Spinning Daily Publishes Free Plying Yarn eBook:From Plying on a Drop Spindle to Creating Plied Yarn

June 22, 2012 - PRLog -- Loveland, Colo.: The spinning experts from Spinning Daily have put together an informative eBook, available for download today. Plying is a gateway into the vast world of yarn design. Why are spinners today so committed to plied yarn? Plying is optional—why take the extra time to ply? There are many good reasons. Mastering the skill and knowing all of the benefits can make all the difference between an ordinary yarn and getting just the yarn you want. The fascinating eBook, How to Ply Yarn: From Plying on a Drop Spindle to Creating Plied Yarn on a Wheel, from the experts at Spinning Daily , uncovers all of the opportunities, benefits, methods, techniques, and the art of plying yarn.

The eBook can be downloaded online: http://www.spinningdaily.com/plying/

A plied yarn is stronger, more consistent, and more stable than the singles from which it is made. Also, in the ply structure, more of the individual fibers are covered and protected from abrasive wear, light and chemical damage. Whether you’re learning for the first time, want to weigh the benefits of single- vs. multiple-ply yarn, or want tips for plying on a drop spindle, this eBook is packed with helpful tips for spinners of all skill levels. Download your free guide today and begin creating stronger, more balanced yarn.
This eBook is packed with fascinating history and many purposes that plying serves depending on the project your yarn will be used for. The experts at Spinning Daily  have compiled a guide to plying yarn, full of colorful images, tips, and creative design opportunities that occur when combining singles of various colors and textures.

The eBook can be downloaded online: http://www.spinningdaily.com/plying/

Plied Yarn - A Closer Look by Rita Buchanan

Plying is optional—using unplied or singles yarn—saves precious time. Efficiency and productivity were urgent concerns when everything was made from handspun fiber, which explains why, traditionally, most handspun textiles were made from singles. Yet some traditional textiles were made from two-ply yarns, and now we usually ply.

Drop Spindle Plying
Plying on a Spindle by Maggie Casey

Plying on a spindle is easy! In fact, there are many ways to do it: Andean plying, multiple spindles, center-pull ball, and more. Maggie has tried them all and she prefers to transfer the singles from her spindle to a storage device (such as a felt ball) before plying. She wraps the yarn around small felt balls and puts each ball in its own upside-down clay flowerpots threading the yarn through the hole in the bottom to manage the yarn while she plies—a trick she learned from Rita Buchanan.

Reasons to Ply Yarn
The Art of Plying by Judith MacKenzie

Plying, as many spinning teachers will say, covers a multitude of sins—at least of the textile kind! It does this in a number of ways: it makes the finished yarn more consistent, much stronger, and certainly more stable. The consistency comes from averaging out the diameters of the singles as they are plied together. When we ply, thin and thick places will often merge together, and when they don't, there are good plying tricks to help this happen. Of course, the more singles used to make a plied yarn, the more opportunities available to make an even yarn. Plying also takes only a third of the time it takes to spin the original singles and plied yarn will make much more fabric than the singles will.

Chain Plying
Plying Chained Singles by Dodie Rush

Commonly known among spinners as "Navajo-plying," plying chained singles produces a three-ply yarn from a bobbin of singles yarn and is accomplished by "chaining" loops; each new loop is drawn through the previous loop. With this technique, you can create the appearance and stability of three-ply yarn from one bobbin of singles instead of three. Some may be familiar with chaining a warp for weaving, creating a crochet chain, or making a chain stitch in embroidery, but you can't make a stable yarn just chaining a strand of spun singles. The chained singles need sufficient twist in the opposite direction to balance the twist of the singles.

Andean Plying
by Rudy Amann

For spinners using handspindles, the Andean plying method is an easy way to ply the yarn from a spindle. It is also a great way to ply small samples—a spinner's equivalent to a knitter's swatch. Rudy spins a singles for about twenty minutes and then uses the Andean hand wrap to prepare the yarn for plying.

Whether plying for evenness, strength, or a specific thickness, anyone can learn how to ply for the yarn they really want with helpful tips in this free eBook from Spinning Daily .

The eBook can be downloaded online: http://www.spinningdaily.com/plying/