I know that I want to ply this single back on itself to create a 2-ply yarn. The last time I did this with one of my singles, I used a ball winder. It worked okay, but I struggled with keeping even tension on the yarn as I plied it. The closer I got to the middle of the single, the looser the ball became, and I had lots of tangles to manage while trying to ply. So I looked for a different method of plying yarn back on itself.
I researched in my spinning library and hopefully I found an answer in Priscilla Gibson-Roberts book "Spinning in the Old Way." She describes a method of using a nostepinne to wind a center-pull ball and to ply from both ends. The elegance of this method is that the nostepinne helps keep tension on the yarn, so that the center of your ball doesn't collapse as you move towards the middle of the yarn. Plus you can slide the ball towards the thicker end of the nostepinne to park it if you need to take a break from plying.
So I took my nostepinne (a lovely gift from a wonderful friend - thank you again!), and got to work winding my single from the spindle to the pinne. I have to admit, it can get a little tedious... I started to feel a bit like a spider winding silk around a tasty insect morsel. But eventually I found a rhythm to the winding process and I got the single on the nostepinne:
Next step, plying!
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