American Jacob. My Fiber Studies 8

I take part in the SpinDoctor Rare Breed Wool Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged SpinDoctor. The Challenge ends June 30th 2011. You find SpinDoctor's podcasts in my Link list to the right.

The Sheep

The history of Jacob sheep is undergoing a revision right now, but it is clear that the breed is very old. The name "Jacob" was given to this particular sheep as late as the 20th century. The breed was imported to North America at the beginning of the 1900s. The status of the American Jacob is "threatened" in the list of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The sheep is multihorned. Most sheep have four horns. Photos here: Jacob Sheep Breeders Association

The American small holders have bred for fleece trying to preserve the historical look of the sheep, while in UK other breeds have been introduced in order to get bigger sheep for more meat.

The wool

The color of the sheep is piebold, spotted in black (dark brown), gray (also called "lilac"), and white. The sheep looks hairy and shaggy, but the fleece has no outer coat. The wool from American Jacob is much appreciated by handspinners.

Preparation and Spinning
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Combs: Louet one row mini combs
Wheel: Louet Victoria
Ratio: 1:8.5
Singles' WPI on my wpi-tool: 24 at an average

I scoured the fleece sample, and when it was dry separated it into small heaps of white, brown, light gray and a little bigger heap with colors that couldn't be easily separated. I combed the white, brown, gray and mixed heap as they were and spun four 2-ply yarns. But first I took some of the white and brown aside and combed and spun a humbug yarn, and some of the white, gray and brown into a darker gray yarn. I got six nice yarns. The staple length was 4-8 cm, the brown being the shortest and most difficult to comb and spin. My nice Louet one row mini combs are fantastic! They comb almost anything.

When washed I found that the hand of the yarns goes from the soft in the white to the little coarser in the brown according to color, so the dark gray is in between. That is normal, as colored fleece usually is coarser than white. The white skein has a luster I think is semilustrous, the brown has almost no luster. The rest are in between those two. There was no kemp and the wool was very soft, so I think I got lamb's wool in my super sampler package from The Spinning Loft. Some lambs may have outer coat which is later shed, so perhaps my fleece was from a second shearing. Hard to say for me. I know almost nothing about Jacobs.

This was lovely Jacob, and it was fun to work with. Last year I spun German Jacob from mill carded roving, and it was coarse and full of kemp, so I didn't like it very much but thought it would be good in a cardigan or sweater. I'm still knitting that sweater... it sheds all over me and I keep thinking it will never stop. I have to put a lining in it if I ever get it finished.

German Jacob (gray), Leongberger and wool (beige) and a wool-mix yarn, all handspun. You can  see the white coarse kemp fibers in my knitting




Read more
Internet
Jacob Sheep Breeders Association
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Wikipedia
Literature
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, to be released May 2011

Ravelympics Part 4: finished

My last skeins are now hanging to dry. Jacob was a very nice fiber to spin. Thanks to Ingrid in Sweden I also know where to get Jacob of high quality. This was certainly not the first and last time I spun Jacob. Lofty,light yarns! 10 skeins, 500 grams. The last bobbin was rather full :) I found some unknown black thread that I used to ply with the last meters. Do take a look at Ingrid's Jacob also: she is spinning in the Ravelympics too, but with her usual spinningappetite she's taking much bigger bites than I. Her blog Ingrids funderingar is bilingual and there are lots and lots of wonderful fibertalk (and a lot of funny talk also).

Ravelympics Part 3

I now have 3 skeins Jacobyarn hanging to dry. The yarn is the most lofty I have ever spun. If I can get Jacob without kemp, I'll buy it! This is a very nice fiber to spin. When the yarn is dry, I'll knit a first swatch.

I have also thought a lot about my daughter-in-law, who is in Morocco for post graduate studies at a university. I hope she'll get to see spinners and weavers while she is there, even if that is not what she's intersted in. Look at these women spinning and weaving. The supported drop spindles can take a lot of yarn. My back starts aching when I look at these skilful women, and my heart aches when I think about all the beautiful work they do for nothing. Someone raise the sheep too, shear the wool, and clean it before the spinners can start preparing and spinning the wool. The yarn has to be dyed, too. The amount of work in handspun and woven carpets is unbelievable.

Look at the warp: it's a very even and strong yarn. I wish I could spin like that. It's very different from my Jacobyarn, that is a knitting yarn for lofty outdoor use.

Ravelympics 2010 Part 2

I have now spun 50 grams of jacobwool. I found that predrafting the sliver helps a lot. I spin with an English longdraw. The fibers come out quite easily, even if I have to use my left hand once in a while to smoothen the yarn. When the the fibers come out i lumps, I make a double draw. These coarse fibers are well carded. They are easy to spin, but I don't like the great amount of kemp. I don't know if that is normal for Jacob. Anyway, the yarn would be fine for a woven blanket. Maybe I have to start weaving again :)

There is a lot of air in the yarn. My bobbins normally take 100-110 grams of yarn, but this is only 50 grams:

 

Ravelympics 2010

Bara engelska i dag!

Tomorrow is the day of the year - so far. Ravelympics starts. I will spin and knit. Today I looked over the wheel and made a couple of tests. I will use my Kromski Symphony "Alma Mater" and spin with ratio 10:1. The fiber is German Jacob, Deutsche Jacobwolle. I bought 500 grams from Das Wollschaf. When I opened the parcel I thought I'd made a bad deal. The fibers are coarse and there is a lot of kemp. The wool feels brittle and itchy.
  Then I remembered the millspun chiengora that's been in my stash for many years. Maybe I could spin a jacobyarn I could use with it? An intarsia-knit immediately rose in my mind. I found the chiengora in the attic. And yes! They will go very well together. I will make a sweater or a cardigan for outdoor use.

Now I have cleaned Alma Mater, oiled her, given her a new driveband that I stretched by navajoplying some leftovers from a couple of bobbins. I started the whole thing by baking a yummy apple/rubarbcake with coconut, cinnamon and vanilla, and eating the first mouthful warm with a cup of caffe latte :)

I will spin with ratio 10:1 and try to spin as close to the millspun as possible. The fibers in the chiengorayarn are much shorter than the jacob, and there is a lot of very fine fibers among them. The jacobyarn will be different, but close enough to work in a garment. The spinningtest shows I will have to ply with slightly more twist than on the sample here. I'll knit an intarsia with small patterns, because there is a risk that the yarns will behave in very different ways over the years. With small patterns the risk is smaller.

I haven't started the socks I will knit yet of course. They need no swatching.