Four-Ply Cabled Yarn & Improvising

Yesterday was a day of improvising and rolling with the punches. I've learned alot over the years from Chris, my husband, the jazz musician. In jazz, improvising is expected in the execution of a tune. As for me, a born-again knitter in the late 70's/early 80's, I can remember the first time I went into a knit shop in Grosse Pointe, Michigan (the ONLY knit shop in the Detroit area at that time) determined to come away with yarn for a sweater. I looked through scores of patterns; found a short-sleeved polo top I liked which didn't look too difficult to knit; talked to the clerk about what I'd need to make this sweater; went away with straight, Boye aluminum needles long enough to be useful as swords and several balls of yarn. The clerk kindly explained how I MUST get the same gauge that was listed in the pattern or my sweater would not fit. 'course I only went away with one size of needles, so perhaps it was wishful thinking on her part that those particular needles would do the trick. And let's not even talk about how a set of smaller needles would make for a ribbed edge that actually does its job of holding in the edges so they don't flair out like bells. Yes, I had already discovered and began reading Elizabeth Zimmermann by then, through her "Knitting Without Tears," but I felt I needed to be my own devil's advocate and see what existed on the other side of the knitting tracks before I made any important, lifelong decisions. Let's just say, that after that experience (and I did make the sweater *more or less successfully* and wore it quite a lot), I was a diehard, EZ-inspired, thinking knitter.

So what's all this got to do with improvising? Well, I'm happy to say that I've met less folks who follow knitting patterns to-the-letter...they've even stopped feeling the need to knit the same color of yarn featured on the handsome model in the pattern. Knitters in general seem so much more educated in their choices these days. They change stitch patterns, alter fit and length, have learned how to change gauge, change fibers (after studying and sampling how the new fiber will act in a piece), add bling where there was none, and more!

Yesterday I hankered for a pot of potato soup. I bought "fingerling" golden potatoes from the grocery store. I didn't know if fingerling potatoes would make a good soup, but caution was thrown to the blustery April wind. I had carrots, celery with leaves (chopped celery leaves are great for flavor), leeks...Oh, I must digress and tell how the check-out gal looked at the leek, and in the most awful whine said, "What's THAT?!"...as if it was an alien vegetable. Back to the ingredients...plenty of dill, some parsley, salt and pepper and 2 container boxes of broth. Now my favorite store-bought broth is Wolfgang Puck's Organic Vegetable Broth. However, the store we were in did not sell it. Poop. Time to improvise: one was Pacific Natural Food's Organic Vegetable Broth and the other was Imagine Organic No-Chicken Broth. Seemed a safe bet to pick two different broths in case one was icky. I washed and chopped up the veggies, added them to the broth, and seasoned. All would have been well as that the pot was coming up on a simmer, except....I forgot to saute the chopped leek in butter and just threw the leek in the pot without. Damn. I stood there thinking a bit, knowing I would miss the rich butter flavor imparted if I had, indeed, sauteed. Oh hell...I went to the fridge and lopped off 1/4 stick of butter and threw it in the pot. No one who enjoyed soup that evening knew the difference. Now somewhere in this story of a recipe there's info which can be applied to spinning/knitting/dyeing/etc. I just know there is. It's your job to find it, should you wish the challenge.

Here's another thing I did yesterday. Elizabeth, Llama Farm Girl herself, featured on the recent past post, Solar Dyers Unite & Our Amazing Elizabeth~A Brighid's Dyer's Founding Member Plus, gave me a bag of combed llama fiber. Knowing I love all-things-birds, it was an offering of nesting material for my "locals". I didn't get a pic of this, but once I came inside after placing the fiber in trees, I noticed a bird going at it like forty-going-north. I thought, "Neat! It'll fly away to it's nest, bringing some fiber..." Nope. The bird picked at the tuft and let smaller bits scatter all over the yard. Hmmm. Perhaps that bird knew that we were going to get an ice storm the following day. Perhaps that bird was trying to tell me I put the fiber out too bloody soon. Perhaps that bird wanted me to know that no birds had even made a nest in the tundra folks call Vermont. Whatever. There's more fiber where that came from, my little chickadee....

