#chain plying

[speedwagons-glorious-mane]

Adventures in chain plying featuring my 3D printed niddy noddy and turkish spindle from Snyder. The first lot of yarn on my niddy noddy is an experimental batch I spun up just to get a feel for chain plying, it still needs work before it's done but I'm already super happy at how it looks. For that yarn I spun the single before taking it off to ply.

The chunky yarn is very fun and exciting to spin for a few reasons, first off, it's the first time I've spun super chunky yarn on purpose and it's very different to what I usually spin, I tend to spin reasonably fine so this is a big depature from that. Secondly I'm chain plying as I spin, a technique I learned from watching a youtube video. I need to spin about 150g or so for some crochet slippers to make for my mum, I made my mum a pair a while ago and ever since she's been begging me to make her another pair but I never remember to get the proper yarn so I figured I'd have a go at spinning it myself.

Since I learned to chain ply, I don't think I can ever go back to two ply, three ply is just so much nicer

[watcherofthevoide]

first time chain plying! im very happy with the results

made from the leftover purple merino i spun earlier

[mischief-tea]

First chain-ply! OMG it feels SO soft and yet firm - I am very confident in the integrity of this yarn.

[bookshelfdreams]

look look look at this handdyed fibre I got for christmas 😊

it's 250g of a bfl/silk/llama blend

i split each braid down the middle (more or less) to hopefully preserve the colour gradient & make some 2-ply

looks like it will come out to a light-fingering-to-fingering weight :D

[trashpandacraft]

dyed some wool yesterday and am pretty pleased with it. it was slightly more than really fits in my dye bath, so it's a little patchier than i'd intended, but i'll mitigate that next time, and this is gonna be so fun to spin.

[leiyahime]

[Tutorial] How to spin and chain-ply on your drop-spindle at the same time

I've seen this technique at the Lower Saxony spinning group meet-up in June and @disgruntled-lifeform has asked about it, so here is a tutorial. I'm not comfortable with having videos of me taken and no one to take the video anyway so I hope photos are enough...

Little diclaimer: I have only seen someone else doing this so I just pass this knowlegde on. I don't know where it originates. Also: I assume you already know how to spin a single and know the basics of chain- or Navajo-plying

It's really an intreresting technique. You spin and chain-ply in one go, no endless spinning and after that endless plying, which is very practical if you (like me) are no fan of endless spindle plying. Or if you only own one spindle for whatever reason - everyone knows spindles are gregarious animals and keeping only one is not appropriate XP

You need:

A drop spindle of your choice with a leader (Maybe one a little bigger than mine, since the yarn we wind on the spindle is a three-ply, which means it is thrice as thick as your usual single.

Fibres of your choice you want to spin

It's important that your leader has a loop at the end to pull your single through.

Step 1: Spin your single as you always do. *spinspinspin* You want to do that standing up as you need the single to be quite long:

Step 2: Then butterfly the single up on your thumb and forefinger to avoid tangling:

Step 3: Pull the single through the loop of your leader and unwind it from your fingers. At the beginning it's easier to sit down for this step until you get used to the finger movements. It's difficult to pull the single through the loop while holding the spindle in your hand and we don't want any broken fingers!

Step 4: Pull the single all the way through until just a little bit below the beginning of your unspun fibres:

Step 5: Then you just ply the loop together in the opposite direction from the direction you spun the single - just as most of you will do anyways while plying. The spindle wants to turn in the opposite direction by itself anyway. Make sure the new loop at the end stays open!

Step 6: Wind the plied thread on your spindle. Then secure it well on your spindle's hook. Take Care Of The Loop. It Must Stay Accessible for the next section of spun singles.

Congratulations you have your first section of chain plied yarn on your drop spindle.

Then you repeat the whole thing again and again: Spin a long piece of single - pull it through loop - ply - wind on spindle - secure the new loop at the end on your hook and then go on spinning.

It needs a bit of practise. The lady who showed us the technique said she had been afraid of breaking her fingers when she started learning this technique. But if you have spun and plied on your drop spindle before it should not be too difficult to master. Concentrate on what you are doing and learn how to manage thread and spindle. And if you really sit down for pulling the single through the loop you also get a little training for your legs by costantly getting up and sitting down again ^-~ And when you are comfortable with the whole thing you can also do it while walking around. I, too need more practise until I'm that far.

[comfortabletextiles]

Finished the last rolag, from @swords-n-spindles color fade yesterday! And today I could strat the ply process!!

2oly ball + plyed in chain ply = easy 6 ply yarn!

Even though my singles are always horrible overspun, the ply is very soft so far :)

[skylarkspinner]

shiny bamboo single is finally done !!

[gay-valkyries]

ragequitting my spinning wheel. snapping my distaff over my knee etc etc

[speedwagons-glorious-mane]

Just started chain plying a single and Holy Shit the yarn is so much nicer than the 2-ply I've been spinning up until now, it's a little thicker than I would have liked but that's a more manageable problem for me than yarn that is too thin. I'm very excited to experiment with chain plying as I spin, I think it would be super cool to be able to pull a finished ball off of my spindle

[mirith]

I made the quadruple chain ply yarn!

It turned out fairly balanced and unexpectedly light and springy, even though it looks like rope. I got 45 feet or so out of a 4oz braid. I spin my singles at my default singles and it took multiple weeks of casual spinning to do the singles.

Took maybe 4-5 hours for the first chain ply. An dhour or so for the next. And the third and fourth took nearly no time at all. My wheel couldn't handle the fourth round of plying, as it got too large in diameter to fit through the orifice (fair).

Not sure what to do with it. I was thinking the edging of something, incorporating it into weaving somehow... Not sure! Fun experiment. It is also just fun to pick up and squish.

[ezekiellsplayground]

After letting the new spins rest, I spent a few hours prepping all the yarn for plying. The red panda is going to be chain plyed after I’ve spun all the balls, but all the rest have been balled into double strand balls ready for even plying.

[mousearmyknittingco]

[milkweedman]

Very slowly working on this roving--i think i'm gonna 3 ply this and knit a hat. But at the moment it's just my 'sitting in bed' spinning so i'm sure it'll be a while.

[comfortabletextiles]

I finished a yarn today! Very happy with it.

[leveragehunters]

So you know that thing where you get a new hobby and just hyperfixate on it and buy all the things?

I now have a drum carder to go with my spinning wheel and e-spinner.

BUT it's going to be amazing for making pelts for needle felting, so it actually crosses back over to my last hyperfixation so i'm apportioning blame. And I'm going to start needle felting a Creature so I can make it a glorious pelt with the drum carder.

Here's some super messy roving I dizzed off the carder - I'm so bad with the diz but carding is so much fun!

(It's black and pewter merino with copper silk)