Archive of Thread: Combining strands of yarn Back

4 years ago
Hi All, my name is Jacqui. I'm not a new machine knitter but I dont have a lot of experience either.

My question is using cobweb weight yarns.  I inhereted a fair few cones of very fine pure wool, I would need 4 strands to make a fingering weight wool.  I dont have four cones of each colour, I'm going to need to wind it off and then combine it.

I had a little try, but it seems to create issues of the yarn feeding at slightly different speeds.  I know that you can stack cones, if I made say 4 cakes could I stack them and feed them up one through another?

Or could I make blanks - as in make two huge swatches of 2 strands and then knit from two of these.  I often knit straight from a failed garment - just pull out lots of lengths periodically - without frogging and rewinding.

I'd rather donate the yarn than have to now buy a yarn twister. Its pretty manky and dusty anyway.

4 years ago
I am not a big fan of using multiple strands of yarn  because of the difficulties you mention and the fag of having to keep winding off cakes but "industrial yarn" is often available very cheaply so it's tempting!  You mention the yarn feeding at differing speeds and this is particularly a problem if you have to unravel some knitting and then re-knit the combined yarns.

Using a yarn stack and feeding each strand through the cone above- is one way of easing the problem.  You can buy purpose-built stacks or just use crates or boxes.  Threading the yarns in this way does help to keep the colours mixing in an even way.  Another solution - and one which I prefer if using several strands of the same colour - is to use a 4-way yarn mast or 2 normal yarn masts and thread each strand separately..

Many, many moons ago I had a yarn twister but it was not at all satisfactory.  I don't know if they have improved any latterly.

Jenny.
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4 years ago
I use multiple strands all the time. Most of my yarns are of the industrial type and I find it not only necessary to get the weight I need, but it can be quite entertaining. Naturally, the more strand you have, the more possibility something will go wrong. I just keep an eye on them while they are feeding through the yarn mast. I'm not a super speedy knitter, so that helps as well.

Like Jenny said, a yarn stack can work well. I probably wouldn't try running the strands through "cakes" because then you have the potential for a real mess. I also had less than wonderful results with a yarn twister (more work than it was worth). I actually enjoy the way the colors flop around and do their own thing when using multiple colors. I currently have a five strand piece on the machine ( a man's sweater in grey and black wool). It results in a rustic, non fussy sort of look. But it's not for everyone I suppose. I don't end up with too much color pooling, so I'm happy with the results. Play with your yarns and see what is going to please you the most.

4 years ago
Thanks all, I had success by winding it into cakes - wind two ends, wind another two ends, then wind them both together THROUGH my yarn mast. That seems to keep an even tension on the yarn so it will feed off nicely from one big cake.  Unfortunately there are spots on the cones where the yarn just breaks - its very old and degraded so still not sure if I can use it.