Received an e-mail from Knitterguy, asking what potatoes (yes, I know I'm writing about freakin' potatoes again!) I would be planting this Spring? Have ordered a red variety this time, called "Caribe." No red-fleshed; yes red-skinned. Anyone ever plant Caribe? Any tips? Ted asked if I'd show them on the blog eventually? I assured him that the spider would show pics at least on the annual potato post, if not more. Potatoes are THAT important (well, at least to me...)

In another e-mail, I asked Ted the following:
See what you think about the dyed Ingeo in your stash. Try breaking it without too much force. Does it split apart REALLY easily? We found that to be true, in my classes, with the dyed stuff. The undyed, white Ingeo didn't do it. I'm guessing Ingeo gets damaged easily when dyed.

Ted replied:
Ingeo splits apart **really** easily. You know how you take a length of wool top and you have to tear it? This stuff just kinda falls apart. I don't know how to explain it, but the top has this funny, crisp crepe-y feel about it.

In the comment section on last week's Navajo Plying post, Ted said and asked:
Very useful information on Navajo-plying. I thought Spin-Off had renamed it several issues ago for some reason.

When you are spinning singles that will be Navajo-plied, how do you check that the amount of twist in the singles is enough to give a balanced plied yarn? It's simple for a 2-ply, because you just let the singles double back on itself. But for a 3 ply it's more complicated?

Spider replies:
Yes, there was a very good article in the Spring 2006 issue of Spin-Off Magazine on Navajo plying. The author, Dodie Rush, called the subject of the article, "Plying Chained Singles." In fine type, at the bottom of the first page of the article, this was printed: "Though plying chained singles is normally referred to as "Navajo-plying," questions have been raised about the origins of the term and whether or not it is accurate. Plying chained singles is a descriptive term for making a three-ply yarn from a singles yarn." Readers: What do you know about this possible "origins" discrepancy? I admit, I had not heard anything about it. Please inform us.

When you are spinning the singles for Navajo-plying, simply check how that yarn wants to be balanced as a Navajo 3-ply by making a ply-back that's a plain vanilla 3-ply. Three-ply is three-ply, whether it's Navajo plied or plain vanilla. To make a plain vanilla 3-ply-back, simply fold the freshly spun singles as you would make a 2-ply-back, but don't let go yet. Now fold the just-made-2-ply-back with the singles again. Let go and let the final ply twist do it's thing. Help the twist get in order with your hands. Knot both ends of the 3-ply-back before removing it from the singles. When you are Navajo-plying, LOOK at the plain vanilla 3-ply-back for a visual reference on how much plying twist to put into your yarn, IF you want it balanced, AND you stayed consistent in the amount of singles twist you put into the plain vanilla 3-ply-back AND the Navajo-plied yarn.

Now on to 4-ply cabled yarn. Thank you to all readers who commented on the blog or wrote an e-mail to me requesting that we discuss this technique.

The photo above shows the fiber I used for my 4-ply cabled yarn. Both commercially carded preps are from Shepherd's Croft. The white is 50% white Cheviot wool and 50% white mohair (didn't say what type of mohair...ie. yearling, adult?) The grey is 50% white Cheviot wool and 50% naturally grey mohair. The final yarn is destined for a project in THE BOOK. What's THE BOOK? Take a look at the past post, Silk, Silk Blends & THE BOOK, explaining all. Into a plastic baggie all the above stuff will go...index card with pertinent info important to me, ply-backs, unspun fiber, tag from the vendor, and eventually, the washed swatch(es).

So what IS a cabled yarn? In the book, "Spinning Designer Yarns," by Diane Varney, Interweave Press, 1987, cabled yarns are described as:
"A cord, braid, or cable is less round in cross-section than a crepe. It is made by plying together two yarns, each of which has two or more plies."

Diane continues, "To make a 4-strand cord, spin four medium-twist Z singles. Make two 2-ply yarns, spinning in the S direction. Then ply the two 2-ply yarns together in the Z direction."

An aside: The lovely, woven, overshot mat made out of commercial cotton, that the bobbins are sitting on above, was made for me by Nairi, head weaver at Black Creek Pioneer Village (where I, too, used to work during a few years in the 90's) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The one important point I'd like to add to Diane's description of a cabled yarn, described in her book, is that when you are at the stage of plying the singles into a 2-ply, S (counter-clockwise) direction, be sure to add a significant amount of ply twist...much more than usual. For my sample yarn, I planned to make two 2-plied yarns, with each yarn having one ply of the white Cheviot/mohair and one ply of the grey Cheviot/mohair.

