First Fleece Revisited

With Tour de Fleece done, I've had a little more time to give to my little Santa Cruz fleece before buckling down for the last of the State Fair knitting and spinning.

A little more on the fleece: this little fleece was courtesy of Sonja Straub at Legacy Farm in Corbett, Oregon. She and her husband are trying to help preserve this rare breed, descendants of sheep (probably merino) left by Spanish settlers on the Catalina islands off of California. To preserve the native vegetation, the sheep have been removed from the island -- Santa Cruz sheep, not being endemic, can of course be raised anywhere that sheep can be raised -- and several breeders are trying to keep the breed alive. The sheep have a short, but fine and tightly-crimped fleece.

Washing continues, one small bit at a time.

There's still a lot of VM -- vegetative material -- in the fleece after washing. It took intensive combing of each of the locks to get most of the hay and stuff out. The crimp just hangs on to any little bits.

Curious to see if carding would make cleaning go any faster, I put some uncombed locks on to some borrowed hand cards.

Hmm... in a word... no. At least not the way I was doing it. All I got was a tangled mess of wool and hay.

However, carding some combed locks made a few nice, fluffy rolags.

Using the rolags, I tried spinning woolen using the long draw, and it produced a fluffier yarn, though less even than the worsted-spun from locks:

Here's the worsted-spun (left) and woolen spun (right) side by side. Still tiny bits of VM in the finished yarn, not so as to make the yarn scratchy, but I'd probably want to dye this to make it look nicer.



The wool wasn't as soft as I thought a merino-type sheep should be, and the fibers feel as though they may be coarser (that is, a higher micron count) than merino wool, but it's incredibly elastic. The yarn stretches and bounces back amazingly. If the fibers were longer (for better wear), the wool would made great-fitting socks. It could be just the thing for mittens and gloves and for close-fitting sweaters.

Verdict: The tight crimp and the high grease content (yeah, that's a merino characteristic all right!) make these sheep into dirt and hay magnets. For the best quality fleece, they'll have to be coated in those fetching little canvas jackets to keep the fleece as clean as possible. The downside to coating sheep is that the tips of the locks tend to felt a little, but I'm not finding felting to be a serious problem with this fleece as I wash it. If I really agitated it, the fleece may felt, but the amount of agitation I'm giving it isn't causing felting. As short as the locks are, these sheep are going to need skilled shearers to get the most out of each fleece, and to keep out the second cuts. The short fibers are a challenge to spin, but they're suitable for both worsted and woolen spinning. While this particular fleece isn't as silky soft as merino gets, it's not downright scratchy, just a "crunchy" texture. The high crimp produces a highly elastic yarn that would be great for fitted garments, particularly outerwear where softness is less of an issue. I'd be interested to know what the micron count is for these fibers.

Tour de Fleece Day 23: Finish Line!

On the last day of the Tour de Fleece, I plied my sample of Santa Cruz fleece, getting a few yards each of 2-ply and chain-plied 3-ply:

It doesn't feel as soft as I'd expect a merino-type sheep to be, but I still need to work with this to see what I can do with hand carders and a woolen preparation. Carders may get out more of the vegetative bits, too. It sure has the lanolin content of a merino-type. Even after soaking in hot water and detergent several times to get all the dirt out, I still feel sheep grease!

I also got started on the hand-dyed BFL that came all the way from England:

Those lovely sherbet colors might make a nice spring shawl.

And here's the final TDF count:

480 yards silk/wool (4 oz), 360 yards pygora (2 oz), 130 yards qiviut (1 ounce), for a total of 7 ounces and 1000 yards, plus the Santa Cruz samples and at least 1/2 ounce into the BFL. Not anywhere near the TDF production of some folks who have several thousands of yards and a dozen or so skeins all washed and finished, but pretty good production in the time I've had between work, canning, and the usual chores and all.

Tour de Fleece Day 22: Nearly there...

