Last night I Andean-plyed the spindle-full of singles from my drop-spindle. It had gotten to the point that the spindle was feeling “sluggish” and if I tried to spin as fine as I had been it would just break: I think this was from the weight of singles on the spindle. There really was a lot on there, and the Andean method took a long time just to wrap up (and beware you don’t cut off the circulation to your middle finger!), but I got it all sorted out. Then, remembering to spin the spindle counter-clockwise, I plyed the beginning and end together.
After plying, I wound the stuff on to a DYI niddy-noddy I got from my friend Mel, and after counting the wraps and trying to do math (I think I have about 60m), I pulled the skien off the niddy-noddy. And then it hit me.
“Dru”, I said quietly, in shock. “I made yarn!”
I wish I could show it to you!! It’s so pretty! Blues and greens and pinks and purples: most ended up plying with like shades, with some really cool candy-striping every so often. And it’s really, truly yarn. It’s over-plyed (or over-twisted?) and unbalanced, and I still have to wash it to “set” the twist (a prospect that deeply unnerves me), but ultimately I have taken prettily-coloured fuzz and turned it into real yarn with little more than a dowel and a furniture-caster. That’s pretty cool, don’t you think?
Aemmeleia's Ephemera 