United We Drip Into the Utility Sink

Yesterday, I taught myself Navajo plying. I'm not sure I have it completely figured out, since I seem to have lumpy, loopy bits where the folds happen, but it certainly is fun. And fast! A bobbin that took me hours to fill is plied up in twenty minutes. I did have some problems with treadling too fast - I can slow down my feet and speed up my hands while I'm spinning singles, but I have trouble with it when I'm plying. It probably didn't help that I had Liz Phair playing in the background.

It all started because I wanted to spin, but all my bobbins were full. I've been periodically winding off the singles that came with the wheel, but I'm getting to the point where everything on the bobbins is mine, and I'm not so interested in balling up my own spinning to languish in the bottom of a bag. I didn't have two bobbins with the same singles, though, and none of my mismatched singles would have worked well together. So, I finally sat down and watched the Navajo plying video until I understood it properly. The final sentence in the description was what brought it all together in my head: "This technique is similar to chaining stitches in crochet." I'm not the world's best crocheter by a long shot, but chain stitches? I totally get chain stitches.

I started with the yarn I'd spun up in my class* on Saturday. It was something of a mish-mash: mostly white Coopworth, a little bit of brown Coopworth, and some random bits of fluff that I pulled out of my bobbin bag when Shirley was talking and I'd run out of everythign else. Since it was my first attempt, I didn't really take advantage of the plying method for preserving the color runs (generally the point, as I understand it), so I lost some of the nice striping effects I'd gotten, which I'm a little sad about. But, easy come, easy go. I'll probably make some wrist-warmers with it; I've been absolutely freezing lately.

I had fun with the first bobbin, so I decided to ply the rest of the Welsh Dark that I used to learn on. This bobbin was a bit more even than the first one (which I had already plied together with the mysterious soft grey stuff), but still pretty lumpy. I started plying, but it kept getting all twisted up and refusing to feed onto the bobbin. It tooke me longer than I care to admit to realise that I'd spun this bobbin the opposite direction of the way I usually do. Things evened out a bit once I got going the right direction, but it will never be a pretty skein. I'm not sure what I'll do with it.

One thing I learned is that I absolutely need a niddy-noddy. I tried skeining the yarn around my hand and elbow, but it didn't work too well. I think there will definitely be a purchase in the near future. Plus, who doesn't love the opportunity to say "niddy-noddy"?

I gave both skeins a bath and hung them over the utility sink to dry, and there they both are even as I type this. They've dried, but the laundry room still smells vaguely of sheep. I think it's quite nice, but the other members of my household don't seem as sure about that.