I know it’s counterintuitive, but you want less twist in your singles for the 3-ply, to have the same twist angle as the 2-ply will. Think of it this way: you have 3 strands contributing twist to the plying – so the same TPI (twists per inch) in the 3-ply would result from singles with less twist in them - each single has to contribute less twist, since there are more of them. Oh, and … Mabel Ross, in The Essentials of Yarn Design
I have tried this out; I usually spin, these days, a fairly high-twist single for a nice bouncy round 2-ply. If I forget and spin the same single for a 3-ply, it seems a bit harsh to me, too high a twist angle for softness of the fiber to come through. So, I spin the 3-ply singles with a little less twist, to get the same bouncy round yarn I enjoy with my 2-plies.
Besides not needing as much twist in your singles for a 3-ply (so you can regain some of the time spent spinning that third single), another benefit of a 3-ply yarn is that it averages out the irregularities of the singles a bit better. In general, a 3-ply yarn looks more consistent than a 2-ply yarn from the same singles. Yeah, Murphy's Law can strike and there might be areas that magnify errors, but in general a true 3-ply hides more than it reveals. That's why the local county fair judge comes with an Ott light and a magnifying glass -- she knows this, too!
Of course, we can also work on making our singles more consistent, so that no matter how we ply our yarn, it will be consistent.
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Related Posts:
How do I spin thicker plied yarns?
How do you make a good looking 2-ply yarn?
How can I fix the twist in my 2-ply yarn?
How do I spin a more even single?
How much twist does singles yarn need?
How can I divide roving evenly for a 2-ply or a 3-ply?
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© 18 February 2010 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://www.askthebellwether.com/