A Big Experiment

Back on 6th June I announced on my Facebook page I was combing some Jacob fleece in preparation for a large spinning job. The first part of the fleece was combed back in March and was the darker grey fibres of the fleece and I got 183g of combed fibre from it. The second part of the fleece was combed at the beginning of June and was the lighter grey fibres of the fleece but I selected the darkest of these fibres in the first instance so that I could make the bag of darker fibres up to a nice round 200g and the lighter grey fibres produced about 320g of combed fibre. Keep reading to discover my reasoning for doing that.

I've made no secret of my dislike of a couple of the fibre braids from the monthly fibre club that I was once part of. I did ask other members of the group if anyone wanted to buy the braids from me on the sale/trade page but despite several of them saying previously that they loved the colours of these braids there were no takers for my braids of fibre. I brushed it off the cold shoulder and I came up with the idea of spinning it in a similar way to a yarn I spun way back in 2013, the last skein in this post but this time using grey rather than black.

Now, the reason for me wanting to make the dark fibre bag up too 200g is because if I add that amount to one of the 100g of braids it makes 300g and then I have about 320g in the other bag with the light grey fibres and these two amounts will make two separate plies to then be spun together. So this would give me a total of around 600g broken down into 6 skeins of approximately 100g each with a fibre content of approximately 66% Jacob wool/34% Merino wool.

I split the braid up into 6 equal parts and then the dark grey into 6 equal parts and put each set into their own little bag. I then took one bag and broke the two lots of fibres down even further into the same number of little bumps, although the dark grey bumps were twice the weight of the rainbow bumps. I then spun it finely one part rainbow followed by two parts grey, rainbow, grey, rainbow, grey, rainbow... and this made one ply.

The light grey I didn't split up or weigh out into 6 parts as this will make up the other ply and I will just use it with each 100g of the grey/rainbow mix until it runs out and it makes for a very interesting barber-pole effect even in just the grey on grey sections.

I've not finished this spinning project yet but I have spun two skeins so far, each approx 100g, but the heat got the better of me last week and I felt it was too hot to be handling fluffy fibres that could felt in my hot hands.

I have another 4 skeins worth to spin and I am surprised by how much I like it. Its not nowhere near as garish as I thought it would be when I planned the project with the view of over-dying it blue, in the knowledge of how the blue dye would react with the original colours so the grey Jacob would become mottled and the yellows would become green, the pinks would become purple etc etc just like mixing paint. I need to do a bit of a test knit to see how it knits up before I decide whether to over-dye it blue or not. It may be that I decide to over-dye half of it blue and leave half as it is as this would supply me with enough yarn in each colourway to make something substantial.

Wensleydale X Texel Fleece

I follow a Facebook page for a local-ish farm, according to Google Maps the shortest route is about 31 miles, and they posted that they had some Wensleydale, Texel and cross-breed fleeces for sale and at a really good price.  Obviously, because of Covid-19, a visit in person to check out the quality of the fleece is not really practical so most transactions were taking place online.  After a little deliberating, mainly me wondering if it would be a case of "you get what you pay for", i.e. pay a low price get low quality, I decided to take a punt as at such a great price I would be stupid not to take the risk. 

My ideal fleece would have been the pure bred Wensleydale but these had all gone by the time I had made my decision to just get one and see and so I chose the Wensleydale X Texel fleece, as my preference is for the longer staple fleece.  So I paid my money and waited for the fleece to arrive and I have to say that I was not disappointed.

It was a little lighter than I anticipated, as with the long staples of the Wensleydale and the sheer size of the Texel I was expecting a fleece in the region of 4 or 5 Kg at least but when it came it only weighed 2.65Kg, maybe it is a lamb fleece and not a full grown adult, but still a great bargain as far as I am concerned.

I didn't leave it long before washing this fleece and I noticed that in places there seemed to be a significant amount of "rise" at the sheared end.  This is the point where last years growth ends and this years growth begins and given the size of the rise I would say that the sheep were quite late in being sheared, probably had problems getting a shearer on site due to this pandemic.

Aside from the rise issues, most of which I pulled off as I separated the locks for washing, the fleece is surprisingly fine and soft.  So my starting weight was 2.65Kg and after skirting and washing I'm left with 1.52Kg, which will reduce further when it goes through my combs but I am hoping for around the 1Kg of yarn from this in the end.

This isn't quite the full fleece, I had already washed a small amount and the blue area didn't wash out and so was thrown away.

Despite the muddyness of the locks the fleece is really fine and soft.

Side by side, dirty locks and washed locks, this process still amazes me.

Design LF433 in Pink and Green

I started this way back on 4th March and just been doing a bit of work on this when I can and when I feel like it.  Covid-19 Lockdown is taking its toll on my crafting as everyone has been at home.  I don't have any issues with supplies, I have enough to last me for decades if need be, my issue is with a lack of motivation.

My colours for this one are Gold, Cerise and Pale Green Twilley's Goldfingering.

First up are a couple of work in progress photos.

And now for a couple of finished item photos.