Now going back to the topic of improvising on this blog...I regret to say that I did NOT weigh the amounts of white fiber and grey fiber that would go into each of the two 2-plies. If I had, I would have spun up each amount, happy as a lark, and would know that if my singles stayed consistent, I'd more or less have the same yardage in each set of singles. This, however, I did not do. Why? I don't know...it was on another one of those days...remember the whole not-sauteed leek thing? Soooo, I opted to spin all of the white onto one bobbin and all of the grey onto another bobbin, eyeing what went onto the bobbin as best as I could. A "By Gosh And By Golly" method if there ever was one.

The singles above were spun Z (clock-wise) on my Louet S10 using the fat-core bobbin and the not-so-new-anymore flyer (I have the dirt-old flyer, too, that I'd never part with). Yes, I know that the bobbins above are not the fat-core bobbins. One thing I do in my plying is repackage singles by rewinding them on another empty bobbin. See the past post, Fiber Of Gold & Leslie's Sock Solution, for more on repackaging singles. I spun the fiber using a short, backwards draw. I found this draw worked best under these circumstances because none of the long draws I tried gave me the control I needed. The wool and mohair in the blend had a tendency to stick to each other...even after stripping and pre-drafting. I'm not sure if it was the spinning oil in the fibers or if the hairier mohair was hanging up the wool. In any case, the short draw gave me the control needed to be sure clumps of tangled fibers didn't go into the yarn.

I did a 4-ply-back to check for the appropriate amount of twist to put into my singles for the final cabled yarn. In this case, to make the 4-ply-back, I did not opt for a plain vanilla 4-ply version. Cabled yarns are different creatures than Navajo-plied yarns and anyways, a cabled 4-ply back can be made easy-as-pie. Simply make a longish 2-ply-back. Into that insert, with your fingers, a rather hefty dose of S-direction plying twist. Let this extra-S-plying-twist-yarn ply back on itself. If you *see* the little bumps that resemble a two chain links intertwined, then you have put enough extra S-twist into the original 2-ply-back. BUT, and this is an important but, if the yarn is not to your taste...such as it's too hard a twist for what you envisioned and the yarn lacks the airy quality you were looking for...then perhaps you could put less twist into the original singles. Since I knew I wanted this cabled yarn to go into a garment to wear, I didn't want yarn that weighed as heavy as lead, with no air around the fibers. Soooo....a confession. When I was spinning the singles, I had made a nice cabled ply-back that would suit my purposes. I noted the twist in the singles. I regret to say I did NOT, at that time, wind some of those singles onto an index card for twist reference (pictured on the index card shown on this post are the re-worked singles...you'll see below what I mean...) I started to watch the Masterpiece Theater rendition of Robert Louis Stevenson's, "Kidnapped." Things got exciting in the show. I started putting more twist in the singles, quick as a wink, but without my conscious knowledge. I didn't have that visual reference of singles wound on the card to refer to and remind me. I spun up a bobbin of the white blend and a bobbin of the grey blend. When I went to 2-ply the yarn, the new cabled ply-back that I made showed a hard twist yarn, indeed. Poop.

I placed the repackaged too-much-twist-singles into a Lazy Kate. Back into the S10 wheel the singles went, this time quickly in the S direction, so that some of that Z twist in the singles would be removed. I knew just a tad needed to come out, so I changed to the old-as-dirt Louet flyer and a bobbin with a 5:1 ratio. I did check to make sure the twist I was taking out still left the single's a stable yarn (didn't drift apart). The singles-with-the-excess-twist-removed were then repackaged onto two bobbins, such as what's pictured above.

Above you'll find the entirety of my extra-twisted 2-ply with the too-much-singles-twist-taken out. This bobbin's contents will then have to be eyed to be split up and rewound onto two bobbins for the final Z plying. Yikes...if only I had weighed the bloody fiber to begin with.....

