First and foremost: Congratulations on your first plied yarn! To me, that first ply ever felt a bit like being a kid on Christmas morning. I was so proud of myself! About plying yarn from a single bobbin: I either make myself a center pull ball or a plying bracelet. As using a plying bracelet can be a bit tricky when you’ve got a lot of fibre, and as it more or less leaves you tethered to your wheel until you’ve finished plying, and as Murphy’s Law tends to intervene by creating a pressing need to step away from the spinning wheel right at that time, the center pull ball tends to be an attractive solution. No leftover yarn at the end of your ply, no potential loss of blood supply to your middle finger and the freedom to step away as needed. But depending on the amount of live twist in your yarn, it can be a source of yarn barf, leaving you heartbroken and with a tangled mess to deal with. So far I haven’t had to contend with this but even Jillian Eve has a video showing it can happen to the best of us. Two bobbins causing you to have leftovers on one bobbin: it’s rare to have two evenly filled bobbins. That’s when the plying bracelet is worth gold: make sure you unwind the plied yarn enough for you to insert a few inches of remaining single between the plied yarn ends. Wind the leftover yarn around your wrist into a plying bracelet. Resume plying. Go slow, keeping an eye on your twist. If the yarn gets ripped out of your hands too fast, reduce your tension. There’ll be a little bit of a join where you’ve got 3 singles, but it’ll hardly be noticeable. No knots. About trying other fibres: great choice to have gone with the rolags. I was afraid you’d go for the Malabrigo Nube. The colours of Malabrigo Nube are always absolutely gorgeous, I currently have two braids in my stash. It yields the most beautiful, soft, stunning yarn. BUT… Malabrigo Nube has the reputation of being very compacted and therefore hard to draft. I do two things to remedy to that: 1) Steam the unbraided fibre. It won’t felt it. If you have a kettle you can set on your stove, fill it with water, bring it to a strong boil and hold bits of the braid in front of the spout. You will see it puff up as the fibre relaxes and de-compacts. If you don’t own a kettle, use your iron on the strongest steam setting. Lay your unbraided fibre on a towel in a single layer. Steam the fibre, turn everything over and repeat. Do not allow the iron to touch the fibre but give it lots of steam. 2) Pre drafting. I spin lace weight yarn. This means I already benefit from predrafting. With Malabrigo Nube, that certainly is the case. But oh, my… the reward. Such gorgeous yarn. That mixed braid (wool, bamboo and silk) loooks really, REALLY beautiful. But you're right: those different fibres will be quite a challenge. Personally, I do not like bamboo. At all. Unless it's been thoroughly blended through the other fibre and I mean THOROUGHLY. Bamboo feels very slippery and slick to me and… no. Just no. But that's me. You might love t. After your rolags, perhaps the smart thing would be to try something out of the de-stash bag you bought? Or some merino? You've considerably built your skills. Merino will be a very different experience now. For me, now that I've got a good nine months of spinning under my belt, spinning merino feels like spinning butter. So smooth and relaxed. I just switched from several bobbing of ultrafine, undyed merino to dyed Shetland (also very fibe and next to skin soft). That Shetland has a lot more 'bite' to it and needs a bit more of a tug to draft. It took me a bit to adjust to that. I know that if I switch back to merino or if I switch to my stash of alpaca, I'll need to adjust again. But the more you spin, the faster you adjust. You learn certain fibres just want to be spun in a certain way. You learn you'll have slightly different default spins for different fibres. Now that you have two wheels, you'll learn you spin differently on your Nano from how you spin on your Kromski. To me, that's the fun of spinning. I only own one wheel but I do use my spindles. Each have their uses. Each yields a different yarn. And so does every different fibre I spin. 😊 Last but not least: a different colour running through your fingers feeling like a reward and making you pay more attention to your spinning: YES!!! Welcome to the world of rolags, of spinning from the fold to keep short runs of colour intact. Welcome to the magpie world of multicoloured braids and deciding how to spin them. Welcome to trying out fractal spinning. And… welcome to having a few extra bobbins for moments of mindless spinning where you don’t want to watch colour changes, because you’ve built enough skill to draft so evenly that you’ll find yourself spinning while watching something on TV… you’ll get there. It’s a kick to be able to do so. Remember being a little girl and calling out “Look Mama! No hands!” - That first time felt a bit like that for me. Just one word of advice: careful with exciting action movies or horror flicks. They can be a bit hard on consistency. 😅 Can’t wait to find out what your next spinning video has in store for us. Happy spinning! Edit: small amounts of yarn of your niddy noddy: that’s where the sampler niddy noddy comes in. I have one and absolutely love it for shorter spins. Smaller skein, easier to handle lower yardages. Edit 2: If you find your single breaking easily because you’re spinning thin, you probably need less tension. Lower your tension and treadle a little less slowly. It’ll add more twist and that’ll keep your fibre together.
