Holly, The first word of your paragraph is key in your analysis of the yarn, "assuming". The quick, fast way of being sure, is to sample and wet the skein. It doesn't have to be 3 or 4 ounces. I've done it with less than a dozen strands. Why take the chance on visual "error" when a wet/dried skein will tell you every time.
BTW, yarns with bamboo in them react all together differently than other cellulose fibers or protein fibers and when mixed together, follow the bamboo even when there is 60% wool in the yarn. Gail -----Original Message----- >From: Holly Shaltz <ho...@shaltzfarm.com> >Sent: Mar 25, 2010 7:11 AM >To: fibernet@yahoogroups.com >Subject: Re: [fibernet] Re: & I need plying info > >Assuming each of the five singles are the same >thickness and have about the same amount of twist >in them, it's not necessary to wet and dry them >after plying to find out if the plying twist is >balanced or not. Just look (with a pick glass if >necessary, 10X magnification) at the individual >fibers within the singles. If those fibers are >running parallel to the length of the yarn, it's >balanced. If they slant in one direction or >another, then it needs more or less plying twist >to bring them into that straight up-and-down >with-the-yarn position. > >For details, see: <http://hjsstudio.com/balance.html> > >It works for any yarn where the individual plies >all have about the same amount of twist and >thickness. Fiber content doesn't matter, although >of course the fiber content will affect the >performance of the finished yarn, whether balanced >or not. > >It also works for cabled yarns, there's just the >extra step of *over* plying singles, then plying >the plies, but you still aim for the fibers in the >singles to be parallel with the final yarn. >Doesn't work for a lot of novelty plying, as those >by definition in many cases are meant to be >working with varieties of twist, so something will >always be not balanced in the final yarn, though >hopefully not so unbalanced it's not usable. > >Holly
