​I waited for a nice day so I can put the fleece through hackles and comb on my back porch. ​For those who are unfamiliar with combing wool, the hackle is the block of wood with rows of nails sticking up that is clamped to my railing in this picture. I put strips of wool on the hackle and run a very sharp comb through it. The comb grabs onto long wool fiber and leave the vegetable matter and wool neps behind. The picture below shows the wool that is combed and ready to use, and what is left on the hackle after several passes of the comb.

​Combing wool is a time-consuming process, but the result is a clean, fluffy, and smooth sliver that will make spinning consistent yarn much easier.

​After hours and hours of combing, I got a pile of wool that is ready to be spun into yarn.

​I spun the wool into single strands of yarn (called singles) on my Schacht Ladybug spinning wheel.

​Then I plied two strands together in the opposite direction on my Spinolution Hopper spinning wheel.

 Here is the result of the yarn before dyeing.

​Next, I took some of the finished yarn and dyed them over the stove with Dharma Company’s acid dye in a yellow to red gradient. The rest of the yarn was left in their natural color, but I washed it to set the twist so it would be easier to handle during the weaving process.

​After the yarn dried, I put it on a swift so I can wind it into center-pull cakes. Some yarn did not want to cooperate, but after some gentle cajoling (and threats with scissors), I managed to get my cakes.

​I wound the undyed yarn onto a warping board. Warp is the vertical threads on a loom. The warping board is a wooden frame with pegs so I can measure out and organize the warp before I thread it into the loom.

​I recently purchased a table-top threading station for my Saori loom, so I can dress my loom while seated at a table instead of having to bend up and down. Even so, this process took some patience.
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First, I divided the yarn over a raddle, so it can wind onto the beam behind it evenly.

When the warp is wound onto the beam (in this case, actually a cardboard tube so I can move it to the loom later), I threaded each strand through each heddle.

​Next, I pulled each strand through the reed.

​I transferred the beam, the reed, and the harnesses to my Saori loom and at last, the actual weaving process can start!

​For this scarf, I used a technique called “clasp weft” where I throw the shuttle through with one color weft, hook over weft of another color and pull the first color back through before changing the shed.

​There are many ways to finish a woven piece. In this case, the scarf recipient requested no fringes, so I decided to just hem the edges.
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First, I washed the cloth in hot water so the fabric can bloom a little bit and settle into its final form. Then I sew a straight line along where I wanted to cut off the fringe so it would not fray. After taking a deep breath, I cut off the fringe as neatly as I could with a pair of super sharp fabric scissors. Then I rolled the edge over and top stitched it to finish the hem.

​This scarf is a bit stiffer than my previous ones. The particular Jacob sheep fleece I used was a medium wool. The resulting scarf is durable and springy, but not as next-to-skin as I would like. It will be great for blocking the wind or rain on a cold windy day.

​The Jacob Sheep developed with very little human input. We call this a “primitive” breed. It is not very clear where these sheep originated from, but they sure found their way into my heart.
 
 
To start, I love the Jacob sheep for their unique appearance. They have sheep faces, 4 horns, and goat-like bodies. They have spotted fleeces in a variety of colors, as you can see from the picture below. Unlike many primitive breeds, Jacob fiber does not have guard hair (hair that is longer and coarser than the downy soft coat).
 
Many people dismiss Jacob fiber as “carpet quality”, but the fiber quality actually depends on the individual sheep. Some have medium and springy fiber with many crimp. Some have longer and coarser fiber with few crimp.

​The lamb who graciously donated his fiber for my breed study was very mischievous so the fleece is quite saturated with vegetable matter (VM) and dirt. Jacob fiber is naturally high in lanolin, so his fleece felt a bit sticky and stiff to the touch. After a decent scouring (several times with hot water and cheap shampoo), the fleece came out soft and springy.

The staple length of this fleece is about 2 inches due to it being a lamb fleece. It is not hard to find adult Jacob fiber staple length closer to 3 inches.

Since there was a lot of VM and dirt in this fleece, I decided to comb the fiber to get it all out. Below, you can see the difference before and after combing.

One thing that also amused me as I was combing this fleece, is the different gradient of wool a single sheep can produce.

​The crimpy, soft lamb fiber was a pleasure to spin. The fiber grabbed onto itself easily and required very little twist to hold itself together. The resulting yarn is soft, elastic, and fluffy. I would use this yarn to make next-to-skin garments such as tank top, neck warmers, or hats.

​I also spun some commercial Jacob fiber. The commercial fiber is much coarser, with fewer crimp, but has almost 5 inches in staple length. 

​Jacob fiber takes dye clearly, and can be overdyed easily. Here is a skein of commercial Jacob fiber I spun and dyed.

A friend of mine gave me a couple alpaca fleece last summer. The white one is from an older alpaca named Maravilla. The golden fleece is from a younger alpaca name Sweet Pea.

I washed and combed some of the fiber myself, but my day time job got in the way. Over the winter, I sent the fiber to a lady at a local farm help me card and mix some merino into the fiber for a more springy texture. She also pulled them into roving for me.

I spun the roving into yarn! The brown yarn and white yarn on each side are called "singles". They are a single strand of yarn. The yarn in the middle is called a 2-ply yarn. It was made with two "single" twisted together. You can see the twist since I used a brown and a white single.

