In Episode 47 Kelly talked about handspun singles. In this episode she talks about plying handspun yarn and the properties of plied yarn for knitters who are buying commercial yarn.
She talks about
- what plying is and how it works,
- why spinners might ply yarn, and
- the number of plies and their effect on yarn.
The pictures below are a skein of yarn, rather than a piece of plied yarn, but the three pictures illustrate how the individual fibers look in a plied yarn that is over-plied, balanced, and under-plied. Pretend each strand of yarn is a fiber in a plied yarn and you will see that in a balanced yarn, the fibers are parallel with the direction of the yarn.
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| Over-plied |
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| Under-plied |
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| Balanced. Note that the strands are parallel to the skein. |
Here is Marsha's project page for her Swirl Sweater.