As a new spinner, the slide of the fibers, the grab of the twist has to be described to you before you can make sense of the fistful of fluff that you intend to spin into yarn. You have to learn the feel of yarn forming in the drafting triangle, what too much twist grabbing too many fibers feels like as darfting becomes suddenly impossible, and the sensation of not enough twist as the feathery end disappears into the orifice, or the spindle flies across the room.
Eventually you learn to trust your fingers to produce relatively consistent yarn that holds together, and is a pleasure to knit with. Or weave with, I suppose, but I wouldn't know, not being a weaver.
Still, as a new spinner, learning to trust in your fingers, there are some experiences that will defy that trust.
I can remember knitting a stranded pattern, using one strand of wool with a strand of dog hair yarn, watching in horror as holes formed two or three rows behind. I threaded a needle with the dog hair yarn and attempted to Swiss darn the holes, only to see more stitches dissolving faster than I sewed.
Eventually, sitting on my bed, I pulled out an arms-length of yarn, gave a gentle tug, and felt it drift apart. Drop the yarn, pull out more, tug, break, drop. Apparently, ever-optimistic, I believed that the entire ball could not possibly be this weak and surely, surely I'd get to the strong part of the ball.
I didn't.
I did end up with a very large pile of three-foot lengths of dog yarn on my bed though.
I also learned that just because a yarn feels twisted while spinning, it may not be if it's a slippery, short fiber like dog.
I undid the plying twist on the remaining yarn (I had another few balls), and plied it again, using more twist this time, and adding some heavy cotton sewing thread as a third ply, which did the trick.
Back in those days, I spun kid mohair by trusting my touch too, and learned the hard way that you need more twist: I've also had sweaters disappear parts of a row of knitting after a few years of wear, so now I use a whole lot more twist in non-crimpy, slippery fibers, and know that my fingers don't always have full information.
Back when I was a new spinner, I loved intarsia a whole lot more than I do now.
I had a plan.
I had some charcoal wool yarn, and a boatload of kid mohair that I dyed a rainbow of KoolAid colours.
Not much twist, is there?
I started knitting, and didn't like the difference in texture and weight and drape between the wool and kid sections, and frankly, intarsia with grabby yarn is really annoying, because you have to untangle even more often than with more slippery yarns. This project did not go into the Bermuda Rectangle of UFOs that is between my sofa and the window (I think the project predates my move to this house), but into a bag squeezed next to the wall at the end of a shelf, where it has been for long enough that someone could have gone to college, changed majors, completed a masters and perhaps part of a PhD as well, if they were really focused.
I feel very grown-up, because I'm not going to undo it to try to salvage the yarn. I might toss it in the machine and see what happens, and if it fulls nicely I might make a bag or a coaster or another pot-holder or something, but if it doesn't, I'm going to
Throw
It
Away.
Really.
I loved the leftover yarns though, and all that was really wrong with them was that there wasn't enough twist, and they were too fine. For what? To go with the yummy grape dog 'n' wool yarn I used to extend, uh, trim my cardigan a few days ago, as well as some friendly, well-twisted kid mohair.
Not a problem, I picked coordinating pairs of colours from the piles, and loosely plied them together, adding a little more twist. I'm always happy to knit with multiple strands of yarn if what I have is too fine, and since I'm the spinner in charge of these yarns, I can add enough extra twist to the pairs of yarns so that the individual fibers are held tightly enough. This loosely plied yarn may not look pretty as is, but I think it'll do very well knitted up, and I don't believe it'll dissolve for undertwist.
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