Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Tour de Fleece Update - Day 12 - Higher Ratio Heaven

Not too much to update you on today.  I decided to Navajo ply it and tried out the next smallest ratio I have on my wheel for the first time.  Basically, if you are looking at the middle smaller picture, I moved the drive band (the white string) from the bigger whorl (which is behind it in the picture) to the middle whorl.  By doing this, the flyer spins more times per time I treadle, basically adding more twist to the yarn with less effort.  Neat huh? 


Having the wheel set on the higher ration actually made plying the yarn much easier for me than it has even been before.  Until tonight, every time I plied treadling would become harder and harder as I got more and more on the bobbin as I plied.  I haven't quite figured out why this happened, but by setting the wheel on the smaller whorl, I avoided that problem until the bitter end of the single.  At that point, I really think the problem was that I was trying to put more yarn on the bobbin than could reasonably fit, so I think the flyer was catching and causing some drag that way.

Other than finishing up that yarn, I worked on another repeat of my Mystery Summer Wrap knit-a-long.  It's coming along nicely, but it's not a travel project, so the going is slow.  But it will be worth it.  I'm hoping to finish at least one 21 row repeat tomorrow night after my class, but well see how I feel.  

Hope everyone has a good night and enjoyed the bit of a break from the heat (if not one from the humidity).

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