In Which the Pirate Spins Sock Yarn.

Current spinning project: SOCK YARN. I’m spinning eight ounces of superwash Targhee from Hipstrings in the “Invincible” colourway, which is burgundies and pinks and teals. This is what it looked like before I started:

This post on Ask the Bellwether says, “For a three-ply, I estimate my singles at twice the WPI of the result; so for a result of 14 WPI 3-ply, I’d spin the singles at 28 WPI.” Well, I’d like a fingering weight yarn, which is between 19-22 WPI… so I am aiming to spin these singles at 40 WPI. Super fine! Here’s a bobbin full of singles and my chain-ply plyback test, with a penny for scale. It sure does look like sock yarn thickness.

The two braids of fibre were dyed in the same pattern of colours. My first thought was to spin each, chain-ply, and get stripy yarn – but then I thought about the impossibility of getting the stripes to match up perfectly. Instead, I split each braid into thirds and spun those pieces end to end, then plied them together. Ultimately this should result in softly striped fraternal, rather than identical, socks.

Here’s the first bobbin of plied yarn, again with a penny for scale: