Inspired by old work

Taking out the yarn left overs from many years ago reminded me of the joy I derived back then from spindle spinning, especially yarn that I plied 'on the fly', and it has inspired me to take out the spindles.

I purchased some green gradient Merino last year at the NH Sheep & Wool and I'm spinning it on my Golding spindle.

As in 'the old days', I'm Navajo plying it and doing so 'on the fly'. Navajo plying goes by a few different names: N-plying, Navajo plying, chain plying. "Chain plying" is the most descriptive of the three, but not very exciting or colorful as the other two names if you ask me. It creates a 3-ply yarn. Chain plying "on the fly" is a way of spinning a single thread and plying it right away. Great for instant results. Navajo plying is super useful as a method for isolating colors in a multi color preparation.

I wind my singles temporarily at the bottom of the spindle until I've spun about 2 or 3 yards, then I wind it off the spindle onto my hand from whence I will ply it. (Clicking the picture will enlarge them.)

The following picture shows how the plying works. The "Single" is passed through the loop to form a new loop which causes 3 singles to lie next to each other. These three are spun counterclockwise to ply them together, and the process continues, creating an ongoing chain of large loops. I do like to create quite large loops, a yard long if possible.

I am planning to make a hat with this yarn when it is all spun up.

The Golding spindles are very beautiful but the one I have is heavy so as soon as this one is full I will switch to one of my Kunderts, my favorites of all, and they are very light.

Speaking of hats. There is still plenty of yards of old yarn left and I've picked some out for a hat. There may not be enough of these to knit the entire hat and I'll have to dig into the bag of scraps again. I'm sure something will work out. Here I am swatching for gauge: I hand painted the yellow/green and blue/purple silk/wool blend. It's a very soft, luscious yarn.

I've got more Hollyhocks than ever this year. This one is over 8 feet tall!