Textured Yarn Tutorial: Adding Locks as an Intermittent Third Ply

When I started planning a handspun version of the Equinox Cowl by Sivia Harding (see Spin Off Winter 2025), I knew I wanted a yarn that was bulky, soft, balanced, and textured. I also wanted to make a yarn with some variability so that I wouldn’t have to be too fastidious in its making. Incorporating locks of wool, mohair, alpaca, and more, as we would an extra ply, is an easy way to add texture that is nicely secured within the yarn structure without very much fuss.

I used Bluefaced Leicester wool for both the smooth singles and the locks. Even though Bluefaced Leicester is considered a longwool, I think it is soft enough to be quite neck-worthy, but the staple length is generous enough to make plying the locks easy.[PAYWALL]

Spinning the Singles

For this knitting pattern, I would need a bulky yarn. I spun two bobbins of smooth singles with low twist. Before spinning, I did some very careful and thorough predrafting of the Bluefaced Leicester combed top to assist with the goal of a thick, low-twist singles. My goal in the predrafting was to create a ribbon of fiber (about an inch wide, but very thin) with no twist in it.

Bluefaced Leicester top in Lake Superior from Lisa Souza before and after predrafting (top), and Bluefaced Leicester locks from Cross Wind Farm before and after stripping them into fine bits (bottom).

I used my Lendrum folding wheel on the largest whorl, spinning the singles with Z-twist. In terms of drafting speed, I treadled twice for about 4 inches (10 centimeters) of drafting distance. I used a short-backward drafting technique.

Intermittent Third Ply

For the third ply, I used Bluefaced Leicester locks grown and dyed by Carol Densmore of Cross Wind Farm. Before plying, I carefully stripped the locks into quite thin bits, allowing for some variation in thickness. Bluefaced Leicester locks are my favorites for creating this yarn because they are pretty easy to separate into skinny sections while maintaining the lock structure.

I used my Louët S10 double-treadle wheel for plying because it has a good-sized orifice and a good-sized bobbin. I plied with S-twist, using the largest whorl and about 14 inches (36 cm) of drafting distance for four treadles.

During plying, I inserted a lock longitudinally (same orientation as the singles) into the yarn. I was purposely not consistent in the way I inserted the locks as I worked, sometimes inserting tip end first and sometimes inserting cut end first. I also allowed for variation in how much the ends of the lock were (or were not) captured fully by the singles. This created a varying amount of 3D texture in the yarn. To minimize the “pooling” of the locks in the knitted fabric, I varied the length of the two-ply sections between locks anywhere from 1 to 4 feet (about 30 to 120 cm).

It may seem as if the locks will not stay in place, but they will. It may also seem that the locks may not stay in place when you finish the yarn, but they will. Where the locks are added, there will be a visibly noticeable decrease in plied twists per inch, and the three-ply sections will be thicker than the two-ply sections. These features create part of the textural nature of the knitted fabric made from this yarn.

Finishing the Yarn

I wound the yarn into a skein and added figure-eight ties to keep it from tangling. I then placed it in warm to very warm water with some no-rinse wool wash. I let the yarn soak, without agitation, for 15 to 30 minutes. I gently squeezed out the water, then carefully wrapped the yarn in a towel to remove more water before hanging the yarn—without any added weight—until the yarn was dry.

I rewound the yarn on my clock reel so that I could easily determine the yardage. The finished skein was 120 yards (110 m) and weighed 3.8 ounces (108 g), resulting in an average grist of about 500 yards per pound.

I only measured the wraps per inch of the two-ply sections of yarn, getting a measurement of 8 wraps per inch—within the bulky range! The resulting yarn was also soft, balanced, and textured. Mission accomplished.

Give It a Try!

With two bobbins of singles on a lazy kate, begin making a traditional two-ply yarn. The front hand controls the twist entering the yarn, and the back hand maintains separation and even tension on the two singles. Make sure your wheel is adding plying twist in the direction opposite the twist of the singles. To begin adding texture, here is how I do it:

1) Stop treadling so that the wheel and flyer stop. (I pressed my big toe into the drive wheel, gently of course, to stop it.)
2) Insert a lock by placing either the cut end or the tip end between the two singles at the “V” where they become plied.

3) Start treadling so that the wheel and flyer rotate, allowing the lock to be captured by the singles. Try to avoid putting too much tension on the lock or it will not be captured easily. The temptation is to pull on the locks because of their lovely curliness. Try to maintain the same treadling and drafting rate when plying with the lock as a third ply as you use when plying just the two singles together.
4) Resume plying with just the two singles until you are ready to add another lock.
Repeat Steps 1–4, varying the distance between the locks if desired.

Resources

Cross Wind Farm, crosswindfarm.blogspot.com.
Lisa Souza Knitwear and Dyeworks, lisaknit.com.

This article was first published in Spin Off Winter 2025.

Amy Tyler lives in the northwest corner of the lower peninsula of Michigan, quite near Lake Michigan. She sometimes visits the upper peninsula to spend quality time near Lake Superior. She often finds inspiration from Michigan and its lakes for her spinning and knitting creations. Her website is stonesockfibers.com.