@@rachelisknitting - Now I’m blushing. It’d probably end up being the wordiest, chaotic collection of thoughts ever. Neurodivergent brain means creativity bursting forth like a shaken champagne bottle alternating with pure paralysis. Eek! But I love you for the compliment!
You made me smile with your success. Your doing a fantastic job spinning. I have been spinning 10 years and I still will split my braids in half or quarters and I also predraft. Yo will see people who will say if you predraft your not doing it right, DO NOT LISTEN to them. There is nothing wrong with predrafting if it helps you get more consistent singles. My tip would be to loosen your tension on the wheel so you don't feel such a strong pull onto the wheel. You will find a better control if its not tugging out of your hand. Yes to the knots when it breaks while plying. It would be like knitting with a store bought skein and coming across a knot you deal with it at that time. I will pull the leftovers off the bobbin and hang onto it (forever)?...lol
Thank you!!!! And as for the leftover single, I did put it in a jar to keep forever! Or to try to reconstitute into fiber for spinning later. I decided to put all my bits and bobs that don’t make it onto the bobbin into that jar.
I'm just typing along with the video! Firstly, the plying from a single bobbin: - some people swear by chainplying for this. You only need a single ply, you get a 3ply out of it. That said some people find it kinda tricky (but you can break down the steps by first making the chain, winding that into a ball, and then running it through the wheel for plying). The other con (or pro depending on your wishes) is that if you have coloured singles, chainplying will keep the colours close together. It reduces marling. Lastly, if you have a very uneven single, chainplying will only accentuate the uneveness. - a center pull ball will work nicely too, it does add a bit of uneveness (JillianEve has a good vid on it), but overall it hasn't bothered me yet as I'm not that precise of a spinner anyway. - bracelet plying, aka Andean plying bracelet, is only really useful for shorter lengths, as you don't want to be winding 300 yards around your wrist. It does however counter the twist issues that come with a center pull, and it's a great way to deal with the remnants of a single when you use 2 separate singles together and one is longer - when you run out of the shorter one, make a bracelet out of the longer one and join the ends - personally, I plan before spinning. I split the fibre I have into equal chunks, and when I'm out of one chunk I start a new bobbin. Getting it of the leader: You just hold the end of the leader and untwist the ply a little so that it comes loose Ends of the ply: The very ends will always look slightly messy and untwist a little, but after a couple of inches the yarn will simply stay together, especially after setting the twist. You'll be able to just snip your yarn like any old commercial ball and it will stay cohesive. If you spin thin, try to spin further from the orifice so that the spin can properly build up in the single!
Oh and as for how to join singles! Andrea Mowry answered that one in her episode 167, the bonus question. You overlap the new single with the old single for a bit, and the plying twist will do the work for you! (Go watch the video for a visual)
I wind my leftovers up on a ball winder. Then spin from the center and from the outside of the ball . Do carefully as it can become a mess . Stick you thumb in the center of the ball as you spin so easier to spin.
I read some of these comments and a lot of them duplicate what I would say. I find it useful to split fiber in two parts by weight or by sight to have roughly equal amounts with which to spin singles to then ply together from two bobbins. I believe someone already mentioned that an entire bobbin is too much for a bracelet! but if you have one bobbin that has a little leftover after plying, it’s useful to wrap a bracelet and continue plying from there. I’m typically a bit of a type A personality, but I am way more relaxed with spinning and find that to be liberating. Experimentation to discover what works for you is my best advice! Enjoy your wheel!
