[Tutorial] How to spin and chain-ply on your drop-spindle at the same time
I’ve seen this technique at the Lower Saxony spinning group meet-up in June and @disgruntled-lifeform has asked about it, so here is a tutorial. I’m not comfortable with having videos of me taken and no one to take the video anyway so I hope photos are enough…
Little diclaimer: I have only seen someone else doing this so I just pass this knowlegde on. I don’t know where it originates. Also: I assume you already know how to spin a single and know the basics of chain- or Navajo-plying
It’s really an intreresting technique. You spin and chain-ply in one go, no endless spinning and after that endless plying, which is very practical if you (like me) are no fan of endless spindle plying. Or if you only own one spindle for whatever reason - everyone knows spindles are gregarious animals and keeping only one is not appropriate XP
You need:
A drop spindle of your choice with a leader (Maybe one a little bigger than mine, since the yarn we wind on the spindle is a three-ply, which means it is thrice as thick as your usual single.
Fibres of your choice you want to spin
It’s important that your leader has a loop at the end to pull your single through.
Step 1: Spin your single as you always do. *spinspinspin* You want to do that standing up as you need the single to be quite long:
Step 2: Then butterfly the single up on your thumb and forefinger to avoid tangling:
Step 3: Pull the single through the loop of your leader and unwind it from your fingers. At the beginning it’s easier to sit down for this step until you get used to the finger movements. It’s difficult to pull the single through the loop while holding the spindle in your hand and we don’t want any broken fingers!
Step 4: Pull the single all the way through until just a little bit below the beginning of your unspun fibres:
Step 5: Then you just ply the loop together in the opposite direction from the direction you spun the single - just as most of you will do anyways while plying. The spindle wants to turn in the opposite direction by itself anyway. Make sure the new loop at the end stays open!
Step 6: Wind the plied thread on your spindle. Then secure it well on your spindle’s hook. Take Care Of The Loop. It Must Stay Accessible for the next section of spun singles.
Congratulations you have your first section of chain plied yarn on your drop spindle.
Then you repeat the whole thing again and again: Spin a long piece of single - pull it through loop - ply - wind on spindle - secure the new loop at the end on your hook and then go on spinning.
It needs a bit of practise. The lady who showed us the technique said she had been afraid of breaking her fingers when she started learning this technique. But if you have spun and plied on your drop spindle before it should not be too difficult to master. Concentrate on what you are doing and learn how to manage thread and spindle. And if you really sit down for pulling the single through the loop you also get a little training for your legs by costantly getting up and sitting down again ^-~ And when you are comfortable with the whole thing you can also do it while walking around. I, too need more practise until I’m that far.
This is a fun party trick!
I personally don’t find it super useful for making lots of yarn because it interrupts the flow, but the OP likes it for just that reason :D And it is useful if you need a length of finished yarn quick.
(For spindles, I’d personally rather wind an n-stranded plying ball, where n=the number of strands I want to ply, and then do the palm roll and toss manoeuvre to add Danger and Excitement, or thigh roll for less excitement. For chain plying, you can also pre-chain the yarn when you’re winding it on the plying ball (finger crochet!!!), so you don’t need to worry about yarn management and you can just add twist, although if you’re like OP this may not be a positive thing for you so choose accordingly ;) ).
ALSO, in my highly personal and extremely opinionated opinion (YMMV), I think this works a lot better on a top whorl but that’s because I LOATHE AND DETEST metal hooks on low whorls. Anyway, for this purpose a hook is easier for yarn management than the half hitch I’d use on a low whorl, therefore, top whorl.
If you want to do this but only have a hookless low whorl, it *is* possible, just a bit fiddlier to arrange the loop with the half hitch so you can open it back up for the next chain.
(The reason I hate hooks on low whorls is because it gets in the way of flicking the low whorl with your fingers at the top of the shaft, unlike a half hitch or two, which can feel fiddly in the beginning, but you learn to do and undo them without even thinking about it once you’ve been spinning long enough. A thigh roll is always an option if you do have a spindle with a hook (low or high whorl) or finger dexterity issues.)
