Navaho plying

I did it! I figured out how to Navaho ply on my wheel. I’d been doing a variation of it when plying on my spindle, but I really wanted to learn how to on my wheel. Navaho plying creates a three ply yarn, where you can change colors without getting the barbershop poll effect.
Here’s the difference in pictures:

This yarn is a two ply, one single was spun out of white wool, the other from different colored wool carded together. I like the way the white ties all the different colors together.

This is the three ply yarn. It was created by spinning up one long single then creating loops to spin the single into 3 ply. You can see how the color changes are preserved, for the most part, because you are using the same part of the single with itself. Here’s the video I used to learn how to do it. You want to skip past the boring part at the beginning, about 49 seconds in. The lady shows you how to do it in real time, and then slows the video down so you can better see what she is doing.

I'm still spinning the left over fiber from the from the spinning 101 and 201 classes, carding it into interesting color blends that I’m then going to Navaho ply. I cannot deny that the wool is itchy to the sensitive, and it’s not very soft. This I think this is due to the fiber and not really because of the way I'm spinning it, although it is probably over spun. No surprise there. Still it is “practice” fiber so I don’t feel about it being a little wonky. And I’ve found the project once I’m done. A Felted Spinning Wheel Bag is exactly what I need. I may even add some doodads like this person did.