Washed, fulled, whacked, dried, and skeined -- it's qiviut! About 130 yards of, well, probably fingering to DK weight plushy soft yarn:

Also started test-spinning the Santa Cruz fleece that I've got combed out. I'm thinking this might not be State Fair entry material, at least not in its current state:

That's spinning from the tiny little locks, and as you can see from all the little brown flecks, it still has a lot of trash in it that I'm still having a heckuva time getting out. I'll borrow some carders and see if a good, brisk carding gets more out, and if spinning woolen works for this fiber. It's got such a tight crimp that spinning worsted from locks feels like spinning elastic!

Tour de Fleece Day 21: Plying, combing

That nasty fleece? It dried out to -- well, not quite clean, but a whole lot cleaner. I'd already cleaned and combed out a small piece, yielding about half an ounce of fiber. A lot of work for a mere half-ounce, and about half of what I washed two days ago yielded another 3/4 of an ounce:

I'm not sure how those teeny little locks are going to spin, but I'll give it a try. I need 2 ounces for a sample to enter in the state fair, so I'll need to comb out another 3/4 of an ounce.

Also used the ball winder to made a center-pull ball of the qiviut single, and I've been carefully plying from both ends. A bit of a trick. Would have been a lot easier if I'd wound the ball the other direction -- the direction I was plying it so the outside end would come off in the right direction. Now I know.

Just about done, and I still have a little time to finish it tonight.

Tour de Fleece Day 20: Challenge Day!

Okay, it wasn't a huge challenge compared with what other TDF participants did, but in the little time I had today for spinning, I finished the rest of my ounce of qiviut, while teaching myself the long draw:


Plus I started combing out the piece of fleece that I washed (and washed and washed) yesterday. All in all, not bad for spinning productivity on a day when I had summer teaching to do.

I'll let that single rest on the bobbin, the wind it into a plying ball and ply from both ends.

Tour de Fleece Day 19: Rest day

Today was a day of rest for les Tours, both Fleece and France, so I took the opportunity to wash some of the Santa Cruz fleece that's been waiting for my attention.

There's a white fleece in there. Really. There is.

Honest. Or so they tell me.

Tour de Fleece Day 18: The problem with fuzzy yarn...

... is how can you tell when you photograph it up close if your picture is in focus or not?



I'm halfway through the qiviut, and appear to be teaching myself the long draw as I go. At least, I've been letting twist into the draft zone, and the draw is slowly getting longer and longer. Ah, this stuff is lovely! I weighed the roving on a gram scale to divide it into two equal portions for spinning into singles for a 2-ply, but I may just spin the whole ounce on one bobbin and try plying from the inside and outside of a plying ball. A new challenge, and I don't want to waste a gram of this roving!

Tour de Fleece Day 17: Luxury of luxuries

Ah, the silk/merino yarn washed up nicely, and with some fulling and whacking, it fluffed up a bit. At least, as much as silk will fluff up. Some dye bleeding, so I'll have to be careful washing and blocking this in the future, but otherwise, quite lovely.

And a close-up, of course. Just like a good washing and blocking of a knit garment, a thorough washing and whacking (and fulling, if appropriate) does wonders to help even out the tension in handspun yarn:

Now on to the most luxurious item in the stash... mmmm, the Qiviut! The short, fluffy fibers are a new challenge, and I'm finding a semi-woolen draw with a fast whorl to put plenty of twist in the singles is working well.

Visually, not much to look at, I'll admit that. Sort of gray-brown and tweedy. But oh, this is deliciously soft! Not the silkiness of pygora or angora, but a tender, plushy softness. I could happily sleep on this stuff and never, ever want to get out of bed again.

Tour de Fleece Day 16: Skein #2 done!

Taa daa! The second skein of the Tour de Fleece, completed!

I chain-plied the whole thing today, and I'm sure it will look a lot smoother and a lot less wonky after it's had its bath, a little fulling, a good whack, and re-skeining. It's 50/50 silk and merino top, Aventurine colorway from Dicentra Designs, 4 ounces, between 480 and 490 yards. Hmm, I'm seeing a silk/merino lace shawl in my future...

Tour de Fleece Day 15: At the end of the roving

That's it! That's the last bit of the silk/merino roving, spun into one continuous single!

It'll rest on the bobbin overnight, then I'll start chain-plying tomorrow.