(Also also, the term chain plying is preferable because not only is it descriptive, the Diné mostly do “regular” plying and only use this type of plying for very specific purposes (IIRC as cord in certain structural parts of rug weaving), and the word “Navajo” is actually what a neighbouring tribe told Spaniards they were called. While the meaning (from Tewa-Puebloan “nava hu”, or “the place of large planted fields”) isn’t offensive as such unlike some common names of other Indigenous peoples, and the name “Navajo” has been retained officially so as not to lose the brand recognition (so to speak), it’s still not the name of the people in their own language. Additionally, chain plying is also done in other parts of the world; it’s not exclusive to the Diné.)
thank you for answering the poll but now i wanna see everybody’s projects 🥺
i personally am learning thread crochet! i had to rip back two or three times but today i think i’ll be ready to start the edging
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(i’d be madder but my technique improved every time i swore and ripped out)
Current spinning (it’ll be 2 ply yarn plied with extra high twist for Andean weaving), Andean backstrap weaving homework (traditional pattern variation, no charts allowed 😎) and 2nd sock for scale. Uhhhh… that’s not all of them but it’s what I should be working on.
Thread crochet is fun (well. IME there’s always ripping and redoing involved but that’s universal) and I wish I had one underway because it’s getting warmer and wool is miserable during a heatwave.
I know it feels like an understatement but you sometimes make more progress by pointing out that conservatives are fucking rude. going out of your way to call someone the wrong name because you don’t like them? rude. childish. this isn’t fucking kindergarten, Carl. she said her name is Jennifer. Everybody knows her as Jennifer. You are the one making things confusing. Grow up.
“misgendering is violence”: invites discourse over the TraNs DeBatE, puts people on the defensive, opens you up to accusations of liberal snowflakery, comes off as a hypothetical thought exercise
“Who the fuck is Jason? I don’t know a Jason. Oh her? You mean Jen? You mean fucking Jen? That’s Jen, dipshit.” : crystal clear. you’re making shit more difficult for everyone because you’re a rude manchild.
So the politeness thing in general is a whole other can of worms, but.
Thing is.
Conservatives like to *pretend* they are nice, polite, decent persons. If they’re churchy, at least some varieties may still subscribe to the Little Women type 19th century politeness where you aren’t supposed to speak ill of others or make fun or be rude, because that’s not how a good Christian should behave.
And the OTHER thing is that accosting people in public toilets, calling them by wrong name or gender, pointing at people you think dress “funny”, touching people’s hair without being invited or asking someone about their sex organs?
Unspeakably, horrifically Rude.
So when you call them on it, they don’t have a defence. They’re in the wrong *by their own rules*, and sometimes pointing that out works.
Of course, it’s not an universal fix, but that’s because the other person is acting like a fucking dipshit who never learned their goddamn manners.
It is definitely book and tv series. That is for sure.
I’m not a huge fan, protagonist is a cringe self-insert and the whole thing comes across as pretty fetishising.
Tune into @theayesphere on Sundays and you can ask @thebibliosphere how she feels about it. She absolutely *adores* Outlander and could excitedly talk about it for hours.
Lmao, lies and slander.
Hey, there are *two* self-inserts in that thing and the other one is the main bad guy, because he can do all the nasty things to the poor, pretty male sub that Claire, as a Good Girl, can’t, except that one time when she literally role-played the bad guy. For Reasons.
Eh, at least it’s more clearly marked as a fantasy than 50 Shades 🤣
(And the scenery is beautiful. Although I don’t want to misrepresent things - in the books, the sex scene ratio is at about 90s bodice ripper level, and there’s a lot of rape/menace/revenge fantasy going on too, so anyone looking for the elusive Domme romance will be disappointed. Once again.)
I can’t believe it. They passed the new trans law in Finland, allowing adult trans people to change their legal gender without having to provide lengthy documentation from doctors. It passed. I am so fucking happy. I know people who’ve been waiting for years to get their gender recognized by a doctor to get treatments. I can’t believe it. Really can’t.
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