Ply me.
Thanks for everybody’s plying knowledge and suggestions! The conclusion was plying from a centre-pull ball works just fine, but even better is plying from two storage bobbins…
When you ply from a centre-pull ball, the distance from the wheel is relatively short and the singles have a tendency to twist back on themselves while plying so it is difficult to get an even twist throughout the yarn. Instead, when you wind each half of the singles onto a separate storage bobbin, you can set the bobbins up on a lazy kate a few feet away from the wheel, helping to even out the twist.
After spending far too much time reading through [June's Two Sheep blog](http://www.twosheep.com/blog/) and researching electric bobbin winders, I took June’s recommendation and bought a hand-made electric bobbin winder off Ebay. Is it crazy that electric bobbin winders are often $265 USD? The one I bought was $91 USD — sounds like a deal to me.
Since it will take about 2 weeks for the bobbin winder to arrive and all my bobbins are full of singles, I had to ply some. So, I wound them off with the ball winder into little centre-pull balls:
Here’s the 2-ply made from the centre-pull balls:
And finally, here is a crockpot dyeing disaster (grey roving + too much dye + felting) that I spun into slubby singles:
####Read these…
* [Bobbin winder, revisited (Two Sheep)](http://www.twosheep.com/blog/?p=230)
* [More than you ever wanted to know about storage bobbins (Two Sheep)](http://www.twosheep.com/blog/?p=221)
* [Storage Bobbins (Textile Link)](http://www.textilelinks.com/author/rb/020609.html)
* [My new electric bobbin winder](http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3125&item=8191861012&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW)
Your singles look so perfect! I can’t believe you’re new at this!
First, thanks for the plug! Your yarn looks fantastic.
Second, I forgot to mention one other thing – be very very cautious doing the ply-from-center-ball if you are doing anything that contains a significant amount of silk. I tried it with a pure silk yarn and a wool/silk (80/20) yarn, and both were very sad experiences. The silk tends to stick to itself, and it results in globs that get stuck and tangle up. The pure silk was an Andean plying bracelet that I feared for a few minutes was going to sever my hand. I had to cut it in several places, sigh.
Third, as far as my earlier comment about “sloppy” technique, I apologize if I offended anyone. It was a poor word choice, and I take full responsibility. In any case, the best way to see how the amount of twist changes when you ply from a center ball is to noodle out the cardboard core from a roll of toilet paper and pull sheets from the outside and inside. You will see how the amount of twist generated from the inside differs from the outside. The length of yarn (or toilet paper) required to travel a full circle around the core is much shorter than the yarn (tp) required to go around the outside once. Hope this is clear. Center pull plying is really just a purist’s point – rarely will it make a *functional* difference in the resulting yarn.
All of that sounds so technical to me! Isn’t ebay great! I find the best deals there. I bought about 50 bucks worth of sock yarn for 20… I can’t complain! Thanks for all those reading links… I might have to browse so that I can understand the spinner lingo a bit better
The colors are wonderful!
I love that one that is a crock-pot disaster – such beautiful colours…. *sigh*
Jess
i love the “disaster” as well!! it looks like it will knit up with a fantastic texture that will beg people to touch it!!
beautiful colors! looks wonderful!
Your yarn looks great, even the disaster.
Very cool bobbin winder. I can’t wait to see how you like it!
Great job on your spinning. I really like the thick & thin skein. That would be great for a hat or scarf.
i’m new to spinning so thanks for all the info and helpful resources. your yarn is lovely!
I love the idea of using the storage bobbins (I found some at the Woolery for about $1US each and since I was already placing an order for something else…..). I was talking to DH and he thinks that I can use his old variable speed drill as a winder. We’ll see about that part of it (I can just imagine the whole bobbin of yarn being suckead off my wheel and tangling itself up). If’n the drill doesn’t work, I’ll have to check out the electric winder. Thanks for the links. And the color of the crockpot disaster is nice!
Oh I LOVE the slubby singles one! It looks like colinette or something. It’s such a lovely colour.
It’s funny I have come here twice now and read “Ply me” as “Fly Me– to the moon” It has just made me laughe each time so I had to share.
Your yarn is truely beautiful, even the lovely mistake.
Sigh, I don’t even have a Lazy Kate. I like plying from center pull balls but you’re right, it’s not the best way to do it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with slubby yarn. It has its uses.
I simply love the colors. BTW, I was reading through your archives and wonder if you ever started/finished the Brumes/Steppe jacket from Phildar?
I just found your blog from someone on KR and thought I’d comment. Your pictures are gorgeous! You are the latest addition to my bloglines.
Jayme
auto loan calculator Heh. How it goes? Buy it all. ASAP. Last discount in your live (AAAAA!!!!!). Take a rest.
auto loan calculator Heh. How it goes? Buy it all. ASAP. Last discount in your live (AAAAA!!!!!). Take a rest.