Hi! I'm Tara and I'm the Blonde Chicken behind all this yarn! You can read more about how I got this The LocalSpun series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.
Remember these shy little Jacob’s from Rammings Farm?
Well, I bought one of their fleeces, brought it home and stretched it out on an old clean sheet in the middle of my living room (too cold outside!)
I was pretty amazed at how clean this fleece felt. Unlike the Coopworth, it wasn’t greasy at all ! In fact, it didn’t seem to have any lanolin! Since it didn’t feel sticky, I decided to test out washing it in just water and salt – no soap!
I split up the fleece into 3 different pots for washing. The pots were filled up with water and placed on the stove (I’d do this in my washer, but it’s only hooked up to cold water).
After an hour of stewing (medium low heat), I turned off the heat and let them cool and soak for another 3 hours. After that, I dumped the water, refilled the pots with water, added 1/2 cup of salt and brought up the heat again.
After the second washing the fleece was super clean with no visible dirt, so I laid 1/3 of it out for drying.
I took the other two pots, dumped the water, refilled it with clean water and some dye.
1 pot was dyed this minty green, the other was hot pink.
This is my first time working with a spotted fleece, so I wanted to try all of the possible combination of colors. First I carded JUST the green, then slowly mixed in some black and then I carded just the black. My favorite combination is both the white (or dyed) and black in equal bits – it provides a lovely heathered effect!
I really loved working with this fiber, it is SO chushy and squooshy and SOFT.
If you want to get your hands on these batts, you can find it in the shop today!
Want to learn more about the Jacob sheep breed? Check out the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association.
What’s your experience with Jacob? Did you love it? What did you make with it?
