tis the season

...to take this



and this



add water and soap to get this



choose your own fiber prep adventure for something like this



plan something special



and spin for it.


handspun 2-ply Jacob, separated into white/colors

I am pretty proud of myself, waiting all the way thru January to get excited. About what you ask? Spring shearing! Is! Coming!

:)

I shouldn't be excited. I have an inordinate amount of fleeces on hand, have at least 3 reserved for 2009 that I can remember (2 from Little Meadow Farms, where the above Jacob fleece is from), and literally no space to store them... but still!

I decided that I needed to actually try to work thru some of the fleeces before I could justify buying more. I finally spun the black and white yarns I've meant to for almost a whole year-- intended for Haavisto or Selbuvotter mittens for me.



The dark skein is a heavier weight than the light... I was originally planning gloves but think the fingers may be too skewed for the gauge change. I'm still going to try and use them together-- I just think it's too cool, 2 distinct colors from one sheep!

Off to wash (more) wool... I also promised myself to have everything on hand scoured before any new wool arrives :)

...waiting anxiously,

Jacob fleece, raw to yarn

Lots of pics today :)

I was fortunate enough to "meet" Liese of Little Meadows Farm thru Ravelry-- she raises Jacob sheep (as well as Corriedales and Dorsets, and crosses), and from her farm I bought a freshly shorn Jacob fleece straight off the back of a wether named Jester.

Jacob sheep have black/brown and white coloring, a neat thing for me since I immediately thought I would separate the color from the white fleece straight away for a naturally-colored stranded knitting project... mittens from Selbuvotter, or something in that vein-- a fleece to finished object from one sheep.


raw dark brown black Jacob fiber


raw white Jacob fiber

The Jacob was so much less greasy than other raw wool I've had my hands on, and this fleece in particular was really clean and well skirted (the entirety was only 2 lbs raw)... so I tried scouring in a sink instead of the washing machine, using mesh bags. I tried a few different ways-- inspired by Spinning Spider Jenny's post on scouring to maintain lock formation I set out a basket and cut tuille and started layering locks between the tuille...





...tying the packaged wool together and placing them inside the mesh bags for scouring. I did a few variations of this, layering locks between tuille and not, and eventually moving away from using the basket and ties and just layering them inside the mesh bags. I found I didn't really need the tuille but it did help in giving the mesh bags some "shape"...


without tuille layers


with tuille layers

The shape helped the fleece from shifting around in the bags when I was scouring, as well as when removing the locks from the bags for laying out to dry.


variegated Jacob locks drying

I could just pull out the tuille and turn it over, leaving a layer of locks already spread out that just needed a little more time to dry. The tuille also didn't take much longer when loading the fleece straight into the bags... and I bought 5 yards of it, way too much but may as well use it, eh? :)

Even though I was able to separate much of the white from the colored fleece prior to scouring, I had lots of sections that were variegated and would blend into a pretty grey...


scoured variegated Jacob locks

I took a few ounces of white and black/brown/grey Jacob and set them to dye-- the best part?


variegated Jacob locks dyed w. acid dyes

...some of the brown tips on the black portions turned green in the dyebath :) This lot I carded the morning before the Color Fiber Festival and I spun in the downtime between my classes, plied up at home into this pretty skein.


2-ply handspun heavy worsted Jacob yarn

I probably should have chosen some more loud colors, this is really quite close to the natural brown/black of the Jacob :)


scoured black brown Jacob fiber

No worries, plenty left to play with dyeing later.

The resulting yarn is sturdy but soft, totally useable for a scarf against the back of my neck... though it feels like it would be a really great sweater yarn, squishy and full of life. (Yes Virginia, I am head over heels haunted by A Fine Fleece.) I spun the singles for this skein woolen-- but the final yarn isn't really fuzzy like yarns usually are for me when I spin merino or more short stapled wools. I don't have enough fiber for a sweater, and am already planning one out of *another* fleece I'm prepping at home, but I'd definitely think about this fiber for one if I ever grew up and into big projects like sweaters :)

Liese offers an "adopt a sheep" program thru her farm where you can "adopt" a sheep for a year and by the next shearing the fleece is reserved for you. I can say that the fleeces are really well skirted and fun to work with... so much that I adopted one of Little Meadow Farms' new lambs in my son's name for next year.


jacob/dorset lamb
(pic by Little Meadows Farm)

She was unnamed when we adopted her, and Liese asked if he'd like to give her a name... "Rosie!"

(I am such a sucker and immediately welled up.)

In addition to Jester's fleece, I also bought several bars of handmade soap from Liese-- the pine tar? REALLY WORKS for me. I get a heat rash on the top of my hand (nerves, since childhood) but washing my hands with the soap kills the itch and is so much more appealing than the steroid cream I usually resort to. I'm using it in the shower-- it has a definite smell, not bad but not flowers :) Clean, but way different than anything else. I really dig it, along with eveything (from wool to service) I received from Little Meadows Farm.

...back to carding! :) Til then!