It was a gorgeous sunny day when I popped down to the South of the Island to collect my newly sheared Jacob fleece. This is the flock seeking the shade of the trees even though they really can't be too hot now they have been relieved of their winter woolly coats.
This is the sheep who "grew" my fleece for me! Obviously looked the wrong way when I snapped the photo! but at least you can see what lovely marking she has which will give me a wonderful blend of colours to spin with.
It is a large fleece and is in very good condition, in fact the sheep is a prize winner, so I'm thrilled to have such great raw material to spin a lovely quality yarn from.
This photo shows you the underside of the fleece. I hope you can see the "hand" quality. Hand is the term used to describe how the wool feels, initial feeling is that this fleece is springy, soft and pleasant. I shall be sorting the fleece according to it's variations in fineness, fibre length and crimp.
You can see the crimp in this photo. When I spin the yarn I will also be selecting by colour as I want to mix by plying a handspun "black" with a handspun "white" bobbin together to produce a blended yarn.
I plan to lightly wash a small section of the fleece to assess it further, but as it is so lovely and fresh I think that I will be able to spin it "in the grease" with ease.
No comments:
Post a Comment