These are the first swatches. The resulting yarns turned out to be about fingering weight, with slight variations. The singles being the thinnest, and the 2-ply being the thickest.
This is the swatch from singles. I used 3 mm needles, cast on 30 stitches, and used up all the yarn.
This is the swatch from 2-ply. Same needles, same amount of stitches, used up all the yarn.
This is the swatch from 3-ply. Same needles, same amount of stitches, did not use up all the yarn. There is still a bitty ball left.
Clockwise from the top left: 3-ply, 2-ply, singles, and a sample card. As far as the texture goes, I like the 3-ply the most, but I still like the singles for the colour. The singles turned out to be reasonably balanced after all, the swatch is not skewing as much as I expected it to.
I'm quite happy with the results so far. It is so interesting to see what a difference simply plying makes.