I’m gonna give some cents but I’m by no means an expert. Actually I’d just started picking up spinning again (especially with the drop spindle this time around and it’s amazing how much you can learn about spinning by taking a step back from the fast spinning wheel and going waaay slower. Love my spinning wheel though.) after more than a year when you posted the first video in the spinning series. For the feet being too quick and the hands too slow: I’ve seen people use a double treadle but only with one foot. Maybe that makes it slower? I’ve got a single treadle but I imagine that could work. Play around with the whorls (but then you probably already have it on the biggest one for starters). What helped me the most though was playing around with the brake. My wheel is the Bliss and that’s scotch tensioned. I find that most issues are solved with increasing or decreasing the tension. If you find you’re adding too much twist: increase the tension so it feeds onto the bobbin faster. If the fibre feels like it’s being ripped out if your hands or even ripping apart, reduce the tension. For the plying: yes! I can absolutely relate!!! Most important are good singles. Good enough that you can then hold them with some tension as that is what will help you smooth out those slightly overspun bits. I try to kinda pull away from the wheel just slightly so that my individual singles are not coiled up. Also using one hand to smooth and the other to hold the singles works quite well. Also frequently check that plied yarn is even. And plying from a single: I chain ply those. Always. It’s a nice technique to learn and very pretty. But I’ll try the bracelet thing soon, I think. Looks easy enough and makes a thinner yarn than a chain ply. Overall in much prefer having two singles though. :) Your spinning looks great! It’s amazing to see how quickly you’ve gotten better. ❤️
First and foremost: Congratulations on your first plied yarn! To me, that first ply ever felt a bit like being a kid on Christmas morning. I was so proud of myself!
About plying yarn from a single bobbin: I either make myself a center pull ball or a plying bracelet. As using a plying bracelet can be a bit tricky when you’ve got a lot of fibre, and as it more or less leaves you tethered to your wheel until you’ve finished plying, and as Murphy’s Law tends to intervene by creating a pressing need to step away from the spinning wheel right at that time, the center pull ball tends to be an attractive solution. No leftover yarn at the end of your ply, no potential loss of blood supply to your middle finger and the freedom to step away as needed. But depending on the amount of live twist in your yarn, it can be a source of yarn barf, leaving you heartbroken and with a tangled mess to deal with. So far I haven’t had to contend with this but even Jillian Eve has a video showing it can happen to the best of us.
Two bobbins causing you to have leftovers on one bobbin: it’s rare to have two evenly filled bobbins. That’s when the plying bracelet is worth gold: make sure you unwind the plied yarn enough for you to insert a few inches of remaining single between the plied yarn ends. Wind the leftover yarn around your wrist into a plying bracelet. Resume plying. Go slow, keeping an eye on your twist. If the yarn gets ripped out of your hands too fast, reduce your tension. There’ll be a little bit of a join where you’ve got 3 singles, but it’ll hardly be noticeable. No knots.
About trying other fibres: great choice to have gone with the rolags. I was afraid you’d go for the Malabrigo Nube. The colours of Malabrigo Nube are always absolutely gorgeous, I currently have two braids in my stash. It yields the most beautiful, soft, stunning yarn. BUT… Malabrigo Nube has the reputation of being very compacted and therefore hard to draft. I do two things to remedy to that:
1) Steam the unbraided fibre. It won’t felt it. If you have a kettle you can set on your stove, fill it with water, bring it to a strong boil and hold bits of the braid in front of the spout. You will see it puff up as the fibre relaxes and de-compacts. If you don’t own a kettle, use your iron on the strongest steam setting. Lay your unbraided fibre on a towel in a single layer. Steam the fibre, turn everything over and repeat. Do not allow the iron to touch the fibre but give it lots of steam.
2) Pre drafting. I spin lace weight yarn. This means I already benefit from predrafting. With Malabrigo Nube, that certainly is the case. But oh, my… the reward. Such gorgeous yarn.