Here's the repackaged 2-plied yarns on two bobbins. In retrospect, I suppose I could have weighed an empty fat-core bobbin, such as what the entirety of the extra-twisted-2-ply was on. Then weigh the bobbin with the entirety of the same 2-ply. Subtract the weight of the bobbin from the weight of the bobbin with the 2-ply. As I wound off onto the first, new bobbin, weigh the original bobbin until there's half left. Wind off the rest on another bobbin. But such was my day...I By-Gosh-And-By-Gollied it. And guess what? After cabling, the 2-ply left on one of the bobbin's measured less than a foot. Not bad. Ahem.

Here's a photo of the washed, cabled 4-ply. To achieve this cabled 4-ply, put the two bobbins of 2-ply in a tensioned Lazy Kate. Operating your wheel in the Z (clock-wise) direction, begin to treadle slowly. Perhaps going onto a slower (larger) whorl would be of help not to put too much twist in...especially if you're a speed treadler. As you treadle, LOOK carefully at your yarn accepting the new Z twist. When it looks like two chain links intertwined, let it go onto the wheel's bobbin through the orifice. Readers: If someone has an alternate way to describe what a finished, cabled yarn looks like, please write your ideas as a comment on the blog. Consider keeping an eye on how many treadles for your unit length of yarn (the amount of yarn you let twist enter...plying twist in this case...before letting the yarn travel onto the bobbin for storage) are needed. Also consider pulling off some yarn from the bobbin on the wheel that's had the full amount of plying twist inserted. I say this because twist goes in during a "round trip"...from and to the orifice. If you're a spinner who treadles a lot as the yarn goes on for storage, you MAY find your yarn has too much final twist overall. Adjust as needed.

I began knitting a swatch with U.S. size 6 needles. After awhile, it seemed like the stitches were too small for the yarn's size... not letting the yarn breath and be all it can be, so to speak.

I placed a purl row on the stockinette side of the swatch to deliniate between switching needle sizes, and liked the results of the U.S. size 7 needles much better. Once done, the swatch will be washed and dried flat. It'll serve as a useful reference for my planned project (probably a vest, but I'm an improvisor...remember?) Lucky for me, my back-n-forth swatches are much the same as what I achieve circularly. Still, no watching shows like "Kidnapped" when I begin to finally knit the project, until I'm sure my gauge is what I want!!

Did I mention that cabled yarn feels wonderful as your knitting it and in the swatch/final piece? It does. Cabled yarn, with all its surfaces, looks and feels lively. I'm planning on dyeing the yarn in a natural dye, immersion bath. Those little surfaces, some grey and some white in my instance, will pick up the color in wonderfully varied ways.

Leslie, frequent beloved commenter, featured on the past post Leslie - Knitter, Spinner, Solar Dyer & Friend, asked who takes the photos on this blog? Well, sometimes it's Chris, husband of the spider, and sometimes it's Alexander, youngest son of the spider. But usually it's the spider herself. It gets really interesting when no one is around and one of my hands has to hold something for a pic....

One last thought. I LOVE featuring fiber-loving folks on my blog. Can you tell? No one has ever asked why I do this and I'm not sure other blog writers do the same, at least regularly. Do you know of any? When I became serious about spinning in the 80's, there was no internet community to turn to for my fiber needs. Thankfully there WAS the always excellent, Spin-Off magazine. Even today I peruse the quarterly issues with a fine-toothed comb, looking for info to send for, new tools, vendors selling fibers I'm looking for, etc. Back then, besides belonging to my local group or guild, IF you were lucky enough to be a part of one, I found myself searching for additional like-minded folks by sending away for guild/group newsletters. I met all sorts of great people that way. One publication from out west used to feature individual guild members in each issue. I heartily enjoyed reading about these people, what wheels they had, their fave fibers and projects, and more. I learned SO MUCH from reading what others were up to. I'm guessing folks who read about various spinners that I feature on this blog might find this to be so for them. In any case, it's my spiderly opinion, that not only do the famous spinning glitterati have lots to share, the Anything-But-Average Joe/Jane does, too. Would YOU like me to feature YOU? Write the spider and do let me know.

Passover blessings! Happy Easter! Next time we'll take a look at qiviut, as per Judith, a much appreciated commenter's, request. If you have a spinning/knitting/dyeing topic you'd like to see addressed, do let me know, please.