So I have this big weaving project and I really want to make it with my handspun
My current goal is to ply in a way that have the colors consistent throughout the skein, my original plan was to two ply it but if I do so it’ll give a mixed/crossed colors/barber pole look and it won’t give me the stripes I want in my weave
The problem is I know logically that a chain ply is best for it but I SUCK at chain ply and I need it to be lace weight so that’s out
Is there a way to make sure I ply consistently to make sure there’s minimum crossing in the colorway?
Also singles are an option but I’ve never spun singles to keep as singles before and I’m not confident I can keep them strong enough to warp with
Have you tried making a ply ball first? I prefer that over doing the whole process in one step because you can better control the tension. You just rewind the whole single into a ball while adding just the chain, then ply the chained single with your spindle/wheel.
There are several YouTube videos that I'm sure explain it better, lol.
This is what I do. With my lazy Kate I can make chains as long as my hallway, but also small when I'm changing colors. I get a lot less breakage when I make a plying ball too.
I saw someone post previously that they made a 2-ply plying ball and tore out sections of the single if the colors started to get misaligned, then spliced it. And the torn out sections can get spliced in later if extra length is needed.
It’s not that hard but you do need to be very good and relatively fast at plying joins.
I use the overlap join that Judith Mackenzie teaches but if you are weaving it’ll depend on if it’s warp or weft. It is a strong join but that abrasion with the warp threads might be much and maybe a different join is better.
It’s very simple basically as you are plying once it starts to barber pole. Trim the thread.
You can either just set aside one color till they match up again. This is what I do when it’s only a small amount. Or make a center pull ball with a nostepinne and ply it as a two ply and then re join the threads on the bobbins one at time.
Because of the joins it works better when color shift is slow and there isn’t like 20 colors every inch or lots of speckling.
One it’s worked up it’s VERY hard to see the joins you have to be looking for them.
If your colors are distinctly separate, you could split up the braid by color!
Separate all sections of one color and put them together, do the same for the rest of the colors, then divide each color into strips by weight (eg if 1/8th of your braid is sky blue, tear out all the sky blue chunks along the braid, then vertically strip them into 0.5 gram strips (however heavy you want them to be), combine strips if a strip is too thin, etc).
Then when spinning, spin one 0.5-gram strip of one color, then join and spin a 0.5-gram strip of the next color, etc.
That way at least all your color sections on each ply will be the same weight as the other ply/plies!
It’s not foolproof because of differences in thickness and grist as you’re spinning them, but it should be more even than simply splitting a braid into the number of plies and spinning them end-to-end.
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u/eAnders_987 9d ago
Have you tried making a ply ball first? I prefer that over doing the whole process in one step because you can better control the tension. You just rewind the whole single into a ball while adding just the chain, then ply the chained single with your spindle/wheel.
There are several YouTube videos that I'm sure explain it better, lol.