That mixed braid (wool, bamboo and silk) loooks really, REALLY beautiful. But you're right: those different fibres will be quite a challenge. Personally, I do not like bamboo. At all. Unless it's been thoroughly blended through the other fibre and I mean THOROUGHLY. Bamboo feels very slippery and slick to me and… no. Just no. But that's me. You might love t.
After your rolags, perhaps the smart thing would be to try something out of the de-stash bag you bought? Or some merino? You've considerably built your skills. Merino will be a very different experience now. For me, now that I've got a good nine months of spinning under my belt, spinning merino feels like spinning butter. So smooth and relaxed.
I just switched from several bobbing of ultrafine, undyed merino to dyed Shetland (also very fibe and next to skin soft). That Shetland has a lot more 'bite' to it and needs a bit more of a tug to draft. It took me a bit to adjust to that. I know that if I switch back to merino or if I switch to my stash of alpaca, I'll need to adjust again. But the more you spin, the faster you adjust. You learn certain fibres just want to be spun in a certain way. You learn you'll have slightly different default spins for different fibres. Now that you have two wheels, you'll learn you spin differently on your Nano from how you spin on your Kromski.
To me, that's the fun of spinning. I only own one wheel but I do use my spindles. Each have their uses. Each yields a different yarn. And so does every different fibre I spin. 😊
Last but not least: a different colour running through your fingers feeling like a reward and making you pay more attention to your spinning: YES!!! Welcome to the world of rolags, of spinning from the fold to keep short runs of colour intact. Welcome to the magpie world of multicoloured braids and deciding how to spin them. Welcome to trying out fractal spinning. And… welcome to having a few extra bobbins for moments of mindless spinning where you don’t want to watch colour changes, because you’ve built enough skill to draft so evenly that you’ll find yourself spinning while watching something on TV… you’ll get there. It’s a kick to be able to do so. Remember being a little girl and calling out “Look Mama! No hands!” - That first time felt a bit like that for me. Just one word of advice: careful with exciting action movies or horror flicks. They can be a bit hard on consistency. 😅
Can’t wait to find out what your next spinning video has in store for us. Happy spinning!
Edit: small amounts of yarn of your niddy noddy: that’s where the sampler niddy noddy comes in. I have one and absolutely love it for shorter spins. Smaller skein, easier to handle lower yardages.
Edit 2: If you find your single breaking easily because you’re spinning thin, you probably need less tension. Lower your tension and treadle a little less slowly. It’ll add more twist and that’ll keep your fibre together.
You need to write a how to book!
@@rachelisknitting - Now I’m blushing. It’d probably end up being the wordiest, chaotic collection of thoughts ever. Neurodivergent brain means creativity bursting forth like a shaken champagne bottle alternating with pure paralysis. Eek! But I love you for the compliment!
You made me smile with your success. Your doing a fantastic job spinning. I have been spinning 10 years and I still will split my braids in half or quarters and I also predraft. Yo will see people who will say if you predraft your not doing it right, DO NOT LISTEN to them. There is nothing wrong with predrafting if it helps you get more consistent singles. My tip would be to loosen your tension on the wheel so you don't feel such a strong pull onto the wheel. You will find a better control if its not tugging out of your hand. Yes to the knots when it breaks while plying. It would be like knitting with a store bought skein and coming across a knot you deal with it at that time. I will pull the leftovers off the bobbin and hang onto it (forever)?...lol
Thank you!!!! And as for the leftover single, I did put it in a jar to keep forever! Or to try to reconstitute into fiber for spinning later. I decided to put all my bits and bobs that don’t make it onto the bobbin into that jar.
I'm just typing along with the video!
Firstly, the plying from a single bobbin:
- some people swear by chainplying for this. You only need a single ply, you get a 3ply out of it. That said some people find it kinda tricky (but you can break down the steps by first making the chain, winding that into a ball, and then running it through the wheel for plying). The other con (or pro depending on your wishes) is that if you have coloured singles, chainplying will keep the colours close together. It reduces marling. Lastly, if you have a very uneven single, chainplying will only accentuate the uneveness.
