Ask Jacey: Should I spin and ply with the same whorl?

Hello, I would like to know if plying of yarn should be done with the same whorl that spinning was done. Do you recommend to ply at the same tension and twist, or do you recommend to add more twist or tension when plying? Thank you! ~ Tatiana

Hi Tatiana,

What a great question!

The answer is that you can but you don’t need to. In the past, wheels had more limited ratios than we enjoy today. If spinners wanted more ply twist than the twist they put into their singles, they’d just hold the yarn out of the orifice for a bit longer. If they wanted less ply twist, they’d move their feet slower and/or their drafting hands faster. However, with the huge array of whorl/pulley sizes and the addition of e-spinners on the market, most spinners don’t do this anymore – I know I don’t!

First let’s talk about worsted yarns (yarns you spin with no twist between your hands). A worsted single is really stable (it’s why we can have worsted singles yarns that never get plied). We don’t need the singles to have lots of singles twist. In fact, I like to spin my singles with a lower amount of singles twist and then give them extra ply-twist (taking it past the “balance” point). I find this gives me a soft yarn (because of the lower amount of singles twist) that still holds up well to wear and abrasion (because of the higher amount of ply twist). To that end, the whorl I ply on is usually smaller than the whorl I spun on. If my wheel was already on my smallest groove, I’ll move my feet faster or hold my plied yarn out from the orifice just a bit before I let it feed in.

The same is (kind of) true when it comes to woolen yarns (yarns you spin with twist between your hands) except that a woolen singles isn’t as stable and really needs to be plied to be a useful yarn. Woolen singles are generally softly spun, and they’re delicate in their unplied state. When I ply them, I usually put quite a bit more twist in the ply so once again I move my band to a smaller pulley (or turn up my e-spinner speed).

When it comes to tension/uptake when plying, I might increase my wheel’s uptake just a tiny bit but only because now it has to work harder since it’s pulling in twice the heft it pulled in before (the two singles plied opposed to just one single). But sometimes I don’t even do that. I generally adjust my tension based on the situation at hand and not any rules about what I’m doing at the time. I always want my wheel to take the yarn I offer it but never to pull against me. If it’s pulling and I can feel it pulling, I turn the tension down. If my yarn is lagging or sagging before it finally goes into the orifice, I’ll turn the tension up. I don’t like using my wheel’s tension to control twist amount or diameter (doing this usually leads me to very inconsistent yarn). Most often I want my tension to feel the same to me, as in, I don’t feel it either way.

In short, you can do whatever you like – there aren’t hard and fast rules in spinning. If you’re getting the yarn you like, you’re doing okay! However, if you’re not getting yarn that makes you happy, experiment with changing the amounts of singles/ply twist you use. Why not do a little test? Make four little 5–10 yard samples:

lower singles twist and higher ply twist (your fresh skein should have 1–2 twists in the Z-direction (to the right)

higher singles twist and lower ply twist (your fresh skein should have 1–2 twists in the S-direction (to the left)

The same (higher) amount of singles and ply twist (your fresh skein should hang in a perfect loop).

The same (lower) amount of singles and ply twist (your fresh skein should hang in a perfect loop).

See what yarn you like best, and it’ll give you lots of information going forward! You might find that you agree with me about less singles twist or that you disagree and want more than or the same singles twist as your ply twist. Any of those scenarios is fine! It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the same yarn that I like or that your spinning friends like; it’s most important that you find the yarn you love!

Want Jillian or Jacey to take a stab at your question? Tell us what you want to know:

Ask Jacey and Jillian!