With the standard Andean plying bracelet, it's fairly easy to turn your middle finger purple. You can alleviate that somewhat by winding on the front of your hand and being careful to leave a larger loop around your finger so as not to strangle it.
For some, that still doesn't (or, rather, grin, does) cut it. If you have some spare cash and a love of wood, there are formal tools such as the Handy Andy by Nancy's Knit Knacks. (See mine in use on How do you spin a batt?)Besides the Handy Andy, there's an informal method on the Rosemary Knits blog that is terrific. (I'm sure there's a word for these material-on-hand types of things -- would this be a MacGyver Plyer? LOL)
Basically, you stick a stick (pencil, pen, knitting needle, dowel, heck
a fork would work!) into a thick-ish paperback, and you wind around the
stick as if it were the finger stuck in the Andean wind-up.
When you're done, remove the stick, slide the bracelet from the book to
your wrist, and ply away! Look, no blue finger ;-)
For more on traditional Andean Plying, see this terrific article on plying by Abby Franquemont showing how Andean plying is used traditionally only to finish off the uneven length of two different balls of yarn!
Do you have a favorite MacGyver-of-spinning tool? Share it in the comments, email it, or contact me. Thanks!
