Did a lousy job plying your yarn? Don't worry,this yarn can be saved.
The unply/reply method
Plied yarn should be a thing of beauty. The yarn should be like a string of pearls, lustrous, round and intriguing to knit. It doesn’t turn out like this all the time. Like styling hair, there are days the ply turns out limp, uneven and uninteresting: a bad ply day. Just such a yarn is shown below.
Can this yarn be saved? Yes. I unply and then reply the yarn. This is a simple procedure. I run the yarn through again in the opposite direction to unply it so I am pretty much winding two strands onto my bobbin. You can see the unplied yarn to the right. Notice how the strands are now separated.
After this, I take the bobbin off the wheel and reply it. You simply take the two separated strands and run them through the wheel again.
Naturally, I do the replying on a good ply day. Below is a picture of the unplied yarn.
For me, the main ingredient to producing a good ply is to not feel rushed. To take my time to make sure I keep the twist full and even so I can get the kind of yarn I love to knit, or weave. It is as simple as that.
So don’t be satisfied with a plied yarn that doesn’t inspire you. Take the time to do it right—to unply and reply so you have it what you want. Some people may counsel to skip the step of unplying, and just run it through the wheel again. But if you really want a nice yarn, the unply step is worth the effort. This is after all a hobby, and therefore fun, so it is worth the time to eschew shortcuts and craft something beautiful.
The purple yarn shown is the result of unplying and replying the yarn to get the sort of twist I prefer to knit with. As you can see, the twisht has shown improvment.
This purple 9 wpi yarn, which you can find on my Ravelry page as "purple meltdown" is destined to become an Aran sweater. Two Shetland fleeces which I purchased last spring were dyed and now I'm carding and spinning them to make the yarn shown.
March 7, 2010
Second time through method
A badly plied yarn can also be saved by simply sending it through the wheel again. Case in point is the Rambouillet two ply shown below. I have no idea where my brain was when I plyed this but it is not what I wanted.
So I sent it through my wheel again. I did this after washing and drying the skein, which is recommended because washing lets you see what is really going on with the twist. I use the Lendrum for all plying and I love it. Well, I love all my wheels.
So here it is with an extra chance at twist. I like it much better.
