Transcript for

Episode 105:

How to be sure your yarn has even ply twist throughout the skein

Twist is such a powerful and mysterious force. Despite the fact that twist is what makes spinning possible, I think we as spinners spend far too little time talking and thinking about twist —what it does, how it moves, and all the ways it impacts our yarns. Granted, whenever we talk about spinning, we’re talking about twist, at least implicitly. Today, though, I want to talk explicitly about twist, and specifically about ply twist.

Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 105 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.

This month we’re focusing on plying. So far we’ve talked about how singles twist goes dormant as singles rest, and how we need to account for that when we‘re determining how much ply twist to put into our yarns as we ply. But once we’ve made that determination, how exactly do we make sure that all the yarn in a skein has the same amount of twist?

First let’s talk about why it matters. The way twist works, the reason it holds the fibers in our yarn together, is that when we pull on both ends of a piece of yarn, the twist pushes the fibers toward the center of the strand. It’s that pushing action that prevents the fibers from drifting apart. That pushing action also compresses the fibers together.

In turn, that compression makes the diameter of the yarn smaller. The more twist you have, the more compressed the fibers become, and the smaller the diameter becomes. So it follows that if your twist is uneven, your yarn will be uneven as well. This is true of your singles , and it’s also true of your ply, so if you’re going for consistency, you want to have even ply twist.

Ply twist, in particular, can have a pretty big impact on how your yarn looks, and how colors interact when you’re spinning a multicolored braid that does a lot of barber-poling. Barber-poling in your yarn makes your twist angle really visible, so if that angle is changing it’s going to show.

Finally, ply twist makes a difference in your experience of working with the yarn. Something that drives me crazy when I’m knitting with some commercial yarns that are underplied is having the tip of my knitting needle catch one of the plies.

So how do you control this? If you’re working with a treadle wheel, it’s very simple. You count your treadles. So you do the work I described in the last episode of figuring how much ply twist you want, based on a ply-back sample, by looking at the fibers in your yarn, or by doing the “ply-back of the ply.” Then you figure out how many treadles it took you to get there. Once you have that number, the total number of treadles it takes to get that amount of twist, then you just count. So let’s say I need to treadle seven times. I might move my forward hand back, controlling the plies to make sure they meet the twist under even tension, for five treadles, and then use two treadles to let the yarn wind onto the bobbin.

Lots of spinners say they don’t need to count treadles all the way through the plying process. They just find a rhythm and stick to it. I actually count the whole time; I find it soothing.

Now, of course, counting treadles only works if that twist is going into the same length of yarn each time. So you need to be mindful of your distance from the orifice and of how far back you’re bringing your hand as you guide in the twist.

Now, I hear you saying, Sasha, what if I’m plying on an e-spinner. And to that I say, come back for the next episode, which will be all about plying on an e-spinner.

I want to talk about a couple of other tricks you can use to get more even ply twist if you’ve lost your rhythm somewhere along the way or if you’ve plied on an e-spinner, which makes it harder to be as precise with ply twist.

First, when you’re taking the skein off your bobbin and putting it onto your niddy-noddy, stand as far away from your wheel as you can. That distance gives the twist a chance to level out.

Second, when you wash your skein, put it into a big container with lots of water. This will give the yarn plenty of room to move around, or more precisely to be moved around by the twist. As the fibers relax in the wash, the twist will be moving and changing. The dormant singles twist is waking up, and you should see some evening out of the ply twist as well, as the fibers try to straighten out and as they settle into their new positions in the yarn.

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So, a few tips on how to get even ply twist through your whole skein. So, we talked about why that's even important. We talked about counting treadles and making sure that you're working with the same length of yarn every time. And we talked about a couple of other tricks to get more even ply twist taking your skein off the bobbin and putting it onto your niddy-noddy from far as far away as you can and then also making sure that your skein when it goes into its bath is in a nice big container with lots of water and is really free to move around.

All right, my loves, that is it for me this week.

As always, there is a dedicated...Thread. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for. Thread, Sasha.

There is a dedicated thread in The Flock to talk about this episode.

And you will find a link to that in the description of this very podcast in your very podcast app.

So all you have to do is click the link and it will whiz you right over to The Flock where you can participate in discussing the episode.

And I learned so much from the comments that you guys leave on the episode.

I get ideas for new episodes. It's extremely encouraging to me when you make your way over to that thread and tell me what you thought. So I would really appreciate that.

Show notes for this episode also in the description inside your pod app.

And I think that's everything. Yeah.

So you know where to find the discussion thread. You know where to find the

show notes. I should give you the URL. It's sheepspot.com slash podcast slash 104.

No, sorry, 105.

I'll say that again. sheepspot.com slash podcast slash episode 105.

Yes, that is really it. All right, my loves, I'm going to love you and leave you, and I will see you next week when I will talk about plying on an e-spinner.