Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Tour de Fleece - Day 18

Look! We almost have a sleeve!!!!
I'm increasing 2 stitches per inch all the way out to the hands.
Hopefully, it will open up enough to be an obvious bell,
if not, there will be some frogging...
My goal is to finish both sleeves before the end of TdF!

I'm really bad at taking notes, so instead,
I've been tying in little markers with yarn
to mark where I increased or decreased.
When I get to the other sleeve, 
 I'll just follow along and copy what I did on the first one!

So, I have been asked how I am plying my yarn.
For those that don't know, 
when it is first spun, yarn is a single string.
That is called a single. 

Most of the time, spinners will ply the yarn with 
a process that doubles the yarn over itself
and it is spun in the opposite direction from which it was originally spun.

It can be 2 ply, 3 ply, or how ever many singles as you want to spin together.
This makes the yarn stronger and in some cases, fluffier!

For the MOST AMAZING SWEATER EVER,
I've tried to spin all of my singles close to the same size.
But in some cases, like with chunky fibers, that is not possible.
So, my plying method varies depending on how thick the singles are.


For my normal singles, I Navajo Ply them.
Navajo Ply is when you do a 3-ply yarn from one single.
This is done by making long loops and plying the loops together.
Sounds complicated, it's not.
I just love the way it makes the yarn look.

I should also point out that I almost always,
over ply all of my singles and my navajo ply.

They usually balance out once they have been washed.
Also, I really hate underplied yarn.

The middle blue one on this pic is also 2-plied.
It's from Desert Garden Farms
Tumbleweeds Batt




H.A.Y. Peacock Roving - Spindies Paint Box

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill

Corgi Hill