For my next alpaca project I want to try a plied yarn. This means spinning the singles thinner and plying three singles together. I am leaning toward knitting, so I an spinning my singles in a Z twist, and plying in S twist. This seems to work best for knitting (it is the way most yarns are machine made). If I were going to nålbind, I would switch the twist order, especially for the York stitch. It really is fascinating the way the twist effects the final product.

Since I am planning to knit, I made up some test swatches with various yarn scraps I had, as well as the new 3-ply alpaca. All the yarn was spindle spun, some with merino wool, some with alpaca, some plied, some singles. I found the the yarn with a Z twist knit up with uneven stitches, resulting in a fabric that doesn’t look balanced. The S twist, however, knits up nicely and the “V” of each stitch is balanced. The US 8 needles were a little small for my chunky 3-ply alpaca, and although the swatch was soft, it was not nearly as sumptuously soft as the swatch knit on US 10 needles. And oh is that last swatch soft; like cuddle on the couch, swatch against the cheek, sucking on your thumb kind of soft. It literally makes people say “oooo” when they hold it.