Then I wind them into little yarn cakes. The purpose of winding them is so that I can easily pull the yarn out from the center without the ball of yarn rolling everywhere.

After that, the weaving begins! I used a 20 inch Ashford Knitter's Loom. For those who weave, I used the 5 dents per inch reed, and the set is about 7-10. This made a very open fabric with lots of space between the strand of yarn.

After weaving, I soaked the scarf in hair conditioner and hot water to set the weave. This shrinks the fabric a little bit, and flattens it out once it is dried.

And we are done! This scarf is light and fluffy. The perfect accessory for spring and fall weathers!

I just put up a 4 oz roving up for sale in my store. Here is a little blog post about how it came to be, and ways it can be use.

​Let’s start with how this roving was created. I started with about 12 oz of 19 micron (next-to-skin soft) merino roving. The roving I had was commercially processes and does not have any vegetable matters in it.
I soaked the roving in vinegar water, drained the water, then put it on a tray. Then I mixed Jaquard brand acid dye and applied colour to the roving directly. See below.

​After I am happy with the result, I baked (yes, baked) the roving at 225 degrees for about 30 min. Without opening up the oven, I turned off the heat and let it cool slowly over night.
In the morning, I gently washed the roving in cold water to get rid of excess dye. Then came the extremely difficult part of waiting for the roving to dry.

​After the roving is dry (and plenty of pictures are taken), I took a 4 oz braid, divided it in half, and started spinning.

​For the first half, I spun directly from the roving. I did not pre-draft or split up the roving at all. I finished the yarn by plying it onto itself using the Navajo style. The result is a self-striping yarn with distinct, and somewhat sudden shifts in colour. See below.

​For the second half, I divided up the roving length-wise. I spun half of that. Then I divided the remaining half into 4 strips (also length-wise), and spun those into singles. I finished this yarn by plying the two singles together. This technique is called fractal spin. The idea is to introduce a more gradual shift in colour. See below.

​Last but not least (and because apparently I did not divide up my roving very evenly), I am left with some singles from the fractal spinning. Singles can, of course, be used on their own.

Spinning is not the only option for this roving. You can also use it in felting projects or knit the roving itself. Until next time!

As usual, we start with a dirty fleece.

​Usually, the first step is to scour (remove dirt and lanolin) the wool before carding (brushing the locks open) and spinning. I figured I'd save some time by scouring and dyeing it. So I carded the fiber first.

Then, I dyed the fiber with a proprietary blend of Jaquard acid dyes.

Next, I spun the fibers into yarn!​

Knitting came next! I was in good company. Doctor Who PJ pants and Lazy Ewe yarn bowl provided by my best friend, Mallory!

I did not use a pattern, because I am a rebel.

It turns out, I'm not too great with doing colour work. This is the back, and I got a headache trying to tidy up all the loose ends.

I did a gauge swatch before start knitting, because I am not THAT rebellious. However, I must have counted the stitches wrong because the hat came out a bit too bit. I threw it in the washer and felted it down.

Felting it meant some dog hair got stuck in the hat (oops, good thing the boyfriend loves the dog).

The fabric turned out slightly stiff due to the fiber being compacted down during the felting process; but this hat is wind proof, water resistant, and very durable. Over all, I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

Next up, we have a sample of over dyed yarn. The original colour is brown. I over-dyed it with Jaquard acid dye in yellow, to create a golden colour.

Below is a sample of yarn spun from the Rainbows End Farm's brown and white roving, in lopi style. I thought the natural texture and colour are extraordinary so I did not dye it at all.

Last but not least, this is a sample spun from the farm's gray and white roving, dyed with Jaquard Acid dye. This patch is knitted with the linen stitch, so it is slightly thicker and stiffer than the stockinette stitch I used in the previous samples.

If you'd like to try your own hand at spinning or working with icelandic sheep fiber/yarn, and to learn more about organic farming, visit the Rainbows End Farm website!

This sheep breed comes from the border area between England and Scotland. It is primarily raise for wool as well as meat.
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I was not able to secure a raw cheviot fleece, so I will be skipping the Raw Wool section of this study.

​The staple length of cheviot is around 4-5 inches. It has medium crimp, and the micron count is in the high 20s.

​ It certainly is not as next-to-skin soft as merino but it is not scratchy either. It is easy to spin, felt-resistant (machine washable), and very durable. As you can see from the picture, Cheviot does not have the luster that longer wool fibers do, but it takes in colour well. You can certainly expect more dyed Cheviot fiber from me in the future.

​Knitting with cheviot is as easy as spinning it. The texture of the fiber gives the yarn a little more friction even on slippery needles. I did not use a pattern for this hat.

In the last update, I showed you some polwarth I spun. I was able to dye it a festive colour (for valentine's day maybe) over the week. I am still hoping to knit it up soon so I can do a breed study.

I did manage to actually spin a little bit over the week. Here is 4 oz of Peruvian wool that  spun and dyed myself. This one was done with Navajo ply, so it is a 3-ply yarn instead of my usual 2-ply. Hopefully, I'll be able to knit this one up for a breed study as well.

Although I only spun one skein this week, I received a whole lot of new fiber from my boyfriend! He got me some yak, baby camel, angora, and mink! If only I had more time to spin!

Well, that is for now. I anticipate a busy upcoming week due to having to travel to pick up my car (from a repair shop in the middle of no where in Indiana) and hopefully, something to be done with my toothache.