Well it's about time I brought you up to date on my spinning work.
Previous posts (Jacob Fleece 1,2,3) showed how I prepared the fleece,carded and then spun it on my Ashford Traditional Spinning Wheel.
The next stage is to Ply the yarn, so as it is suitable for use as a knitting yarn.
Using two bobbins on the "lazy kate" and turning my wheel in the opposite direction I twist the two single yarns together. Plying the yarn gives it strength and produces a lovely balanced knitting wool.
SKEIN
The yarn is then wound into a skein and is ready for finishing.
If you remember I spun the fleece "in the grease".
It is now time to wash the skeins.
It is washed by soaking in very hot water with a mild detergent (good old Fairy Original washing up liquid is ideal for this). The skeins are submerged with enough water for them to move freely, but I take care not to stir or agitate as I don't want tangled skeins or felted yarn at this point! Rinsing and repeating until the water is clear.
JACOB KNITTING YARN
Finishing the yarn softens, develops it's loft and brings out the real character of the wool.
I store my handspun yarn in skeins until I'm ready to use it, so as it keeps it's bounce. As well as it looking simply gorgeous.
My Jacob Fleece has given me 800grms of knitting yarn of which 450grms is black/browns and 350 grms of cream/white/grey yarn.
I have various projects in mind to use my lovely new stash. I will be knitting,weaving and even natural dyeing with it in the coming weeks.
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