Silvergrrl Arts

Today was devoted to finding the right combination of spinning twist and plying twist to get a balanced merino. I’m finally there.

One thing that happened: I’m pretty much up to “normal” speed with spinning, and I noticed I was getting too much twist on the 12:1 ratio I’ve been using. So I backed off to 10:1 and that was better. Then I plied those two mini-singles at 10:1 with 8 treadles. That plied skein just came out of the soak and it is looking good. I will still swatch with it but I am happy about finding the balance.

Tomorrow: the 3-ply sample.

TBA balanced skein

Another night of merino mini-sample. I spun 2 more bobbins of about 2 grams each and plied them. I had planned to use 11 treadles per “pull”, but decided to do 12 instead. My thinking was, 3-ply is going to give me closer to the weight I want, and 3-ply needs a bit tighter ply than 2-ply. So I wanted to see what 12 treadles does on the 2-ply.

So you can imagine my frustration when today’s sample came out just like yesterday’s. I found nothing helpful on the internet. So just to see what would happen, I took yesterday’s sample and put it through the spinning wheel again, this time on the regular spinning whorl at 12:1 instead of the plying head. Which only goes to 9:1. And I’ll be damned if it didn’t come out balanced.

Now, I’m not interested in plying everything twice, even if the second one is just a quick “run it through”. So for tomorrow’s experiment, I will be plying using the regular head instead of the plying head, and see what happens.

Yesterday's re-plied yarn - look! No twist!

It was the night of the mini-sample. I spun two little bobbins, about 2 grams each, and plied them. I like the ratio I’ve been spinning them at, which is 12:1, but as I mentioned last night I have not yet found the right plying tension to give me a balanced skein. Really, tension isn’t the right word for the plying. What I haven’t figured out is how many treadles to use per plying “pull”.

When plying, the trick is to pull the singles straight between the back hand and the forward hand, then let the twist travel down them by sliding the pinch down toward the back hand. Then you let the whole section go into the orifice onto the plying bobbin. The more times you treadle during that process, the more twist goes into the ply. So I get a rhythm going, counting down with each one. That way it stays pretty even. The ratio of the whorl I’m using is 9:1, and I went 10 treadles per “pull”. That’s 3 more than last night, which was seriously under-plied.

I just took it out of the water and hung it to dry. Happily, it’s doing just one twist to the right, which is not too bad. Tomorrow night I’ll try one additional treadle to see if that balances it without going too far.

Until tomorrow.

Tonight I plied the 2 singles of the merino, and I now have a good illustration of what “underplied” looks like when checking balance in yarn. I had been confused about which direction of twist in the final skein means what (my right-left dyslexia does NOT help!!!) and I had to spend some quality time on the internet researching that.

I finally found some pictures that were clear and helpful, so I’ve got ammunition for my next sample. Yay for practice!

You can see in tonight’s picture how the bottom of the skein twists to the right – this means I needed to put more twist in the plying process. Since I clearly have a lot to learn here, I’m going to use slightly smaller samples of wool. I’ve been spinning 5 grams each singles for this, but 3 gram chunks will do just fine until I get this nailed.

Until tomorrow.

I’m starting to get my groove now, with this merino. I found myself picking up my speed again tonight, and it was OK. I had to slow down a couple of times, but I never “lost it” or let it get too thin.

I finished the second bobbin, but I’m not going to ply tonight. I’m tired, and it’s just late enough that I don’t want to commit myself to another 40 minutes of this.

Until tomorrow.

Today with the merino was much better than yesterday. After looking at yesterday’s plied result, I decided to use a little less spin with the next singles and plying. I think that will work better, and we’ll see in another day or two when I ply again.

I just have to remember to slow down, be meticulous with my drafting, and keep a VERY light touch with the hand holding the fiber. I was able to start to enjoy the fiber itself and appreciate how it feels to work with. I see why merino is called “fine wool” – the fibers are very thin and soft.

Until tomorrow.

Very first plied merino

I have begun the Fusion merino. It’s a good thing I have as much practice under my belt as I do by now, because this is a whole new level. For practice purposes, I weighed out 5 gram chunks to spin and ply.

Merino must be spun at a higher ratio (higher twist) than the other wools I’ve been working with, and the fiber length is shorter. This means things happen a whole lot faster. Things that worked OK on the Falklands, for example, got me in trouble with this wool.

For instance, I want to keep the twist out of the fiber source and control it by the pinch. With the merino, this means I have to be vigilant about how I draft. Several times today I let it get away from me, and found myself chasing the twist down the fiber instead of feeding the draft into the twist. That meant stop, back up a little, and get myself back where I wanted to be. In general, I am having to SLOW DOWN so I can keep up with this new experience.

LATER: I couldn’t resist. I returned to my wheel and spun a second 5 grams, then plied them together. That way I can check the result and adjust if I need to for the next round. And oh, it’s beautiful. I’m going now to put it on the niddy noddy.

Until tomorrow.