I tried plying today with more attention to balance and it turned out wonderfully! I’ve got a small skein (<10 yds) that looks to be perfectly balanced.

I spun up my merino top, let the very end ply back on itself while fresh, and then snipped that bit off before winding up my andean bracelet. Since the first half of the single was fresh and the second was at least a day old, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do this by eye (nevermind all the places that twist creeps out after the plying process). So instead I paid close attention to making the plying twist look exactly as twisty as the small sample I’d made. I also had the good luck of having colours melded together in the transitions so I could use those to try to check if the fibres were ‘straight’ again.

Voila! It worked!

Tomorrow I’ll be working up a longer, thicker single from the same merino to see if I can spin something thicker *and* with less twist and still have it turn out alright. We’ll have to wait and see :)