That there is such a thing as navajo 4 ply? Yeah, I didn’t either until recently. Of course, once I read about it, I determined I’d need to try it as soon as possible.
The concept is simple. You chain ply while holding a separate single at the same time and plying it in. I decided to try it with my saxon wool spin. I’d spun forever on the singles, as they drafted out quite thin. On Sunday I had time to ply on my wheel.
The concept may be simple. The execution a bit more like spinning performance art. Slightly pointless but pretty cool. It all goes well if you can set the separate single to the side, away from the single that you are chain plying. If they mingle, things get ugly quickly and there is really no returning from it. Suddenly it seems more like auto wrapped art yarn.
I was able to estimate fairly well though, as to how fast my chain ply single was being used up, and toward the end, I could see I’d have a ton left over of the separate single. So I just switched the single I was chain plying toward the end, and ended up with less than half a yard of leftover singles. That was amazing.
I really am not sure that I’ll try this little trick again, but it was fun to experiment with. The resulting yarn really isn’t the prettiest. It isn’t terribly well spun. But it is soft and I like the natural color and I am very glad I gave it a try.
I now have 212 yards of 4 ply (or 2 ply since one is chained?) and a new trick under my belt.











