your Lazy Kate behind you.
-Bring your singles up over your shoulder and to your hand and attach them to your leader.*
-Spin your spindle. Opposite direction! Remember!
-Slowly let the spindles weight pull the yarn out of your hands and watch them twist together.
-When you've gotten your arms length, wind on.
-Lather, rinse, repeat, until you run out of singles.
Quick pic of how it starts:
* You can position yourself anyway you like, this is just easiest for me. I was taking pics by myself, and I wanted you to see how the yarn runs. I'd do it as I wrote normally.
The end results of plying on the spindle:
More ways to plyWhile the technique would be the same, there are multiple ways to get ready for plying. They include, but are not limited to:
Andean Plying - Wrapping your singles around your hand a certain way, so you can ply from either end of the single.
Center pull balls and upturned flower pots - requires two balls of singles, you bring the yarn through the holes in the bottoms of the pots.
Plying balls - Take a tennis ball, or felt a ball, and wrap two singles around it. secure your ball in a flower pot, or bowl, and ply as you would.
Lesson 1 : Source your toolsLesson 2 : Drafting Lesson 3 : SpinningLesson 4 : PlyingLesson 5 : Skeining and setting the twistLesson 6 : Yarn design[url]
