Spinning Jelly

Well, That took a bit of time! I thought I'd just start spinning a little of the jelly fibre to get into practice and see how it was spinning up. Hours and hours later...... still spinning. The toilet roll idea didn't work as I'd made the slivers so fragile, they kept snapping as they tried to unravel. The easiest method was to actually unwind the ball in a pool on the floor so it could run freely as I spun. Well, whatever works!

This was very theraputic while waiting for plumbers and insurance people to deal with our sewage leak. I could just close the door, put on a talking book and - spin. No distractions and hours would be gone when I looked up again. And, lots of spun yarn on the bobbin! My original intention was to split the balls into two piles, spin up two bobbins worth and then ply both threads together into one yummy yarn. That is why I split the roving so fine so I could have two laceweight yarns ply into something around fingering weight.

Of course, after taking hours to get one bobbin done, I changed my mind and decided to ply with some shiny embroidery thread I got on Ebay a while back. It feels rayon-like and is quite slippy but has a gorgeous shine which catches the light.

Hours later..... I have a plied skein of yarn! The embroidery thread seems a little light in places but was the closest I could get for now. A variegated quilting thread would be interesting to use - note to self. But I still have the other half of the jelly roving to spin so maybe I can try something different for that half. The first skein weighs about 75gms and is closer to a laceweight yarn in thickness - or should I say, thinness:-) I think with the shine factor, this could knit up well as a fancy lace shawl. I haven't knitted up a shawl in laceweight yet so I don't know if 75gms will be enough. If not, I may have to spin the rest up the same for a bigger shawl. Anyone know if I have spun enough?

I'm having a little break from spinning before I start the rest of the Jelly roving as it's very time consuming and exhausting concentrating for that length of time solely on one thing. Saying that, knitting complex lace shawl patterns does have the same effect!! I find I get engrossed in following the pattern and the wider the shawl gets, the more time passes and before I know it, it's time for bed! Hence a very late/early blog post today:-)

Tomorrow, a little dyeing and maybe some more knitting but right now, I'm off to sleep, g'night...... zzzzzzzzz.