Remember this tight, wrongly-plied mess from the other day? Now that I’ve read most of an actual book on spinning, I realize I did just about everything wrong in making this poor yarn. It was top blended from yale and merino, meaning it had super-short, even fibers – not the type of thing that you try to tear of great chunks of and pre-draft for thickish singles. If I had another one of these, I’d probably tear the top into strips and spin it fine, or repeat my top-into-rolags trick if I really wanted something thick and fast. As it was, I spent the whole time fighting with it, which just made me hate it.
What you see is a yarn in need of rescue.
It took a surprisingly and gratifyingly short amount of time to put it through the wheel, re-twisting it in the right direction. My camera is in serious need of a tune-up and a lens cleaning (also a lens cap), but you can still easily see how plump and comfortable the correctly plied yarn looks in comparison.
On a whim, I decided to stick with my original plan of cable plying. That means that I took the two-ply, and plied it on itself, back in the original direction that I spun it. In laymans terms: I made four strands, then twisted two together, then the other two together, then after that, twisted the two two-strand strings together. You can see it blurrily deconstructed below.
The result is pretty cool looking – The individual plies look diagonal when they are just twisted together one-on-one, like a rope. But then when you twist those two together, the two-plies are diagonal, but the original singles are going parallel to the yarn. I tried to balance the last round of plying to maximize this effect.
I ended up with about 100 yards of what must be a chunky weight. I think the final construction of the actual yarn is so interesting that I am loathe to actually knit it into something. It’s a little heavy, and not quite interesting enough, to just wear the hank as a necklace, though I’m tempted. Anyone know a simple, open pattern for a piece of neckwear that just shows off yarn? I have a couple ideas, but they both involve a crochet hook, which fills me with fear and insecurity. But I’ll do what I have to do. For the yarn, you know. For the yarn.
Osborn Fiber Studio 
yes it looks so much better! You know, I have a few pieces of swatches, decorative squares and such that decorate my walls….just as much Art Work as my paintings that are framed. You could just do that.
Another idea: short fingerless thick gloves for the winter. Or for goodness sake, so what I do all the time, use it with another chunky yarn to have enough to make proper fingerless gloves or a hat or a scarf.
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