The Effects of Twist in Plying Yarn by Abby Franquemont

To produce a desired plied yarn, many factors must be considered. The look and feel of a yarn can be greatly affected by the amount of twist in the singles and ply. To sample the effects of twist, I spun two skeins from Falkland wool top dyed with Jacquard acid dyes using low-water immersion, rinsed aggressively, and air-dried. Both were spun on the same wheel using the same drafting method, ratio, and take-up. “Dawn” is 254 yards long and weighs 2.125 ounces; “Violet” is 261 yards long and weighs 2.375 ounces. However, Dawn’s grist (or the relationship between the weight and length of the yarn) was 1,900 yards per pound (ypp) and the yarn measured 16 wraps per inch (wpi) and 5.5 twists per inch (tpi), while Violet had 1,700 ypp, measured 18 wpi, and 6 tpi. More plying twist meant that Violet had 11 percent more wraps per inch than Dawn. Put another way, Violet has a smaller diameter than Dawn.