I’m thrilled to say I’ve spun the singles of the Dragon Yarn and it’s ready for my first attempt at Navajo Plying! This is a bit of a new project which has been on Instagram and Twitter before, but I don’t believe I’ve talked about it on the blog yet, so bear with me if you know some of this stuff already. It has been mentioned in passing on the podcast.

Dragon Yarn

I bought the roving for this yarn from Hulu in September. I was drawn by the way the purples, pinks and blues blended into each other, and knew it had to be mine when I saw it! The fibre company is Manos del Uruguay, and the colourway I purchased was 8931 Wildflowers. You get 100 grams, and it is pure, fine, 100% gorgeous merino that has been handpainted.

It reminded me of a dragon I painted as a teenager, which I unfortunately no longer have – hence the name. I started spinning it on a Lacis drop spindle at Knit and Stitch, which I also bought from Hulu for £11.95. Unfortunately, this spindle and I did not get on very well – the whorl was far too heavy for the weight of yarn I wanted to spin, and I undid it all as soon as I got home and back to my wheel!

I have kept the spindle and am sure it will find a home with some other project soon.

Fast forward to this January and my resolution to do ten minutes of spinning every day. It took me just three days to finish all of the roving – and I’m incredibly thrilled with it! I’m going to be navajo plying to ensure the gradient comes out as it is dyed. I don’t know what yardage I will end up with, but hopefully enough for a cowl.

Navajo plying is a new technique to me, and I’m using the below video to learn how to do it. She recommends waiting at least a week after you have spun the single to let the twist relax a bit – so I’m impatiently waiting, and continuing on with Follow Me Down Cousin Jack in the meantime. Just in case you don’t know what navajo plying is, and don’t want to watch the video, it’s a method of plying a single together so that you end up with a three-ply yarn which follows any gradients that your single may have.

I should end up with a yarn that has the colour changes of my single, so the ‘dragon’ effect that I like so much is not lost.

I’ve been documenting some of my spinning on YouTube via the medium of time-lapse photography. You can find those on my channel here.

I’ll let you know how the plying goes!

Much love,

Corrie xx

I have posted links to products on the Hulu Crafts online store – I have not been asked to do this, but am merely friends with the owner and believe in supporting smaller companies! No gain is made from the sharing of this information.