lördag 12 februari 2011
Double Fun Socks
Jag glömde ju alldeles bort att jag skulle visa makens Double Fun sockor som jag började sticka i december. Visst blev de färdiga, och det för flera veckor sedan! Jag har t.o.m. tvättat dem en gång redan.
I completely forgot I promised to show hubby's Double Fun socks which I started knitting in December. I finished them several weeks ago! I have even washed them once.
torsdag 10 februari 2011
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
.
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.
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
Solen
söndag 6 februari 2011
CVM. My Fiber Studies 7
The Sheep
CVM, Californian Variegated Mutant is a subtype of Romeldale. The history of the sheep is a series of crossings including Corriedaly, Marsh Romney, American Rambouillet. The breed was called Romeldale, and was established in the 1950s. CVM was developed in the 1970s from a couple of colored sheep with badger face found in a flock. The status of the sheep is critical with only a few breeders.
The Wool
The wool is fine with much crimp in offwhite, brown, gary, black, moorit. It is used in all kinds of garments. It was developed for handspinners, and handspinners have taken it to their hearts.
My Experience
Preparation: I had a sample of raw fleece which I scoured and then combed with Louet one row mini combs. Usually CVM has much lanolin, but I didn't notice that in my small sample. It was easy to wash and easy to comb. I didn't try carding.
Spinning
Wheel: Louet Victoria, standard flyer
Ratio: 1:13
WPI: 24 on my wpi-tool
I spun with a semi-woolen draw and plied a 3-ply yarn. The yarn is one of my very best, a lustrous, soft and still resilient yarn well suitable for socks or sweaters. I was surprised of how nice the finished yarn was.
Read More:
Internet
CVM Sheep
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Wikipedia Romeldale/CVM
The White Barn Farm
Literature
Spin Off Magazine, Summer 2009
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, to be released May 2011
tisdag 1 februari 2011
Clun Forest. My Fiber Studies 6
I take part in the SpinDoctor Wool Breed Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged "SpinDoctor". The Challenge ends June 30th 2011.
The Sheep
This sheep has been bred from several breeds on the border of Shropshire and Powys in UK. Clun Forest is not on the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust's list, but is listed as "Recovering" by the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. It's a hornless sheep with dark brown face and legs, and with a small forelock. I don't have photos of it, but there are pictures here: Timberwood Farm and Fiber
The Wool
The wool is white to creamy, with a staple lenght of 5-8 cm. The micron range is 29-32. "The main uses of the Clun fleece are fine hosiery, felts, knitting wool and futons" says The British Wool Marketing Board, and the North American Clun Forest Association says it's a fiber for handspinners. The fleece is dense and fine with a crimp that make the fibers bounce away from each other. Below a hand combed top.
My experience
There was 2 oz of raw Clun Forest in a sample package from The Spinning Loft. The wool looked dense and finely crimped, felt bouncy.Preparation
I scoured the wool, and when it was dry I tried carding a few locks, but it was difficult so I didn't want to continue. I rolled it off into a puni. When I stretched it I got a dread lock! For a moment I felt a deep temptation to dye the fleece and only make dreads :) But first I tried the dog comb, and that was not good at all. Then I tried my one row Louet mini combs, and got a bouncy good looking top. So I combed the rest of the wool and thought I'd try to remember the dreads if I ever wanted to make more of them.
Spinning
Spinning was easy. The tops were like bubble gum, stretchy and bouncy. I spun two different yarns from the same hand combed tops. I plied both yarns into 3-plies on my midi bossie.
1st sample: I wanted to try a woolen draft for these rolag looking combed tops, so I used my wonderful supported Skimo spindle for a semi-woolen, double drafted technique. I really liked that! The yarn felt soft and quite stretchy.
2nd sample: I then spun a classic worsted yarn on a mini bossie. The fibers ran soft and smooth from the tops. The yarn felt less soft and stretchy than the semi-woolen, just as it should.
Knitting
I knitted a swatch with 22 stitches on needles 3 mm. The woolen yarn has less stitch definition because it's softer. The worsted yarn was fast and nice to knit, a very good yarn if I may say so myself. For a sweater I would choose the worsted yarn. It has greater luster and feels strong.
Conclusions
A very nice fiber at least in this sample. One have to remember that I only used a very small sample from one fleece, so fiber from another part of the fleece or another sheep might be totally different. I would certainly like to try more of this wool.
Read more:
Internet
Clun Forest Sheep Breeders Society
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
North American Clun Forest Association
Literature
British Wool & Sheep. British Wool Marketing Board, 2010
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, to be released May 2011.
Spin Off Magazine, Spring 2009
M. L. Ryder, Sheep & Man. Duckworth, 2007.
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