*If your singles sat for a while before you plied them, you might need to wash the yarn to get a true sense of whether the final yarn is balanced or not, because the spinning twist will relax over time and not be balanced by the fresher plying twist. Washing the yarn will reactivate the original twist and let you get a better sense of the final result.
*You might have either under- or over-plied compared to the twist in your singles.
Here's how I think about it.
My singles are generally Z-twist; that is, I spin my spindle clockwise, ending up with yarn twisted like this: / / / /
Plying goes in the opposite direction, so my plied yarn is S-twist: \ \ \ \
Ok. So how to get a balanced yarn (assuming I want one)?
If I let my plied yarn hand in a U-shape, and it twists back on itself with Z-twist, I've over-plied and need remove twist from that section of yarn. Likewise, if it twists on itself with S-twist, I need to add more plying twist.
In my opinion, most spinners actually underspin and underply their yarn, which results in weaker yarn. Note that this is a personal opinion!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-05-24 07:24 pm (UTC)*If your singles sat for a while before you plied them, you might need to wash the yarn to get a true sense of whether the final yarn is balanced or not, because the spinning twist will relax over time and not be balanced by the fresher plying twist. Washing the yarn will reactivate the original twist and let you get a better sense of the final result.
*You might have either under- or over-plied compared to the twist in your singles.
Here's how I think about it.
My singles are generally Z-twist; that is, I spin my spindle clockwise, ending up with yarn twisted like this:
/
/
/
/
Plying goes in the opposite direction, so my plied yarn is S-twist:
\
\
\
\
Ok. So how to get a balanced yarn (assuming I want one)?
If I let my plied yarn hand in a U-shape, and it twists back on itself with Z-twist, I've over-plied and need remove twist from that section of yarn. Likewise, if it twists on itself with S-twist, I need to add more plying twist.
In my opinion, most spinners actually underspin and underply their yarn, which results in weaker yarn. Note that this is a personal opinion!
Online articles about this that you might find of interest:
http://www.abbysyarns.com/wordpress/?p=105
http://www.hjsstudio.com/balance.html
http://www.knitting-and.com/spinning/plied-yarn.html