Why Jacob?

 I mentioned in my previous fibre based post that I was currently spinning Jacob Fleece, so why Jacob?

It's easy to spin

I can divide up the colours and blend more natural shades for my knitting

You can spin a decent gradient yarn as well.

As I will be spinning in public a lot over the next few weeks, it makes sense to concentrate on one breed as its easier to answer the questions et.

I can easily over dye the yarn ( especially the white)

Its good for hats, mitts etc

I now have around 6/700gm combed pedigree Jacob which I will blend and bag up in 60gm bags ( I like my skeins to be a minimum of 100 gm and always seem to end up discarding small bits as I spin.) and 4 skeins ready to knit.

There is a definite difference between the skeins spun from the pedigree Jacob compared to the washed fleece picked up at the guild, the pedigree fleece is softer.

I also ordered a fleece from Doreen in Aberdeen, I love her fleeces as they are always well skirted, clean and come packed in their own cotton bag.

The latest is now on the line , taking advantage of a windy sunny day even if it is a little cool.

I will pack my e-spinner bag with a book on spinning wheels to show where you could prick your finger on the great wheel etc, a picture of a Jacob sheep and probably my British Breeds T-towel.

edited 

First two skeins from the Jacob from Aberdeen.

I now have possibly enough fibre to spin and yarn to knit on my travels.

The painted town

 A quick trip out to check out some charity shops whilst Ian was off work led us to Beeston, just a few miles from home. It was a bitter day and not terribly successful on the buying front but more colourful than last time I visited.

Somebody has definitely been busy with a paint brush !!

Anyway, back to my spinning etc as another fleece has just been deliverd and I'm doing a bobbin lace demo tomorrow and need to find the practise pillows. Have a great week everybody :-)

All the fluff

 Back in January I realised that I was getting very low on white fleece, bad time of the year to buy and wash/dry it myself so when I saw a small wool mill advertising that they could sell wash and dried fleece I was understandably curious.

I contacted them asking if is was suitable for spinning and they assured me that they had spinners regularly buying the washed fleece. So I ordered some, a mule fleece and a Ryeland , in fact it was a huge Ryeland that filled three pillowcases.

                                                                       mule fleece

My favourite way to process a fleece is to use my wool combs, this gives a really easy to spin fibre but is time consuming. Unfortunately both of the fleeces have proved to be difficult to work with, both are sticky and I feel that a box picker would be a very welcome addition to my equipment at this point.

I persevered and have spun a skein from each and today I have re washed some of the mule fleece to see if it makes a difference.

                                                            mule fleece rewashed

                                               

                                             original and rewashed for comparison

I persevered and have spun a skein from each and today I have re washed some of the mule fleece to see if it makes a difference.

                                                             mule fleece spun and dyed

                                             Ryeland fleece spun and dyed

My plan had been to spin a kilo plus and then dye the skeins but I think the jury is out at the moment.

I still need spinable fibre as we have a longish road trip planned and I will be taking the e-spinner along so I bought a kilo of raw Jacob from a pedigree flock. Beautiful fleece, washed up well but lost maybe 40% or weight on washing, more on prepping but it was lovely to spin so may have ordered some more.

Then I snagged a large bag of Jacob at the last guild meeting so hopefully I will have 500/600gm prepped to pack in the van.

I also have a small bag of washed alpaca. I tried spinning alpaca maybe 10 years ago and didn't enjoy it but I'm thinking that maybe I'll try it again as it may be nice to blend with some Shetland so I'll keep you posted on that one.

I've been knitting as usual as I have a target of 10 of each (hats, mitts and headbands) and I'm nearly there in spite of keeping two hats back for myself and selling a hat and two pairs of mitts just before Christmas.

                                                            plus a couple of kilo of yarn

As usual, I've been stitching on a couple of stitch a long challenges ( one is more up to date than the other) and I will pack these in the van along with my knitting.

As I'm writing, the Met office have just issued snow warnings which probably won't impact us here but may possibly put a spanner in the works for my upcoming visit to the Buxton wool gathering. I am crossing just about everything at the moment 😀