Saturday, August 28, 2021

Testing, 1, 2, 3, 4

 Sure there was the 5-ply, 1,000 ypp gansey yarn. There was also a 4-ply, 2,500 ypp "gansey" yarn. The last commercial relics of the finer yarn was Paton's BeeHive, 

Nevertheless, such yarns like BeeHive were used to knit fine ganseys, at gauges of 12 spi & 20 rpi.

I want to make and knit such yarns. I have been spinning worsted singles of 11,200 ypp, and am now in an evolution to ply such yarns. I wish I had a real teacher, then I could learn this much faster.

I am to the point where I am plying 10-gram samples, finishing the yarn and then knitting the samples into test swatches.


Plying worsted 4-ply, 2,500 ypp gansey yarn

Equipment is the "Racing Flyer" with DRS bobbin/ flyer whorl set at 17 tpi

The singles were spun at 17 tpi and ply twist is also 17 tpi.

Note the strand of black-  it is to facilitate counting twist in the yarn. The production yarn will be light blue comprised of navy blue Romney, with some white Suffolk blended in as I comb.

The test samples are 10-grams/ ~ 55 yards. These samples need to be scoured and dried before they can be knit - my steam blocking does not get me to knitable yarn. 

Production will produce balls of 30 grams/155 yards, which was the traditional weight of weight of balls of BeeHive.

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