Episode 147: Common Plying Problems and How to Solve Them

In this episode, Sasha dives into the frustrating experience of leftover singles after plying, a common headache for spinners. She shares three effective strategies to ensure you never face this dilemma again. First, she explains her favorite method—working from multiple storage bobbins—which helps to minimize leftovers. She also introduces the concept of a plying bracelet, a handy technique that lets you easily ply your leftover yarn into a two-ply. Finally, for those creating three-ply yarns, she discusses chain plying as a way to use leftover singles. These three techniques will help you make the most of your singles and eliminate waste when plying.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Sheepspot Podcast

• Episode 11: Plying for consistency

• Episode 12: Be Kind, Rewind

• Episode 104: How Much Ply Twist? The Plyback of the Ply and the Question of Balance

• Episode 105: How to be sure your yarn has even ply twist throughout the skein

Spin School - the online course for new and self-taught spinners

 

You can find the script for this episode HERE.

You can comment on and discuss this episode here in The Flock, Sheepspot’s free online community for inquisitive spinners.

Here's the link to the Podcast search page and playlists. 

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:58):
You're in the middle of plying and the doorbell rings. What do you do?
Answers to that question and more coming up.
Hello there, darling sheepspotter. Welcome to episode 147 of the Sheepspot podcast.
I'm Sasha and my job, which is the best job in the world, is to help you make more yarns you love.

(01:22):
In today's episode, the last of this month's focus on plying and yarn structure,
we are troubleshooting the common plying problems my spin school students experience
when they are learning to ply.
And usually at this point in the episode, I would tell you some plying-related

(01:42):
story from my own life, but I'm writing this with a migraine and I just can't
think of one because of the brain fog.
So just insert your own plying-related story here.
Before we get started, I want to call your attention to some of the other episodes
in which I talk about plying, and all of these are linked in the show notes.

(02:03):
In episode 11, I talk about how to achieve a consistent plied yarn.
In episode 12, I explain all the reasons why it's a good idea to rewind your
singles bobbins onto storage bobbins for plying.
And in episodes 104 and 105, I talk about how to determine how much ply twist

(02:29):
you need and how to maintain consistent ply twist throughout your skein.
So let's start by talking about what to do if one of your plies is wrapping around the others.
This happens when there's uneven tension on your plies.
So unless you're making a textured yarn, you really want all of your plies to

(02:53):
be under the same amount of tension when the twist reaches them.
I find that the best way to do this is to keep a finger between each ply on
both your front hand or your orifice hand and your back hand or your fiber supply hand.
When I'm setting up to ply, I'll make my fiber supply hand into a little rake

(03:19):
with the tines, that is my fingers,
pointing downward, and I will put one finger between each ply.
Then I do the same thing with my forward hand with my fingers pointing up,
and this allows me to adjust the tension on the individual plies as needed.

(03:41):
As long as you maintain that even tension on all of your plies,
none of them will be able to wrap around the others.
What should you do if one of your plies breaks or runs out while plying,
or if you are deliberately switching among your bobbins to avoid ending up with

(04:01):
leftover singles, as I discussed in last week's episode?
The most important things here are, first, not to panic, and second, to stop treadling.
Let's say that you're making a two-ply yarn and one of the plies breaks.
Leaving you with one ply that's still attached to the bobbin on your kate and one broken one.

(04:28):
So don't panic, stop treadling, and pick up the end of the ply that you want to add.
I find, and it's a little tricky to do this,
but with some practice you will absolutely get it, I find that I want to keep
tension on both the broken and unbroken ply with one hand, And with the other,

(04:51):
you're going to run a finger between your plies of the plied section before the break,
so the last thing that you were plying before your singles broke.
And then I insert the end of the new ply so that the twist grabs it.
It may be useful at this point to treadle once, so you've got enough twist to

(05:15):
hold the new ply in place between the two old ones, and then you just continue on.
There will be an inch or two where the new ply and the old ply overlap.
Don't worry about it, it's not going to show.
If you find that your singles are often breaking as you ply,
though, then the problem may be that you don't have enough twists in your singles

(05:38):
to hold them together during the plying process.
Remember that plying will remove some of the twists from your singles.
So make sure that when you're making your singles, that they have enough twists
to remain structurally sound as you ply them.
And you might lose up to 30% of your singles twist in plying.

(06:03):
So it's important to just make sure that your singles have enough twist to be
plied in the first place.
Now let's talk about what to do if you need to stop mid-ply.
So the UPS person comes with some gorgeous new fiber and you have to sign for it, but you're plying.

(06:25):
And in this situation, I like to do everything I can to keep the individual
plies separated and under a bit of tension so they don't get tangled up with each other.
And I do this by just wrapping each ply around a different piece of my wheel.
And then when I come back, I just gather them all up and to continue.

(06:49):
So have a look at your wheel.
Most of them have knobs or other things on the mother of all that you can use
to wrap your singles around to keep them organized.
And finally, what do you do if you finish plying?
You wash your yarn and you find when it's dry that you've miscalculated somehow

(07:11):
and your yarn has too much or too little ply twist.
All is not lost because you are in possession of a machine that can fix that.
It's called your spinning wheel.
You can just run it through your wheel again to add or subtract ply twist.
To do this, you'll either need to have a swift or a skein winder that you can

(07:34):
set up close to your wheel, or you'll have to make the offending skein into a ball or a cake.
Then you will attach one end of your yarn to your leader and either add ply
twist by turning your wheel in the direction you plied,
or remove ply twist by turning your wheel in the opposite direction from how you plied.

(07:58):
You probably wanna make a relatively small adjustment here.
So use a big whirl so the change isn't too drastic.
And just know that this isn't an exact science. So you may have to do it a couple
of times to get exactly the ply twist that you want.
You will get there with a little patience.

(08:21):
And then once I've done this, I usually wash the yarn again at this point so
that the fibers can kind of settle into their new arrangement.
And there you have it, the most common plying problems reported by my spin school
students and how to solve them.
If you don't know what spin school is, it's my online course for new and self-taught

(08:45):
spinners, and it's a comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of hand spinning.
This course will turn you into a confident spinner by helping you understand
and work with your wheel, master a number of different drafting and plying techniques,
and work with your hand spun in projects.
It will also introduce you to different fibers and fiber preparations.

(09:10):
If you're interested, head to sheepspot.com slash spin hyphen school to sign
up for the waitlist and get an invitation to my free workshop,
A Clear Path to Great Spinning.
So what goes wrong in your applying, gorgeous hand spinner? And have I addressed
it here? I would love to know.

(09:32):
There is a dedicated discussion thread in the flock where you can comment on
this episode and discuss it with me and other listeners.
The link is in the show notes, which you'll find right inside your podcast app.
So just open up the description, click the link, and you'll be taken right to the thread.
Darling Sheepspotter, that is it for me this week. Thank you so much for listening.

(09:57):
I will be back next week with our first episode for April.
And in April, we will be focusing on tips and tricks for using your hand spun
yarns. and in particular, we'll be focusing on big spinning projects.
So if you've never spun for a big project like a sweater and the thought is

(10:18):
a little bit daunting, or if you just want to learn how to do it better,
we're going to break the whole process down and talk about planning and setting
up for a big spin, spinning the singles, and then plying and finishing.
So while you're waiting for that, carve out some time just for you and spin something.

(10:39):
You know it will do you good.