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S-Twist and right handed crochet


CrochetyLady99

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I'm new to this site, and have been crocheting about a year and a half, self- and internet-taught. I recently read about S vs Z twist, and that for righties, S twist tends to untwist while working it. I had noticed this before, but didn't know why. Since reading that, I've tried to be more cognizant of which way the yarn twists when making balls on my Stanwood yarn winder. 

I'm currently working on a baby blanket with Bernat Softee Baby (100% acrylic) and decided to rewind the next skein to switch the S twist to a Z twist (I've tried to change my stitching to go the "wrong" way, and can't do it consistently.) I have now tried stitching from both ends of the yarn and it untwists from either direction. And yes, the yarn looks like S twist from either end of the ball. Does anyone have an idea what's up with this yarn? In the big scheme of things, it's not critical, but I'm trying to understand the details of twist. In the article I read online, it stated that in addition to reducing splitting, using yarn that twists the right way (Z for righties, S for lefties) makes the finished product stronger and have better stitch definition. 

I'm also wondering if yarn twist contributed to a finished lapghan being a parallelogram instead of a rectangle? As I was working it, I counted the stitches periodically and had the same number of stitches at the end as at the beginning, and the start and final ends were about the same length, but even after blocking, the end of the project "pulled to the left" as compared to the starting row. 

I added a couple pics of the yarn. the first shows the working end of the yarn (pink/blue) and next to it, the mostly yellow tail end. The other pic shows the tail end of the yarn looped back to it self, simulating looking at the yarn from both ends. They all look like S twist to me. What am I missing?

I'd appreciate any help with this!  Pat

 

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Welcome to the 'ville!

I'm a rightie, but not a spinner; I know there is such a thing as S and Z twist but beyond that, never gave it any thought.  I have read that 1 is "for" crocheters and the other is "for" knitters, not righties or lefties, but I do both crafts and never noticed the difference.

And I just rooted thru my yarn, I'm only finding S twist, like your photo.  And I haven't ever had a problem with it unplying.

Winding a skein into a ball by hand or with a winder is not going to change the twist of the yarn, tho, because the S and Z is how the yarn the plies of the yarn are twisted together in the spinning and plying process to combine x plies into 1 strand like your photo, not how it is wound into a skein.  What about yarns in hanks, it doesn't 'not' have a twist.

On your blanket, there is likely something else going on; the only thing I can think of is, if your stitch count is the same (i.e. not losing or gaining stitches), is that -- could you be adding a stitch on 1 side, and subtracting one on the other?  If you trace the stitch 3 stitches in from the edge of your last row, in a column straight down into the stitch that it was made into, and on down, does it stay the 3rd stitch from the edge?  Does the trace end up in the 4th, 5th stitch--or second, first, and disappears? Or, if your parallelogram is more \___/  or /___\, maybe it's just your tension changing - this can happen when something gets heavy, you're in a different mood, you are watching the zombies wreaking havoc on TV as you crochet...

Edited by Granny Square
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Hi GrannySquare, Thanks for the reply. 

Here's the website I referred to:  https://yarnsub.com/articles/twist. The page is mostly about knitting, but it has a nice close up of what I meant about "untwisting," where you can see the separate plys of the yarn on the hook or needle. I even tried wrapping the yarn onto the hook the opposite direction, and when I did, it was more compact or twisted, but it was too mentally taxing (!) to do for long.  😉  

From my reading of that page, I understand that S works better for right handed knitters and Z for left handed knitters, while the opposite is true of Z: better for rightie crocheters and leftie knitters, apparently due to the direction the yarn and hook/needle interact. 

I thought from that page (apparently incorrectly!!) that I could get a Z twist by working from the opposite end of a skein (i.e. if it's S coming from the center, it would be Z coming from the outer wrap), so my intent was to rewind from the outside (I find crocheting from the outside of a skein to be messy!).  I just tried writing an S on a piece of paper and turned it upside down (equivalent to pulling yarn from the other end), and indeed, it's still an S! Sorry my explanation was so unclear!

Thanks for offering to look at my blanket, but it's gone! I sent it to my cousin as a wheelchair lapghan, so I don't have an appropriate photo with the blanket folded. You can't tell anything from this pic, except that I finished it! She certainly doesn't care; I was mainly trying to understand what I was doing wrong. I THINK I wasn't adding to one end and decreasing on the other, but at this point who knows? The odd thing is that as I recall, the first part was fairly straight, then got wonky about halfway through, maybe about when I had to start a new skein. 

