First Attempts at Something Novel

Last week, I spent some time making sure I have enough yarn for a Christmas hat. I didn't plan my plying, at all really and ended up with some extra burgundy singles. Since I didn't know how to work it into the hat, I decided to do something completely different.

A while ago I read Sarah Anderson's The Spinner's Book of Yarn Design, and I had been wanting to try some of the things she wrote about, so I jumped in. 

Using some old gold thread I had, that doesn't play well with my sewing machine, I decided to take a stab at some spiral yarn. While I do like the color combination of the burgundy and gold, I really picked the thread because I needed something thinner than the singles I had.

The process was fairly easy and straight forward. I held the thread tightly, using it to support the weight of the spindle, and held the single off at about a 45-60 degree angle. The wraps are not all even, and the single isn't all even, but overall I am happy with the effect, though the addition of the metallic adds some scratchiness to the softness of the wool once it untwists a bit in plying.

I found it easiest to unravel a length of the thread and then just slowly let it out of my hand while wrapping the single from a bobbin. When I tried to unravel both at the same time, I sometimes ended up dropping the thread, which would tangle up everywhere as the spindle and single kept spinning, adding a few frustrating minutes to an otherwise pleasant experience.

I also really enjoyed the addition of the sturdiness of the commercial thread. It was very comforting to know that the integrity of the finished yarn would remain intact almost despite the integrity of the single (though clearly if the single would break, you would be left with just thread and not yarn, not to mention loosing the look of the yarn).

It is certainly something I am going to try again, and hope to become pretty good at. I would like to figure out how to keep the spirals in place, as well as just making more (since I was using left over singles, I only made about 30 yards).

I'm certainly not there yet, but this was a fun and I feel successful journey into novelty plying...an niche that seems to be a bit less filled...