Showing My Bias
I spent a little more time last weekend exploring the relationship between spinning twist and plying twist. Although I agreed with most of Abby’s piece in SpinOff, I admit that I was dubious about her belief that the problem of unbalanced yarns leading to biased knitted fabric is exaggerated.
So, I took carded roving and used it to spin some high-twist singles and some low-twist singles. I used the high-twist singles and some of the low-twist singles to create balanced 2-ply yarns. I used the rest of the low-twist singles to create an unbalanced 2-ply yarn by putting in a lot of plying twist.
I readily admit that the unbalanced yarn with the low spinning twist and the high plying twist feels infinitely softer, nicer, and less like rope than the balanced yarn with the high spinning twist and high plying twist even though the grist is nearly identical. But what about my fears of bias?
Well, I then set the twist in the unbalanced yarn so the mini hank hung perfectly straight.
The yarn, of course, is not really balanced no matter how straight the hank looks.
How can I be so sure, Michaele??
Because I knit up a swatch.
Yes, I admit, it looks perfectly square. But here’s what happened when I got it wet and set it to dry flat:
It biased, of course. Not really a problem for a swatch, but a disaster in the making if you’re using the yarn to knit, say, the sleeves of a sweater.
So what’s my conclusion? Unless I’m making something worked entirely in garter stitch or a lace piece that will be blocked severely, I think I’ll stick with spinning balanced yarns.
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Susan | spinning
Ok, fine. What about socks?
Me too!
I don’t know if you’ve blogged about this before, but thought I’d ask — what method do you use to make sure your that you are adding the right amount of plying twist. Do you utilize ply-backs? Other things? Interesting stuff! (At least to this universe!)
Fascinating! (both this post and the e-mail you sent over last week that I finally got to analyzing). Do you have Mabel Ross’s little booklet ‘The Essentials of Yarn Design for Handspinners’? I came across it fairly early in my spinning life and it’s had a big effect on my development as a spinner. She gets very technical in her analysis of spinning and plying twist angle, and while a lot of it was over my head at the beginning, I find myself going back to it regularly and rereading. Like Abby, she asserts that you have a certain amount of wiggle room when it comes to over-plying - something like 20 percent or so - in which you won’t have bias in the knitted fabric. I’ve taken that theory to heart and (unless I’m working with a longwool like mohair or romney) I go overboard with the plying twist, usually adding 15 to 20 percent more plying twist than would be technically “balanced”.
I knit regularly with my handspun, and while I’ve never had a problem with biased fabric, I’ve just now realized that i’ve never actually made a little swatch like that and just laid it flat to dry. I’ll do that tonight and take pictures so we can discuss tomorrow. I have a particular skein in mind that I love the look and feel of, and that I know for a fact is well out of balance.
I love that you and Cheryl are having this discussion. You techno types can figure it out for the rest of us who just spin willy nilly.
As a new spinner, these “lessons” are invaluable! Thanks so much for posting them…
And the abysmal depths of my ignorance is revealed to me, ’cause I have almost no idea what you’re talking about.
LOL @ Carole. I’ll be a willy nilly spinner too.
I’m curious how you set the twist in the unbalanced yarn so that it hung straight. Did you weight the skein while it dried?
I love Heather’s comment! Very funny. Thanks for sharing your interesting experiment.
Very interesting! Thanks for the very clear photos. You have been very helpful for a beginning spindler and wanta-be wheel spinner.
Thank you for the visual confirmation of what I always suspected.
Great! I have a newly spun smallish skein of one ply that I don’t want to ply, but rather knit into something to see what it does. It’s overspun in spots, underspun in others… maybe 50 yards. I’m thinking a loose scarfy thing, see what happens, or a bowl that I will felt. Wondering what will happen with biased felted fabric…. It’s in colors I don’t especially like, so I’m leaning to the bowl.
Long ago, when I was teaching myself to spin, I put out a single ply, dyed it green with KoolAid, and proceeded to knit a sweater for my young nephew.
The whole thing went this way / and I have always plied my yarns since then.
I have to say that last picture is pretty cool, even though it means the yarn isn’t of much use.
I’m curious how you set your twist. Having just taken a weekend spinning class with Stephenie Gaustad who asserts pretty much the same thing about weaving with singles as warp (and possibly weft as well?), I’m curious what method you used. She had us set the twist over steam from an electric kettle but I haven’t yet tried to do anything with that skein of singles (which I only set part of anyway) so I don’t know if it would remain unbiased after being fabricated and then washed. I should experiment for myself I guess.