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I made this yarn myself with a drop spindle and I am proud. Many bad things are happening. But I have this yarn and I worked hard to make something I care about during these terrible times.
Finished yarn is 2 ply made with 4 oz variegated jacob wool roving.
So I recently went to two fiber festivals and now have six fleeces in my house that are varying degrees of stinky and need to be processed. I have a project deadline coming up, so of course my brain decides now is a ~great time~ to procrastinate and wash a stinky fleece!
Here is a Jacob fleece that I picked up for the sole purpose of seeing if I could spin each color in the coat separately, then weave it back together into something with both colors. I took lots of video of the washing process but Tumblr mobile is a nightmare so I'm going to have the stick with stills.
The first step was separating the black and white sections from each other. I couldn't remember if the fleece had been skirted (had all the really horrible bits and poop removed) because I bought it in a novelty-induced dopamine haze, but it turns out it was! So that was lucky. I ended up having a lot of locks that were both black and white, so I made a third pile of mixed locks that I didn't feel like separating further.
Next was the washing/scouring, which I did in a plastic tub in my backyard. The fleece wasn't incredibly dirty but still immediately released a bunch of brown muck in the water when I submerged it.
Wet fleece!!
I did two 20-minute soaks with the hottest tap water I could get and Power Scour (I actually have more of that than Dawn dish soap in my house rn), then a 20 minute rinse soak in hot water. I spun it out and laid it out to dry on this nifty herb drying rack thing.
It was dry enough to work with today and I couldn't resist combing out some of each color. I think it looks pretty neat!
I think I'm going to comb the rest of the fleece because I really like spinning from combed top, and I'll probably make it worsted for easier weaving. I'm waiting on the final weights of each color before deciding what draft to do.
My Jacob Wool has arrived (among other fibers). I'm hoping to try my hand at using my bottom whorl drop spindle, which is something I learned (can you believe it?!) at my local library through an arts class. Public libraries everywhere, I love you. Excited to see what I can make with 4oz. :)
Fiber comes from beesybee on Etsy, who has a wonderful selection and was great to shop from.
plans and pre-drafting
Anyone need wool? I have wool. Boy, do I have wool. I had eight sheep sheared, put the wool in special bags designed for that purpose thinking I could sell it to the wool buying place a few towns over only to discover that they really only buy two types of wool neither of which are the kind of sheep I have. So I have about 80 lbs of wool. I listed it on ebay. I listed it on craigslist. I opened an etsy store. My buddy, Nikki, has offered helpful advice which I’m following as closely as I’m able.
So, hey, if you’re looking for wool, I have Jacob, and Dorper/Katahdin cross wool. You can find it on etsy here https://borufarm.etsy.com or here https://www.ebay.com/itm/132996575182 or here https://www.ebay.com/itm/132996578463
Jacob Wool Shoulder Bag
Jacob Wool Shoulder Bag
Remember a few weeks ago we had our sheep sheared? It was just before the heat wave took hold and perfect timing for our lovely Jacobs. I mentioned then that the fleece all went off to a local crafter who washed and spun the wool to make all manner of wonderful items to sell at local craft fairs. Last week I received a stylish Jacob wool shoulder bag as a gift for donating our fleece.
Jacob Wool…
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Practicing. The handspun sweater will happen this year, mark my words. ...just not with this yarn. This is a dry run.
doll’s shawls 1: jacob ombre on Flickr.
did i show you this? the yarn is laceweight i spun from a little scrap of pure wool, right from the fleece. the ombre grey effect is completely natural, without dyes of any kind - it’s just wool from a grey-and-white sheep, that’s all. i might give this away on my new blog-site - it’s a tiny wisp of rustic wool, but too nice to leave neglected, where it is. do you know any tiny dolls in cold weather, anyone who takes proper style photographs of blythe-scale poppets? or any wee people?
