The Effects of Twist in Plying by Abby Franquemont

Jan 15, 2009
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To produce a desired yarn, many factors must be considered. The look and feel of a yarn can be greatly affected by the amount of twist in the singles and ply. To sample the effects of twist, I spun two skeins from Falkland wool top dyed with Jacquard acid dyes using low-water immersion, rinsed aggressively, and air-dried. Both were spun on the same wheel using the same drafting method, ratio, and take-up. “Dawn” is 254 yards long and weighs 2.125 ounces; “Violet” is 261 yards long and weighs 2.375 ounces. However, Dawn’s grist (or the relationship between the weight and length of the yarn) was 1,900 yards per pound (ypp) and the yarn measured 16 wraps per inch (wpi) and 5.5 twists per inch (tpi), while Violet had 1,700 ypp, measured 18 wpi, and 6 tpi. More plying twist meant that Violet had 11 percent more wraps per inch than Dawn. Put another way, Violet has a smaller diameter than Dawn.

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passionknit wrote
on Oct 4, 2009 3:17 PM

In the past I had been told about 1/3 of the twist was lost in singles when plying and to compensate for that by plying with a third more twist. I never knew how to figure that out.

Your explanation is like a recipe that I can follow and make adjustment and get closer to making the yarn intended for the project.

Not that i completely understand everything about twist now, but am developing a working understanding.