# Thread Plying - Art yarn



## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

Here are some pics of a thread-plied thick and thin art yarn. The white or cream colored one is 45% apricot mohair, and 55% white Romney wool. The gray ones are Australian Border Leicester wool and they worked up differently because the mohair made the roving slipperier for drafting. You spin the singles thick and thin, thin with slubs really, and you ply it with thread. You can use decorative thread or polyester embroidery thread, which is what I used. I also did some with white silk thread.


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

Here is the link at Amazon to Lexi's art yarn how-to book. This is the original "bible" of art yarns, and the one by Interweave is junk in comparison.

http://www.amazon.com/Intertwined-H...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282964571&sr=8-2


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

Wow! That is very inspiring.  
Thank you for the pics.

I love your yarns! I have been collecting up some crochet thread and
other small spools of pretty thread from thriftstores, for 'someday'.

Just went through my stash today and organised it.
I even asked myself why I had some of those things. This post reminds me why!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Leslie that looks really nice.

How do you secure the thread at the ends of the skeins? Do you have a problem with the the thread unwinding or separating from the wool singles?


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## MullersLaneFarm (Jul 23, 2004)

This technique is also a great way to add beads (strung on the thread) to your yarn or to secure other items. To secure other items, let's say a small feather, hold the feather on the yarn and the thread at a right angle to the yarn/feather. Allow the thread to wrap around the base of the feather a number of time to secure it (then move the feather out of the way so you don't continue to ply it into the yarn).

Marchie, to secure the thread at the end, I do what I normally do at the end of yarn ... make a ____ knot ... can't remember the name of it! ARGH! You know that knot you use as your first crochet or knit stitch .... yeah, that one!


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

Slip knot?


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

I do not tie the thread at either end of the yarn. I tie the thread onto the leader with a half hitch or whatever you call a simple half knot, so it can be undone later. I tie on the yarn, and begin plying, holding the yarn core fairly straight, and let the thread wrap around it as it sucks into the flyer. At the end of the skein I leave the thread longer than the yarn core, like a tail. It doesn't seem to come undone afterwards at all, really. I don't tie knots in the skein ends, ever. One thing I do do, is to spin the beginning and ending foot of yarn thin with a good amount of twist in it, and the thread wraps a lot around it, so it has a good hold.

I am knitting the Grove In The Autumn cape with sleeves, a pattern I bought on Ravelry, with this yarn. My gauge is different, so I am modifying the pattern some to fit me. I bought clay that you bake in the oven in matching colors to make the button for this cape, and for some other projects.


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

WIHH,

I'm not going to any wool festivals this year, sorry. Maybe next year. I've got a pyro event to go to and an orchid festival in Chicago-land, and that's where I'm spending my money right now. I am going to bring home some miniature orchids, I think. I have 11 orchids now and love them but want small ones for my Victorian wire plant stand. 

Save your scraps and fuzzy nubs and fancy threads, they all make neat yarns. You can even cut up fabric, and spin it into the yarn. I am going to do this with some pure angora yarn that the moths cut up for me a bit. I'll finish their work with scissors, I guess. I want to salvage it somehow and this seems like a good way to recycle it.


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