Tusedays for Plying???
Yesterday afternoon I headed to Catalyst early to cool off before SnB. While there I finally finished spindle spinning the ~1.5 oz of Coopworth wool from Snow. It’s been slow, but I hadn’t been diligent spinning it. I pulled it out occassionally while in MN - mostly to show off, LOL! But with Gaston and Gizzy and the other furry creatures it wasn’t easy to have something spinning and dangling in front of you without interruption.
So, this morning, I mounted it in my handy plastic basket from the discount store that it fits in so well for unwinding.
I ended up with this…
And I began to ply it on my spindle. I got about 34 yards plied. Then, I got a bit frustrated and lost my patience and in my rush to get the tangles out so I could continue plying, I broke it. Ooooops! Although, being the “push on no matter what” sort of person that I am it was probably a good thing or I’d probably still be plying right now despite the stiffness in my left shoulder and neck.
So, here is the 2-ply on the 1.5 yd niddy noddy with a quarter for scale along with the remaining ball of singles. I think I’m roughly 1/3 through the singles so I’ll be around the 100 yd mark when I’m done. Hmmmm, what to do with 100 yds of sport weight yarn???
Over all I’m pretty pleased with this yarn. The spindle is heavy (1.8 oz), and I added another 1.5 ounces to the weight roughly and it seems I managed to keep it all about the same weight. I did have issue with the stickiness of the Coopworth. There were times where it stuck to my hand and didn’t want to draft at all. This would mess up the alignment of the fiber and I would end up with tufts in the yarn on occassion. However, I think it will be a nice yarn. And, it’s all SPINDLE spun! 
Okay, so I need to unfold my wheel from going to Boulder on Thursday night and do my homework for class this week. But, I was having all kinds of issues with tension and speed and not enough twist at class so I’m a little frustrated and procrastinating on that. I think I overcorrected my treadling speed to avoid overtwisting and combine that with somewhat faster drafting due to the spindle spinning and I had a disaster and I’m sure I came across as having no business being in the class. Yesterday I had the perfect excuse to not spin on it because DH’s cheese making cloth was near where I spin and that would be a case for murder if I got wool fluff in his cheese cloth.
I have a pretty busy afternoon though today (and it’s hot here at the house again) and then this evening I go to Boulder. We’re having dinner at Dushanbe with our friend John. We’ve been for afternoon tea there a few times, but we’ve never eaten there. I don’t know how I’m going to decide what I want to order! It’ll be a nice evening though.
Sounds like you will have a fun evening!
I personally always over-twist my singles because I always ply my yarn. This is not necessarily the “best” way to do things, but it is “my” way. Reason being, that I prefer to knit with plied yarn. I have used Manos, Brown Sheep and Lopi and am not a big fan of knitting with a single. I don’t know why, but I like to ply!
Whip that Susie Pro into shape Krisi! It’ll behave once you give it a good working over.
The Coopworth singles look great! I love the color!
Comment by Lizzy B — 8/10/2005 @ 6:36 am
How’ve you done with the homework?
I plied my singles last night and realized that anything I knit tonight I won’t be able to block before class since it won’t dry in time;-(
Comment by amanda — 8/10/2005 @ 11:23 am