Two-ply vs. three-ply

The doggy rug, which hasn't been touched for a long time, was originally a "learn to spin" project. So I tried different things with my spindles and spinning wheel and incorporated them into the rug. One thing that surprised me was that a three-ply yarn knitted to apparently the same gauge as a two-ply yarn. But my yarn was slubby, lumpy and uneven, and I tried different stitches too, so there is some uncertainty there. I'm testing that hypothesis now by spinning two-ply and three-ply yarns, and when I get to that rug again I'll use the same stitch so I can really tell what's going on. So here they are, two-ply and three-ply. There is no obvious difference.

       

And yet, my spinning wheel does not like three ply yarns. I have to stop often and wind the yarn myself, because the yarn gets stuck in the flyer and is not properly wound. Also, Navajo plying is pretty rough on the hands.

Buuuuut... a long time ago I came across a humongous crochet hook that came with many knitting supplies I got in an estate sale. I didn't know what to do with it, and for a while I put a cd "whorl" on it and used it as a splindle, but now I found a new use for it: Assisted Navajo plying. Nice!



And since the yarn winder was out, I took the opportunity to wind my Glampyre yarn into a center pull ball:

       

That's 100g of Mama-E's sock yarn, 100% merino. It makes a huge center pull ball that looks quite unstable, like it's about to fall apart into a messy tangle. That means I need to knit it right away don't you agree? Plus, I finally need to come to terms with the fact that I don't like pink. I've been in denial, trying to finish a couple of pink things for months and I hadn't realized it yet. I still mean to finish the pink Kiri and the pink Lacy Tee, because I do look good in pink, but I definitely need some green and purple in front of my eyes right now. I don't know about the orange. It does pull together the green and the purple, and I'm curious to see how it knits up.

Here's a short preview of what I'll do with that center-pull ball




Yeah, socks on two circs. Two socks at a time. With a figure eight toe (which I had attempted before without success). If I were smarter I would not try three new things at once, but I'm not smart, I'm adventurous.

I worked a litte more on the Lacy Tee in spite of its pink-ness, but there's only six rows between the last picture and its current state. I'll post another picture once I reach the armholes.