Plying

At the guild meeting on Saturday (the weaving meeting in the morning) we decided to look at a project to follow on from our current one (in fact begin before, so as to minimise the down time).  One of our weavers had collected a whole large bag of singles (white wool - I'm not sure of the origin) and had made some two ply of some of it, but the type of wool meant it was a little scratchy to the touch and destined for just making slippers (which a few are now starting).   There was also quite a lot of very fine (and soft) singles that it was decided would make great soft two-ply that we could then try dyeing and some individual project work while the cotton towels are still on the guild loom.  Given the plying is pretty fast I volunteered...

Woolen singles ready to ply

I did a quick check to see which way the singles had been spun.  It was 'z' spun (the wheel turning clockwise) - not really visible in the photo above, but obvious by spinning and unspinning on the wheel.  Next step was to roll some center pull balls from the much larger ball of wool.  Quick work with the ball winder.

Two center pull balls ready to ply.

First run of two play

2nd run of 2-ply

Bobbin full of two ply

1st skein - 270 meters, 50+grams

The process went fairly smoothly, although I did learn when I first started out that unless there was a reasonable twist in the ply the yarn rapidly untwisted.  I suspect a symptom of the singles being in the ball for some considerable time.  Normally I ply quickly after finishing the singles and the natural twist in the fiber works to tighly hold the ply together.  I did read somewhere about re-energising wool that has sat for a while, but would have to research that.  In the meantime the well twisted 2-ply still has a nice soft drape and should retain enough of the plying twist to keep it together.

It took about an hour and a half to ply the bobbin full, so this morning I managed to get two done, and thee will be quite a few more in the original large ball/cone.