Friday, March 21, 2014

The 3-ply Why

I have been watching Judith MacKenzie's video on plying. She really encourages using at least a three ply yarn for knitting. And possibly even adding more plies. Truth be told I have never made any substantial amount of three ply yarn. I have practiced chain plying.. But only in small amounts. I have 8 ounces of beautiful merino that that ian have spun onto three bobbins. I decided that I was going to do it. I am finally going to make a real three ply following Judith's instructions. At first it was tough going... My yarn broke twice... This never happens when I make my two plies. I stopped and added twist to one of the singles... But I am not sure this was the actual problem... I was following Judith's Instructions exactly... And normally I hold my singles with my right hand and ply-draft with my left. When I switched back to the way I normally do it... Nothing more broke.

Tip: I had a lot of tangling at first so I put my bobbins as far apart as I could...I even put one on a separate lazy Kate. This helped me a lot.

My wheel does not hold a lot of fiber so here is about half way.. It's not perfect but I must admit it looks a lot better than my 2 ply yarn. I just gives a much more professional look. I totally can't wait to knit with this. Once I feel comfortable with 3 plies maybe I will move up to 4 or 5 plies.