Re-Plying Pride

Good morning and happy Saturday! Some time ago I spun and plied this lovely blend of merino and nylon from Mad Color Fiber Arts that I bought a couple-ish years ago at the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair. I had two 4oz braids that each became a 2ply skein measuring between 560 and 590 yards. When I had finished plying both skeins and both had been soaked and dried, what I thought was a sufficient amount of ply twist was clearly not.

These skeins have hung on the wall in my craft room since then, waiting for the day when I was ready to run them back through the wheel and add more ply twist. I have spent enough time treadling an empty jumbo flyer and bobbin to condition the fresh leather bearings so I figured that fixing the ply twist on this yarn would be a great first project before I start what is sure to be a long process of plying the gradient.

I have not looked for anything that might reduce the size of the orifice yet, but the wobbling of the yarn I was holding wasn’t very bad while I was plying the first skein. Still, I will definitely look for something before I ply the gradient.

The first skein seems to have come out beautifully. It was re-plied on my Polonaise using the jumbo flyer and bobbin in the brake/Scotch tension setup, has been soaked and “thwacked” and is almost dry this morning. The next skein will be plied with the wheel in double drive. I am still not sure which I prefer. It may not matter as far as the end yarn goes, but doing this little test with what are basically the same yarn would show any differences better.

I’m going to head off to ply that second skein, and then it’s off to chorus rehearsal at 10 AM. There is just a few short weeks left until our spring concert on Saturday, June 15th, and a lot of work still to be done. I hope you’ll come out and see us.

Next weekend will be my last at-home post before the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat which is the following weekend, and I hope I have that gradient finished by then. I will let you know.