Plying Help: 4 Ways to Splice Your Singles

The Problem: Let’s say you are spinning for a large project, you’ve spun five or six bobbins of singles, and you are set to ply a three-ply yarn. As you ply along, happily watching your lovely yarn pile up on the bobbin, one of the three bobbins runs out of singles. Do you have to break the other bobbins and stop—nope! You need to splice your yarn.

Splice means to unite or combine. In spinner’s speak, it’s how we often describe adding in a new single during plying.

New spinners often have questions about this important part of successful plying, while experienced spinners often have one go-to method. However, a wool spinner might find themselves stumped when splicing cotton or linen. And some joins work better for knitting than weaving, for example. Here are four common methods and tips for putting them to use.

1. Basic Splice

This is the first splicing method I learned, and it is what I most commonly see modern spinners using as I travel around the country.[PAYWALL]

First, lay the fluffy tip of the new single into the plying zone. The goal is for the fibers at the very end of the tip to be ready for the ply twist to enter.

As you allow the ply twist to enter the new single, it will smooth right in place.

Sometimes, the tip will not behave and pokes out of the yarn (below). This might be because the tips were not within the plying zone as the twist entered, or you might be working with a coarse fiber that has a mind of its own.

No worries if you see this happen! While keeping the forward pinching fingers in place to control the twist, use your other hand to give that single a gentle backwards tug to nestle the tip down into the already plied yarn.

Pros

• It’s fast and easy when you get the hang of it.
• It works really well for wool, but it can be used effectively for any fiber.
• When done well, knitters and crocheters will not even notice the splices when working.

Cons

• This splice may not be smooth enough for weaving or embroidering, depending on the amount of abrasion applied.

2. Seamless Splice

This splicing method takes more practice, but I love it for nonfelting fibers (cotton, flax, etc.) and weaving yarns. The video below is included in my How to Spin on a Charkha course. Each charkha spindle is small but they can be quickly joined end-to-end to create hundreds of yards of seamless singles. You can do the same thing when plying any type of fiber on wheel, espinner, or spindle! (The splice happens at about the 2 minute mark.)

Pros

• This technique works for any type of spun fiber—felting, nonfelting, elastic, nonelastic.
• The join is seamless, and when done well, is less likely to abrade.

Cons

• This technique can be fussy when you are getting used to it.
• The cotton in the video is a short-staple fiber spun with high twist. With lower twist singles and/or silky fibers, you might need to splice a longer section.

3. Wet Splice

This politely named technique is otherwise known as a spit splice. The idea is that two loose ends of feltable fibers are overlapped, exposed to moisture, heat, and agitation. The quickest way to make this happen is to lick the end of one singles (or demurely moisten with water), overlap it a few inches with the other singles and then rub the overlapping ends between your palms to create heat and agitation.

Once the two ends are lightly felted, carefully ply over that section, allowing the ply twist to compress the fibers.

Pros

• Quick and easy.
• If done well, this is a fairly smooth, secure splice.

Cons

• Only works for easily feltable protein fibers.
• This method can leave you with a splice that is secure but not as smooth as the seamless splice.
• The act of spitting on our yarn and rubbing vigorously seems an odd thing to when in the company of our nonfiber friends. (Your mileage may vary.)

4. Ugly Knot Splice

While it might offend some principled spinners, knots can be used for splicing. The usefulness of this method really depends on your end use. In my own work, I generally only use knots when I intend to cut them out later when I’m working with the yarn. In this case, the bigger and uglier the knot, the more likely I am to find it as I wind it into a ball.

I also often spin yarn for sewing and embroidery. For that use, I am planning to cut my yarn every few feet anyway. So, having a knot or two in a hank of handspun is not a problem, and I’d rather not spend the time making a careful splice. Another time you might use a big ugly knot is if you are spinning a series of samples and would like to clearly see where one begins and the previous ends so you can cut them apart later.

This big tangle will easy to catch when I'm stitching. I'll simply cut it out and start working, rejoining as usual.

Pros

• This is the fastest splice—quick and dirty.
• For some uses, this fast and easy splice might be the most efficient use of time.

Cons

• These knots could loosen later and cause catastrophe if they end up in the middle of a warp or knitted into a sweater or sock.
• Your spinner friends might look at your finished skein and raise their eyebrows.

There are so many great ways to splice and join our yarns for different uses and spinnerly preferences! Do you have faves that are not on the list? Drop us a line at [email protected]! We always love hearing your best tips.

— Kate