Navajo plying handspun singles (say that five times fast for a tongue twister!)

Tuesday, February 24, 2015


Lucky me, I spent a lovely few hours spent plying up two very thin stored spun singles. One, a moody ocean-coloured cornucopia of greens and blues. The other, a bold purple-grey-petrol-white-black shock of striped colours.

I navajo plied them to preserve the colour changes and create a self-striping yarn when knitting (and also because navajo plying is great and is almost as good as spinning, really. It reminds me of arm knitting, except you're finger crocheting. Sort of.). I haven't measured the wpi, although it feels lighter and thinner than a DK yarn but thicker than sock yarn. Sport weight? I need to get/make one of those yarn gauge thingamajigs. 

Navajo plying also seems to even out any handspun lumps and bumps, which is great, but then you don't get those lovely candystripe sections where colours cross over to create unexpected barber poles in traditional plying with two separate singles. I really feel the need to break away from the neatness and thin-ness of lace-weight spinning and make some art yarn.  


I spun these without any particular project in mind, and I have about 100 grams of each which should be plenty for a shawlette or a pair of socks -- or to add to another project that requires lots of soft yarn loveliness. Stashed for a future project!

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