Cabled Yarn

I've been fascinated by cabled yarns since a post early last year from the Yarn Harlot.  I've sort of played with it a couple of times without really knowing what I was doing.  So Thursday I decided it was the day to make a serious effort.  I find myself with 3 colors of Merino - plum, chartreuse and teal.  I took 1/2 ounce of the plum and teal and 2 half ounce sections of the chartreuse and started spinning.  My current favorite spinning book, The Intentional Spinner by Judith MacKenzie McCuin, has quite a good description of cabled yarns and step by step instructions.

The idea at its simplest is to spin 4 singles with extra twist, make 2 2-plies with extra twist, then cable (ply) the 2 plied yarns together.  Here's what I started with:

I spun each color onto a bobbin.   From my little experimentations, I knew that the instructions to add extra twist were important.  Since it was only half an ounce, it spun up pretty quickly.

Next I plied the plum and chartreuse then the chartreuse and teal.  You can get an idea from the ends pictured here.  I really can't stress enough that you need lots of energy in the plies.  Judith MacKenzie McCuin stresses the need for this extra twist and recommends making 2 passes at the plying.  That is, ply it the way you normally would for a balanced yarn then pass it through again to add the extra twist.  I didn't do that but would next time.

Once you have the 2 two-plied yarns, you simply cable them together.  Instructions said to make sure your wheel is set to feed in quickly because you're not going to ply it really.  All the twist you need is already there, you just have to let the two pieces "snap" together and feed it in quickly.  It kind of seems like magic the way it goes together.  Sort of like knitting the Elizabeth Zimmerman baby surprise jacket once you sew those 2 seams together.  Then it looks like this:

You can see it better if you click on it for a larger image.  I was originally just going to use the 2 greens but found the plum and thought it would be good to have that deeper tone.  I wound up with about 92 yards of pretty sturdy worsted weight yarn that I have no idea what I'll do with.  I think it might be interesting in a woven item.  Might have to pull out the old Bekah rigid heddle loom.  Hummmm....  We'll see.

When all else fails, read the directions

I love the Yarn Harlot’s blog. I quite enjoy starting my day as my computer is booting up sharing a little visit to see what’s happening in the Yarn Harlot’s world.

However, I have a little bone to pick with Ms. Harlot. Just a little one but here it is.

On a recent post, she was experimenting with some fiber she wanted to use on a project. She talked about her plans and experiments with the fiber and why she was deciding on one spinning method over another. Very nice. Very informative. But then she blithely mentions she thought she might cable ply it but I think, I can’t remember all the details, I think she decided against it because it didn’t bring out the colors of the fiber the way she wanted. I think that’s what happened but it’s not really important. What’s important is that she introduced me to something I’d never heard about before – cable plying. She did, however, mention it in the same breath as 3 and 4-ply. Breezy. Just like that.

So how hard could it be. You spin 4 singles (whichever direction you choose). You 2-ply 2 plies (the opposite direction of the singles). You ply the 2-plies together, in other words you cable them (in the direction of your singles). How hard could it be.

Ms. Harlot, I appreciate that you share both your fiber joys as well as your fiber pains and usually I find your blog very informative and fun. However, last night when I ended up with singles left over on 2 bobbins from a worsted 3-ply I was finishing up, I thought I’d try it. Singles. Ply. Cable. Right?

How shocked was I when I ended up with an overtwisted muddled, mess? Shocked and dismayed. But a little wiser. There’s more to this than meets the eye, I thought.

I let a ton of twist out of the yarn since it was only about 4 yards long and it’s pretty but very loose. I was determined to do better.

In the time honored tradition of when all else fails, read the directions, I went on Ravelry and found a post about this very problem in the Spin Tech group. One of the best things about Ravelry is never being alone with your fiber problems again. I love that. There was some explanation about the fact that you should spin your singles normally then totally overtwist your 2-ply. That way when you do the cabling, it will balance the yarn and “snap” together. “Snap” is the actual word used by Judith McKenzie MacCuin in her splendid and wonderful book, “The Intentional Spinner,” when talking about cabled yarn.

So I got out some generic roving I love to work with and spun away. I got 2 2-plies done and added what I thought was a ton of twist. Evidently even that wasn’t enough because this is what it did:

One thing I think I need to change is to set my wheel to take up the yarn much more quickly when I’m doing the cable part. That would mean less twist in the cabled yarn before it goes onto the bobbin. More experimenting is in order but I’ll be traveling the next week. I’ll see how it goes with a drop spindle.

So, thank you Ms. Harlot for sharing with me a new concept in spinning. For that, I’m grateful. For making it look so easy, not so much!