I did my first successful navajo ply today … as in, it didn’t turn out as a big knotted mess. The first skein today was over twisted (cat toy now). The second skein was with handpainted roving. Wow. What a difference that makes to the finished yarn.
I didn’t try to stop the colorways exactly at the end of a loop, but let the color “bleed” into each other. This resulted in a blended color transition instead of sharp color changes. This worked because the roving had soft color changes.
Questions for the masses:
– Do you make clean color breaks when navajo plying? How do you do that? Do you treadle very slowly, stop and align the yarn “just so”? Or do you just let it happen?
– What do you do when the single breaks? How do you restart the crochet loops? This was driving me nuts. Perhaps I didn’t have enough twist in my single, but it kept breaking/pulling apart. Do you need to have more twist than you would normally put in?
Anyway, I’ll need to practice some more before I can knit with any of these finished skeins. Now that I can see what the end result in handpainted rovings, I can go back to beast for practice.
wendy e
Congratulations Ann! I’m not fussy about color changes. For breaks – just pull the broken end back through the loop if necessary, hold it with the other broken end, and continue adding twist. The plying should hold everything together. If it breaks at the bottom of the loop, then stop – unply up to the top of the loop – and shorten the loop, so the break is in the middle of the chain. If you keep your chains short, it’s easier.
Ann
Thanks, Wendy! After looking at it in bright day light, I didn’t do as badly as I thought. The yarn was pretty balanced as it came off the spool. I broke off the yarn at a really bad join, which left me with most of the skein intact, with a small bit for a sample. I decided to start on the other 2 oz of the sample roving and see if I can squeeze a pair of socks out of it. It’s merino, so I’m looking for something hardier for the heels.