And Now for Something Somewhat Different

The woman who fine-tuned my knitting taught me to knit continental.  What I have become aware of is that I knit completely backwards from anyone else I know.  

I recently purchased the Winter 2013 issue of Spin-Off magazine, which includes the article Spinning in the Best Direction for the Way You Knit, by Julia Farwell-Clay.  Because I knit continental, I decided to test out the theory by spinning my next skein counterclockwise and plying it clockwise.   The odd thing about spinning this way is that spinning the singles was easier, and plying was more awkward, which surprised me.  But I strongly suspect that I also spin left-handed, since I hold the fiber in my right hand and guide with my left.  I have been drafting by pulling my fiber hand backwards.  I'm trying to learn English long draw, but I am not there, yet.  Consequently, there are a lot of thick and thin spots, as I have been drawing back too thin.

It occurred to me (too late, of course) that perhaps spinning a small amount of yarn, rather than an entire skein, may have been wiser.   However, here are  the two balls of yarn.  The ball with the rust  yarn is spun clockwise (z twist) and plied counterclockwise (s twist),  and the ball with the blue has been spun counterclockwise (s twist) and plied clockwise (z twist).  I started referring to them as the right-handed ball (rust) and the left-handed ball (blue).

Both balls are fairly inconsistent in the same way.  There are thick spots and thin spots, and there are overspun spots and  underspun spots.  In both, there are spots where both singles were thin, and the resulting plied bit is like thread.    The picture below shows both samples, before washing.  Both are 30 stitches wide on size 5 (3.75mm) needles.

There were several things that surprised me.  In looking at both skeins, I would have automatically said both were overplied.  When they were washed, both skeins eased up.  The right-handed skein had more spots that appeared underspun/underplied than the left-handed one.

The feel of both samples as I was knitting them was quite different.  The left-handed sample felt more dense, and it didn't curl as badly as the right-handed sample.  The inconsistencies in the thick and thin spots didn't seem to be quite so apparent in the left-handed sample.

The picture below is of the samples, after washing, and now I have questions.  

1.  Although the left-handed (blue) sample appears to be more consistent, it also has quite a bit of twist in the stitches.  Is this a result of being badly overplied?

2.  Should I be making left-handed yarn, because I knit continental, or does it matter?

3.  Have I confused myself for nothing? 

These are both Corriedale, and while I wouldn't wear the samples I made next to my skin, they would certainly make a good cardigan or a fisherman's sweater.  Something needing to be substantial and worn over something else.