# Do you distance ply, and or use bobbin winder?



## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

Up till now, have always plyed with yarns attached to wheel lazy kate, but tried distance plying, as it says in Alden Amos book, and it really evened out the twist. Do you do this? Also looking into a bobbin winder and storage bobbins- I believe Judith Mackenzie says "do this"- what have you learned about winding off the bobbin to a storage bobbin, then plying?


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

Here is a Rav link for the topic of rewinding bobbins
http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-daughters-of-judith/641395/1-25

and another about bobbin winders. I am going to get one, as I think it will really make a difference with novelty singles

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/spin-tech/1433287/1-25

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-daughters-of-judith/1845688/1-25

Am also going to rewind some over twisted, already plyed yarn that I did about a year ago and see if that evens out the twist....


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## susanne (Nov 4, 2004)

i always re-wind my bobbins and found that my yarn is much more even.
for color repeats it seems colors matching up better too.


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## InHisName (Jan 26, 2006)

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/the-cult-of-lendrum/1991636/1-25

So did what the post #11 said- used ball winder from several feet away to wind yarn onto tp tubes- It WORKS! Used some core spun singles- right from the wheel. The only down side is that the yarn has not been finished.


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## frazzlehead (Aug 23, 2005)

Only got one bobbin, got no choice but to wind off and ply!


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## PKBoo (Apr 10, 2008)

I have ALWAYS plyed off the attached Kate - ooops. Time to change that too.


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

I always wind off, but I also always ply from the ball.


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## Katherine in KY (May 11, 2002)

Judith will tell you that if you can spin all your yarn for a project, then mix the bobbins to ply to minimize any change there was in your spinning from the beginning to the end. In the best of worlds, she rewinds the bobbins onto other bobbins to also even out the twist. I've started doing more of that, and it really does make a difference, makes much more even yarn. She doesn't worry about having mulitple joins because she can make a perfect, un-noticeable join!


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## lambs.are.cute (Aug 15, 2010)

Interesting, I've never even thought about it. I've always wound off my bobbin and plied as soon as I had two bobbin full balls. I only have one small bobbin for my wheel so...... 
I use center pull balls and sit on on each side of me while I'm plying.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

I prefer a lazy kate, but dogs have chewed them up. I am now using the kate on the wheel and it is too close. But I like to store bobbins there to keep all the same wool in the same place.


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## sheepish (Dec 9, 2006)

I never heard the term "distance plying" but I guess that is what I do. I ply with the longest possible distance from the orifice. I use the kate at a further distance away. I figured out how to make a slight tension with cotton yarn and an elastic band. It helps to keep the plying bobbins moving evenly. I don't rewind the bobbins.

I only have a set of one size of bobbin for my main wheel, so I ply to and from those.

I don't store plyed yarn on a bobbin, but after it has been plyed and wet to set the twist, I store in a skein or sometimes a soft core ball.

On my other wheel, I only have one bobbin, so I wind singles off onto soft core balls and ply back onto the bobbin. I put the balls into containers set apart from each other so that they wont flip around on the floor and wrap on each other as I ply.


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