- a center pull ball will work nicely too, it does add a bit of uneveness (JillianEve has a good vid on it), but overall it hasn't bothered me yet as I'm not that precise of a spinner anyway.
- bracelet plying, aka Andean plying bracelet, is only really useful for shorter lengths, as you don't want to be winding 300 yards around your wrist. It does however counter the twist issues that come with a center pull, and it's a great way to deal with the remnants of a single when you use 2 separate singles together and one is longer - when you run out of the shorter one, make a bracelet out of the longer one and join the ends
- personally, I plan before spinning. I split the fibre I have into equal chunks, and when I'm out of one chunk I start a new bobbin.
Getting it of the leader:
You just hold the end of the leader and untwist the ply a little so that it comes loose
Ends of the ply:
The very ends will always look slightly messy and untwist a little, but after a couple of inches the yarn will simply stay together, especially after setting the twist. You'll be able to just snip your yarn like any old commercial ball and it will stay cohesive.
If you spin thin, try to spin further from the orifice so that the spin can properly build up in the single!
Oh and as for how to join singles! Andrea Mowry answered that one in her episode 167, the bonus question. You overlap the new single with the old single for a bit, and the plying twist will do the work for you! (Go watch the video for a visual)
THANK YOU!
I wind my leftovers up on a ball winder. Then spin from the center and from the outside of the ball . Do carefully as it can become a mess . Stick you thumb in the center of the ball as you spin so easier to spin.
Thank you!
YOU did it; ssso proud of you 👍🏾 🧶👍🏾
THANK YOU!!!! 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
I read some of these comments and a lot of them duplicate what I would say. I find it useful to split fiber in two parts by weight or by sight to have roughly equal amounts with which to spin singles to then ply together from two bobbins. I believe someone already mentioned that an entire bobbin is too much for a bracelet! but if you have one bobbin that has a little leftover after plying, it’s useful to wrap a bracelet and continue plying from there. I’m typically a bit of a type A personality, but I am way more relaxed with spinning and find that to be liberating. Experimentation to discover what works for you is my best advice! Enjoy your wheel!
Thank you for the tips!
@@rachelisknitting you are very welcome. Oh, don’t be afraid to spin that merino/silk blend!! the added silk makes it draft like butter!
PS. You don’t have to fill a bobbin! You can ply two partially-filled bobbins. …
I’m gonna give some cents but I’m by no means an expert. Actually I’d just started picking up spinning again (especially with the drop spindle this time around and it’s amazing how much you can learn about spinning by taking a step back from the fast spinning wheel and going waaay slower. Love my spinning wheel though.) after more than a year when you posted the first video in the spinning series.
For the feet being too quick and the hands too slow: I’ve seen people use a double treadle but only with one foot. Maybe that makes it slower? I’ve got a single treadle but I imagine that could work. Play around with the whorls (but then you probably already have it on the biggest one for starters). What helped me the most though was playing around with the brake. My wheel is the Bliss and that’s scotch tensioned. I find that most issues are solved with increasing or decreasing the tension. If you find you’re adding too much twist: increase the tension so it feeds onto the bobbin faster. If the fibre feels like it’s being ripped out if your hands or even ripping apart, reduce the tension.
For the plying: yes! I can absolutely relate!!! Most important are good singles. Good enough that you can then hold them with some tension as that is what will help you smooth out those slightly overspun bits. I try to kinda pull away from the wheel just slightly so that my individual singles are not coiled up. Also using one hand to smooth and the other to hold the singles works quite well. Also frequently check that plied yarn is even.
And plying from a single: I chain ply those. Always. It’s a nice technique to learn and very pretty. But I’ll try the bracelet thing soon, I think. Looks easy enough and makes a thinner yarn than a chain ply. Overall in much prefer having two singles though. :)
Your spinning looks great! It’s amazing to see how quickly you’ve gotten better. ❤️
Thank you for the tips and info!! So helpful!
Amazing! You did it! You made yarn! How are you feeling about it being a 2 ply jumanji vine of death? Lol
Ha! IYKYK LOL! Thankfully I'm not bothered by the 2ply of this yarn bc there are so many more glaring issues with it other than it being 2ply hahahah!