Recently off the wheel

Seattle Blues
The last of the "bookstore mystery wool" purchase. My dyed purple/blue roving yielded 425 yards of 2-ply at 10 wraps per inch.


As I came to the end of the bobbins, I had just a little left and did a navajo 3-ply with the remainder yarn. Here is a photo to illustrate the difference between 2-ply and 3-ply. The 3-ply is sitting on top of the 2-ply. Notice that the color makes smooth transitions with the navajo 3-ply. The 2-ply will knit up with more of a tweed-effect. In yarn state, I prefer the 3-ply. It makes a rounder loftier yarn. The 3 ply is 8 wraps per inch.


Autumn Leaves
Dyed grey roving*. This was a bitch to spin as the grey wool felted somewhat in the dyeing process and I had to pull and prod the roving to spin it into yarn. However, the 3-ply (navajo again) is really pretty and greater than the sum of it's parts. Yield: 150 yards at 9 wraps per inch.


The Virtues of the Navajo Ply
What exactly is navajo plying? It is creating three-ply from one bobbin of a spun single. Also called chain plying. For all the prose that it would take to describe it, a picture is well worth a bazillion words. The Yarn Wench has released a short video about navajo-plying. You can also view a very short and sweet quick time video of navajo-ply at the Joy of Handspinning Web site.


* An aside: the before picture of the Autumn leaves colorway is lovely and golden, but not totally accurate, color-wise. The finished yarn is color corrected. I've recently started working with RAW photo files and do accurate color correction in the simple-post processing that I do with my images.