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| Two 2-ply splits from a four-ply yarn |
Yarn in matching color is always useful to hem a sweater, sew down a neck or seam. Color combos of yarns held together create beautiful segues and ombrés.
Both these tricks go better with thinner yarns, and that's today's post: harvesting thinner strands of yarn by UN-spinning, for utility or color work. It isn't hard, but a few tricks with weight and gravity help tame kinking and tangling, those enemies of splitting.
Yarn is spun by twisting together strands of fiber. A single strand of twisted yarn is a "ply." Many popular yarns are called "two-ply" or "four-ply" because they are made of two- or four plies twisted together. All this twisting--first each ply separately, then all the plies together--stores a great deal of energy in the yarn, energy that needs to be subtracted so the unplied yarn lays smooth.
Geek Note: This linked photo shows some plied yarns are made of other plied yarns. Further, number of plies does not correlate to the overall thickness of the yarn, because any one ply can be thick or thin.)
Some silky yarns let you simply pull plies out, but sticky wools need help. This post shows splitting a sticky 4-ply wool into two thinner 2-ply lengths, and single plies can be split out this way, as well. Weights are used to subtract twist, an exactly opposite process to spinning, where a weighted drop spindle adds twist.
Materials:
--A length of yarn. If this length is your height or less, work directly with the two ends. If this length is longer than you are tall, maybe make the yarn up into a mini-hank, as shown in this post. There is also a video of how to do this. This kind of mini-hank easily center-pulls, but does not unwrap from the tail end. Alternatively, simply snap a rubber band around a small butterfly of yarn.
--If the length you want is longer than you are tall, a staircase is handy.
--Three crochet hooks, these are the weights. Alternative weights include binder clips or any tall, narrow, not-too heavy kitchen utensils, wooden spoons, perhaps, or chopsticks.
Weights
You could attach the weights to the yarn using regular knots, but easiest is with a slip knot, so here's a quick refresher.
A slip knot's advantage is how it pulls out of the split yarn at the end, leaving no trace. A regular knot works too, but then you have to unpick the knot or cut it off.
Set up
Start by splitting out several inches of yarn as shown below. If splitting a short length, it doesn't matter which end you split. If using a mini-hank, split out the center-pull end.
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| This yarn is unspun by twisting clockwise. But, some yarns require to be untwisted counter-clockwise. Within seconds of starting, direction becomes obvious. |
There are three ends: the tail end of the yarn to be unspun, as well as the two splits. Using slip knots (or regular knots) attach a crochet hook to each 2-ply split. To the other end of the yarn length, slip-knot the third hook. Again, the direction of the slip is away from the tail, so as weight comes on, the knots tighten.
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A longer length of yarn is being split here, so excess is stored out of the way in a mini-hank to prevent tangling, with additional lengths pulled out as needed. For splitting a shorter amount, weight set up is the same, but no need to make up a mini-hank. |
At the top of a staircase, toss the whole assembly over the edge, keeping hold of the 2-ply splits. With a split hanging from each hand, and the unspilt yarn dangling in the middle, keep untwisting by pulling the halves apart gently. Use a forefinger to break loose any wooly bits sticking together. Hold the yarns far enough apart so they don't tangle. For longer lengths, the video shows how a mini-hank is useful: it stays compact and together, but easily center-pulls additional lengths as needed. For a yarn butterfly rubber-banded together, pull lengths out from under the rubber band. At the end, haul up the separated strands, remove the hooks and the slip knots come out easily.
The video shows two splits. each twisting in an opposite direction from the main ball. All that twisted-in energy coming out, without tangling or kinking.
Use
As running yarn. Splitting yields two lengths of thin yarn, each as long as the original: a four-foot length yields two splits, four foot each. Felting or otherwise joining these together yields a double-length--an eight foot strand. Therefore, untwist a length only half as long as needed, then join the two halves.
This thinner yarn will be more fragile, but, like other fragile yarns (e.g.: Shetland, Lopi) gains strength when doubled back up via knitting or crocheting. Therefore, splits are usually strong enough for utility use--in three-needle bind off, for example, or a slip-stitched (crocheted) seam. Just go easy with the tension, especially around the felted join.
As sewing yarn, split yarn is obviously fragile. First, it is thinner, and second, it becomes somewhat unspun--once separated out of the main ball, the fibers are not as tightly packed together. When using thinner yarn for sewing (e.g.: mattress stitch, hemming or buttons) split out short lengths: shorter than for thread. Also, push the needle through (perhaps with a thimble) rather than pulling on the needle. Shorter lengths + less pulling = less stress.
Segues in color knitting or ombrés. Going beyond utility, a pretty trick with splits is holding two different-color strands together for segues. Just a few rows or rounds in two-colored splits blurs the line between stripes in different colors, especially useful with gradient sets.
A more intense use is to create ombrés by working mixed splits close together, as with this letter "B."
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| Ombré created by working rows in different color splits. Where there is only one color, two splits of that color were used. |
(For more about knitting words and letters, there is a whole post.)
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Edit, a few days after posting.
Originally, I wrote that for large amounts of thinner yarn, it would be best to acquire it some other way. Meanwhile, a reader sent interesting feedback to TECHknitting's Ravelry forum. In their projects, they routinely split out large amounts of yarn. How-to here, follow-up here.
--TK
Other posts about yarn handling:
Yarn organization for color knitting
Quickly unkinking yarn with a steam iron (video)
Center-pull balls of yarn, wound up by hand (with video)
Winding a Skein into a ball of yarn (with video)
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