al dente crafting

Finished the fourth bobbin of white Jacob wool, and I still have half a backpack of it to go, so probably another bobbin or more left.

Meanwhile, I only had two clear bobbins to work on, so I started my brown mix. 30% alpaca. 35% "fine Michigan wool", 25% mohair, and 10% cotton. It's not thoroughly blended, so it's a bit "chunky".

It's so soft to the touch! And when it's drafting nicely, it's so smooth. It does, however, require a lot more babysitting than the Jacob does, and it's producing a much more textured single. I like it, even if I do curse a bit when it catches as it draws in. And I can't zone out quite like I did with the Jacob - I actually have to pay attention to what it's doing.

Tour de Fleece Day 2: Charollais

And now we move to France for the Charollais (sheep, not the cattle). It's the secret bonus wool in this breed study set. I haven't spun the wool before, but it's actually in my reference books (Bergs(c)haf isn't listed in either of the breed guides I own).

Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook states that they were bred from Leicester Longwool crossed with the local (Charollais) landrace. Also that the short wool (1.5- 2.5 inches). Thankfully this top a bit longer, I measured 3-4 inches, which matches the description on Paradise and World of Wool's websites as 80 mm. Since the wool isn't part of the breed standard, my thinking is that the length varies quite a bit and the fleeces sent to mills tends to be longer than average for the breed. The wool is quite crimpy, and relatively soft (especially for a meat sheep). It is white with a chalky luster.

This is the softest meat sheep wool I've spun. One reference recommended a fine worsted spin with plenty of twist, so I took it as a challenge. I'm still waiting to see the post finishing length, but I got ~90 yards out of 1/2 ounce.

I doubt it will be a frequent fiber for me, but would spin again. I'm thinking gloves or a sweater.

References:

Ekarius, C., & Robson, D. (2013). The Field Guide to Fleece: 100 Sheep Breeds & How to Use Their Fibers. North Adams: Storey Publishing, LLC.

Robson, D., & Ekarius, C. (2011). The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook: More Than 200 Fibers, from Animal to Spun Yarn. North Adams: Storey Publishing, LLC.

Smith, B. (2014). The Spinner's Book of Fleece: A Breed-by-Breed Guide to Choosing and Spinning the Perfect Fiber for Every Purpose. North Adams: Storey Publishing, LLC.

sheep picture By Bobjacktim - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99917092, rest by me

Tour de Fleece day 1!

I started spinning without knowing it was a July thing to do, so I'm doing it! All I have is a drop spindle and some merino wool roving. I spun about a quarter of it on the first day

To other spinning beginners, no amount of reading and video watching will develop your skills more than just starting. Every bit I do looks better than the last! I broke a lot of fiber at first but I got the feel for it when I let the fiber tell me what it wanted to do 🐑 Also a more practical tip: split the roving down the length of it too. It's much easier to spin from the whole thing in your hand than "from the tips" or whatever, idk the vocabulary yet.

Day 2!

I spun for about an hour today and can almost draft while spinning!!! I've been parking and drafting for the most part. I got so excited about it that I bought roving online 🤭 but it's alright because my birthday is coming up

But I'm not gonna (at least right now), I'm just gonna launch into it.

So I'm hoping to finish spinning the fiber I got for Christmas for TDF, but it's going way faster than I anticipated? The fiber is also sooooo inconsistent. But I know they got it from Amazon so honestly its about what I expected.

Thankfully I have a few pics from before TDF started. Its 8 small bundles of golds, creams, and light brown ish hues.

I'm going to try to spin two singles to make a two ply gradient yarn, but I'm acutely aware that I'm very new at this and that theres an insane amount of variation in just this first single.

This is how much I've done today, as of 6pm. I dont know if Im going to be able to continue spinning today or not soooo I guess we'll see!

They come with some BFL on either side (probably as a barrier because trying to pull straight southdown off of carding cloth without it ripping to shreds is very difficult), which for all the other colorways I've bought from this shephard is great, but with this one it has kind of a candy cane effect once spun, which isn't what I'm going for.

Luckily it peels right off. There's some stray BFL but not enough to bother me.

I decided to just process all of the batts at once so that I don't have an extra step to cause executive function problems later.

Anyway here was the result. I was kind of worried when I saw how big the BFL pile was (basically the same size as the southdown !), but I weighed both and theres approximately 350 grams/12.5oz of southdown and 80 grams/2.75oz of BFL, so the BFL's volume is almost entirely air.

I'm thinking if I finish the southdown with time to spare (which I ought to), I'll blend something with the BFL and spin that next so that it doesn't take up tons of room in my storage. It has lots of flecks of red in it which should be an interesting effect, just have to figure out what to blend it with.

(And yes, this huge pillow of southdown batts was extremely satisfying to squish)

I can manage only tiny bites of prep for these superfine merino locks I've been holding onto, for joy and self care. Hopefully next year I'll be in part of the tour proper 🤞

Good luck everyone!

Finished the fourth bobbin of white Jacob wool, and I still have half a backpack of it to go, so probably another bobbin or more left.

Meanwhile, I only had two clear bobbins to work on, so I started my brown mix. 30% alpaca. 35% "fine Michigan wool", 25% mohair, and 10% cotton. It's not thoroughly blended, so it's a bit "chunky".

It's so soft to the touch! And when it's drafting nicely, it's so smooth. It does, however, require a lot more babysitting than the Jacob does, and it's producing a much more textured single. I like it, even if I do curse a bit when it catches as it draws in. And I can't zone out quite like I did with the Jacob - I actually have to pay attention to what it's doing.

Finished up spinning the Fossil Fibers Moon Joy braid!

I think longdraw has finally clicked for me. I got my espinner’s settings dialed in just right today, so the second two bobbins (about 2.6 oz) flew by during the course of three Star Trek episodes.

TdFleece day 2!

I probably should have used the flash 😅

Not a lot of progress today since I was out most of the day. 6.3g. I’m hoping I’m just having a slow start due to my weird work hours lately.

But I had a really fun day today! I went to a fibre market with my cousin, and it was small enough that 2 hours was plenty of time for us. Which is rare. We can easily spend 4 hours at a bigger market.

I got probably 1.5 oz spun and I started the plying process!