Spindle Plying Using A Nostepinde & Jofran's Knitting

Jofran, featured in the past post EZ's Bog Jacket & A Chinese Worker's Cap, and I are long-time friends. There's something so special and reassuring about friends who stay in touch and remain close throughout much of their lives. We all change. It would be weird if we stayed exactly the same as we were...say, as teenagers. But it's comforting when we accept each other's changes. Rolling with the punches together. Being there for each other.

Pictured at the bottom of the slew of photos presented is Jofran holding her son, Tommy. That photo was taken two summers ago when Jofran and her wonderful husband, Bob, welcomed me to stay at their home in Michigan during the week I was to attend my 30th high school reunion. Needless to say, Tommy has grown since then!

Shown is a darling photo of a reluctantly "bunny-eared" Tommy with his doting and teasing big sisters, Frances (on the left) and Liz (on the right). Do note Tommy's handknit hat, socks and sweater on our young model...all knit by Jofran, though Frances and Liz can knit in their own right. I hear tell Frances also is becoming quite the spinner, too.

The red hat Tommy's wearing is knit from a 2-ply, heavy worsted merino yarn available from Greenfield Village at The Henry Ford Museum, in Dearborn, Michigan. The sheep who produced the wool in that yarn graze at Firestone Farm, on the museum's grounds. Jofran and her daughter, Frances, Kool-aid dyed the yarn for a semi-solid red. Her own pattern, Jofran lined the hat with doubled, DK weight alpaca. The earflaps and trim are seed stitch and there are I-cord ties. Jofran plans to put a tassel or pom-pom on top of the hat, but being a busy mom who also works as a chemical engineer, it's just not happened quite yet.

Jofran knit Tommy's sailor's rib (she mentioned she found the rib stitch in an Alice Starmore book) socks from Interlacements "Tiny Toes" fingering weight yarn, at 9 1/2 sts = 1". The socks are top down, with the usual heel flaps and kitchener stitched toes.

For a closer sweater view, check out a dashingly handsome Tommy in his yoke pullover. It's knitted using none other than Elizabeth Zimmermann's EPS system, which you can find in any of EZ or Meg Swansen's Schoolhouse Press books. The yarn itself is 2-ply "Sheepswool", also available from Schoolhouse Press; the sweater being knit with both a natural white and a natural brown/grey. The semi-solid, orange yarn began it's life as natural white and was accomplished with a Kool-aid dyeing session. Do note the good-looking, corrugated ribbing at lower border, cuffs and neckline. The back-of-neck was raised 3/4" by knitting 6 short rows, creating a neckline that'll surely keep out chill winds and make a little boy very happy.

Jofran received a Schacht Matchless spinning wheel for Christmas from her Bob...a keeper if there ever was one (that goes for Bob AND the wheel!) This wonderful wheel will join her ancient, trusty, Ashford Traditional that she received as a teenager from her parents. I can't wait to see the gorgeous yarns that'll be dripping off her wheels this year.

I mentioned on last week's post that I'd chat a bit about plying onto a spindle using a nostepinde to wind and hold a center-pull ball. Aiming to be a woman of my word, here goes: The tools involved include a plain, plying nostepinde; free of any fancy wood turnings that would inhibit the singles (coming from both the inside and the outside of the ball) from being able to be drawn out to accept the plying twist. The spindle I used for plying is a top-whorl from Adam Mielke, in bird's eye maple no less. The singles yarn? It's spun from my white, personally handcombed, Polwarth wool top, from a fleece I purchased from Rovings in Canada.

Let's start with the top photos. The top picture on the left shows the yarn wound around and caught at the top knob of the nostepinde (the yarn end that will be beginning of the inside of the ball) and brought down to be wound horizontally (with the end that'll be on the outside of the ball) a few times around the nostepinde, a bit below the mid-section of the tool where the wood gets fatter. The winding onto the nostepinde continues in the top photo on the right. To quote Priscilla Gibson-Roberts in her book, "High Whorling," Nomad Press, Colorado, 1998: "...begin to wrap at about a 45 degree angle over this core (the horizontal core just made, says spider). After several wraps, turn the nostepinne (spider learned, another spelling...depends on dialect used in Scandinavia I'm told) slightly to advance the wrapping to a new section. Continue in this manner until all the yarn has been transferred to the nostepinne." Directly below the top photos, in the second row, you'll see how I unwound the yarn end from the knob, tied it together with the outside end of the singles, and attached it by virtue of a half-hitch to the shaft of the spindle, under the whorl if using a top-whorl as I did.

In the third row of photos from the top, a pic with the green background, you'll see how I brought the two-ended ball down to the thinner portion of the shaft. I did this because the inside end pulls out nicely if it's not held fast and tight between the inside of the ball and the thick end of the nostepinde. When releasing both the inside and outside ends to get ready for plying, I'll continue to hold the ball on the nostepinde, but will allow the two ends of the ball to flow out together, keeping equal tension on each end, until I've a length that I want to ply.

In the fourth row of photos from the top, in the shot on the right, you'll see a length of the two singles getting ready to accept plying twist. Below it, in the 5th photo row, there's a photo showing how I am rolling the shaft of the spindle down my right thigh, to insert S, counter-clockwise, plying twist. Also in the 4th row of pics, in the photo on the left,, (Did ya spy Al the black cat ready to scurry up the stairs?), you'll see how I'm using my right hand to guide the plying twist into the yarn, as the spindle spins.

Finally, in a photo directly above a beautiful brown-eyed Tommy carrying a BIG spoon, you'll see how I've wound the just-made plied yarn onto the shaft of the spindle, and am getting ready to release more singles for continued plying.

So what's the purpose of using a nostepinde for plying? Well, it keeps the center-pulled ball from collapsing whilst plying from it, reducing annoying tangles. And one can't argue that you get to hold onto a pretty tool as you ply, instead of being attached to the bracelet of singles one wears when you Andean ply. You get the benefit of having no yarn left over from the ball, since you're plying the beginning of the ball to the end of the same ball.

Is plying from a nostepinde for you? Only you can decide that!!