Extreme Plying

This weekend, with the help of a Google search and some how-tos, I picked up a new skill: Andean plying. For those who don't spin, Andean plying is a neat way to turn a single skein of handspun into a single skein of two-ply handspun, using nothing more than a drop spindle and your left hand. The problem happens when you've got more than a little yardage to ply. There are some pictures in this post from the Bumbling Bees blog illustrating what happened to someone else with a yardage problem. By the time I got finished winding my singles around my hand, it was damn near impossible to see the finger I looped them around -- even on the neater second skein I plied yesterday. That finger still hurts.

The upside is that I have a 60-odd-yard skein on my niddy-noddy, and a second skein on my plying spindle, still waiting to be wound off.