Nylon Many Ways, All Bad

Fiber Sample 4 ply yarn 4 ply detail Single ply yarn

This stuff is just horrible. There were many other small samples and a partial bobbin that I just pulled off in disgust. The fiber is not intended to be spun by itself, despite some people on eBay selling it as "faux cashmere." It's for blending with wool for sock yarns. There are two different kinds of fiber, one is very fine and crimpy and the other is thicker and smooth. They are about the same length, around 8cm or an average medium length wool.

For such a fine fiber, it is difficult to spin a tiny yarn. It just doesn't want to twist and if you put the slightest bit too much it starts to snarl. If you relax the tension, it starts to snarl. Do not try this on the ball winder, I don't even want to think about that.

The first yarn is a 4 ply from fairly thick singles. The finished yarn is about two wraps per cm, quite thick. And heavy, just like a longwool or mohair. That entire skein is only about 10m and is about 38g. I had to use the largest whorl of my slowest flyer, that I never use otherwise, and even then treadle slowly. Because of this, it was difficult to maintain a constant rhythm and there are a few thinner spots that end up overtwisted. I wound the single onto four paper quills and that went ok. But then I tried to set them up in the plying box. I couldn't even get the four ends together to start before they snarled into a disaster. Trying to untangle them only made them shed more. With a tight tension I wound the four ends together on an empty spindle and then twisted them from there. I still had to stick my fingers between the strands to get even tension on all four, and that made for another snarled mess as the extra length started to pile up behind my hand. It does come out soft, and looks fluffy with all those ends sticking out. But they pull out easily and shed all over everything.

The single was another attempt, the third actually. There was a second go on the 4 ply but I got so fed up with the thick single I pulled it all off and threw it away. This time I got the single finished, thinner than before. Parts of it are slightly overtwisted, which results in corkscrew snarls here and there, but the size is at least more even. I was planning to do an overtwisted two ply so I could then ply it again (a cabled yarn) but I was unhappy enough with it that I didn't want to continue. And even this single, which is clearly overtwisted in spots, sheds.

I don't have a picture of it, but I tried some very tiny yarn. I had to get to sewing thread size to not have it shed, and as soon as I got enough twist to hold it together, it started to make overtwist corkscrews. I still have to do some kind of synthetic yarn and there isn't much to pick from. Maybe next I'll try pillow stuffing.