While I was spinning this yarn I sort of hated it. From start to finish it took close to 3 weeks. I had 240g of roving and I wanted to spin it all at once. I loved the colours, but I had never spun a 3-ply yarn before and wasn't super confident that I would be happy with the results, so the fact that I was spending so much time on it was worrying me. I just wanted to finish it so at least I would know if it was worth it or not. Well, now that I'm done and I can stand back and admire it I can safely say that I love it! Was it worth it? I don't know, I'll have to wait and see how it knits up before I know for sure if I'll be spinning many more 3-ply's.
I wanted to do a 3-ply for a couple of reasons, 1) I wanted to try and learn something new and 2) I had this notion that maybe I would knit myself a pair of amazing handspun socks and that a 3-ply yarn would be sturdier. As I was spinning away I changed my mind about the socks, it seemed crazy to spend so much time and effort on something that if loved and worn frequently, would inevitably get holes in them and be ruined! However, now that I'm done and I've calculated the yardage and realized that I have almost 800yds of fingering weight yarn I've changed my mind again and decided that not only will I knit myself a beautiful pair of socks, but since I have tiny feet I'll have plenty of yarn left over to knit a lovely shawl as well. So I get the best of both worlds! A pair of socks that will be fun but won't last forever, and a shawl that will be funky and will last for years.
197g: 792yds!!! That's more yardage than 2 skeins of Socks that Rock lightweight! I spun the singles as thin as I could and gave them quite a bit of twist. When plying I was very careful to make sure that there was plenty of twist to balance the singles and make for a sturdy and durable yarn, give my socks a fighting chance to last at least a couple of seasons! I gave the finished yarn a really good soak and then hung it from a doorknob with a can of tomatoes weighing it down to set the twist and that really worked! I dare say that it is a very balanced yarn.
One of my bobbins ran out before the other 2 when I was plying, that's why I have this 52g skein of Navajo plied yarn on top of my jumbo 3-ply skein.
I figured that since I was learning new skills I might as well try another spinning technique that looked really interesting and fun. Navajo plying did not disappoint! I watched this YouTube video than just dove in. It is so amazing to me that the same singles can combine to create such a different yarn. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this technique on future spinning projects.