Thanks for the reply!

Pat

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Hi bgs, 

Thanks, that's exactly the article I was referring to. 

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to reply directly to your post, I could only see the "Submit Reply" at the bottom, below my reply to Granny Square.

I love working with Caron Simply Soft (it works up so soft and comfy), but it does seem to be easier to snag. 

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CrochetLady99, this forum doesn't have a way to reply to a specific post, but 'Hi Bgs (or Granny)' works.  Pretty blanket, too bad you posed it so artfully that we can't see any skew :lol 

Interesting article.  What pops into my head with the 'adds twist with knit, subtracts with crochet', is that I learned to knit first, and I tension the yarn exactly.the.same.way for both crafts.  It's very minimalist-yarn draped over the first finger, under the second, and left to ride over the last 2 fingers, and with both crafts my left front finger is super close to the stitch being worked.  I have seen others wrap the yarn much more convolutedly, sometimes with multiple wraps around fingers, and hold their left forefinger inches up in the air for example -- completely the opposite -- I wonder if the way person tensions yarn has anything to do with the extent of unplying or not?  

Come to think of it...I crochet a lot of doilies, and I actually have doily thread do the opposite of unplying, it twists back up on itself (usually the metallic threads more than the plain for some reason).  I have to stop every few rounds or rows and let the ball spin around for a while to get the kinks out.  Maybe I just crochet funny....

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1 hour ago, CrochetyLady99 said:

Hi bgs, 

Thanks, that's exactly the article I was referring to. 

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to reply directly to your post, I could only see the "Submit Reply" at the bottom, below my reply to Granny Square.

I love working with Caron Simply Soft (it works up so soft and comfy), but it does seem to be easier to snag. 

You did just fine with "hi bgs".  

If you want to reply to a certain post go to bottom of that post and select quote.  Then type your response and submit.  

I have to be very careful and support a largish afghan while working on it as the weight of it just hanging stretches it out.

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35 minutes ago, Granny Square said:

CrochetLady99, this forum doesn't have a way to reply to a specific post, but 'Hi Bgs (or Granny)' works.  Pretty blanket, too bad you posed it so artfully that we can't see any skew :lol 

Interesting article.  What pops into my head with the 'adds twist with knit, subtracts with crochet', is that I learned to knit first, and I tension the yarn exactly.the.same.way for both crafts.  It's very minimalist-yarn draped over the first finger, under the second, and left to ride over the last 2 fingers, and with both crafts my left front finger is super close to the stitch being worked.  I have seen others wrap the yarn much more convolutedly, sometimes with multiple wraps around fingers, and hold their left forefinger inches up in the air for example -- completely the opposite -- I wonder if the way person tensions yarn has anything to do with the extent of unplying or not?  

Come to think of it...I crochet a lot of doilies, and I actually have doily thread do the opposite of unplying, it twists back up on itself (usually the metallic threads more than the plain for some reason).  I have to stop every few rounds or rows and let the ball spin around for a while to get the kinks out.  Maybe I just crochet funny....

Yo, Granny !  😉 

I learned to knit first, sort of from my mom, and sort of self taught. She always dropped a needle to wrap the yarn and I figured out how to wrap the yarn without dropping the needle. Pretty darn proud of myself...until I realized that my stitches were all very evenly twisted - even little Vs with a cool little flip to make an "x" at the bottom.  It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong, and longer to STOP doing that!  😉 

I visited a friend in northern Minnesota in January (WHO does that???) and her cousin taught me crochet basics. I came home and played around with it with books and videos. I mostly just make things to donate (baby hats, scarves, lapghans) because I don't need any more stuff myself and I enjoy having something to do with my hands in the evenings. I tension usually the way you do (over and under), but occasionally find myself reverting to two wraps around index finger. I try not to do that b/c it can be easy to get too tight. 

I had forgotten until you said that about thread, when I used to cross stitch, I had the same tangling of thread and I'd periodically let the thread and needle dangle to untwist. I remember thinking at the time that I must be rolling the needle somehow while stitching to regularly get such a tangle. The odd habits we make for ourselves! 

 

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35 minutes ago, bgs said:

You did just fine with "hi bgs".  

If you want to reply to a certain post go to bottom of that post and select quote.  Then type your response and submit.  

I have to be very careful and support a largish afghan while working on it as the weight of it just hanging stretches it out.

Thanks for the tip about the quote!

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