Trenchwork

It’s amazing how spinning and fiber in work pauses can add up, and I’m a bit pleased with how things are going, although I’d have liked to have managed more.

Day 11

I finished the second bobbin of Bond.

Day 12 . . .

saw another bobbin and a single batt. Forgive the bad picture; it’s what you get when you take a photo indoors at 11pm.

(ETA: The batt the left comes from the fleece at the bottom of the post; the bobbin on the right is Bond singles.)

That gave me 3 bobbins ready to ply.

Day 13, today

Woooot! We have yarn! I managed to ply 2 bobbins’ worth of 3-ply yarn. There are roughly 450+ yards of light worsted weight. The yarn is still wet in this shot, but it’ll give you an idea; I was able to comb the fleece in such a way that I kept the golden tips, and the shifts in colors are still present in the yarn.

I think I’m going to like it very much indeed.

There were leftover singles on two of the bobbins, and I think I’m about halfway through the fiber. I’ll refill the bobbins and ply the next batch, but I’m guessing there will be 1200-1500 yards. Not as much as I’d hoped, but enough to do something with.

The batt, however, has been much less predictable, and a total riot.

When I was home for my stepdad’s death in March, a friend who seems bent on enabling my fiber passions decided I needed the comfort of fleece.  She was right, of course, and let’s face it:  when it comes to fleece, I have the resistance a 2-year-old has to candy.

One of the partial fleeces she sent was a Gotland/Karakul/Rambouillet mix from a wether named Mr. Onery.

I’ve decided the name is appropriate, but not because the fellow is producing ugly wool.  Rather, he can’t seem to decide what kind of fleece he wants to grow.  Have a look:

In most crossbred sheep, you have a fleece which bears the characteristics of its ancestry to one degree or another. So, for instance, a Rambouillet/Teeswater fleece may look and feel more like Rambouillet or more like Teeswater, or may be like both; it may have the Rambo’s fineness and the Teeswater’s silkiness. Mr. Onery, however, seems to have decided to grow representative locks of all his ancestors . . . sort of.

See, Karakul is a primitive breed with a double coat rather like Icelandic, except that—in my own experience—Icelandic has a higher proportion of thel than Karakul has. But it does have that very long tog and the distinctive undercoat, the thel. In Mr. Onery’s case, the tog is much softer than his Karakul ancestor could claim, and the thel is similarly softer and a bit longer or more variable in length than the Karakul. In some ways, the thel is more reminiscent of a low-crimp and rather silky Rambo lock.

And then there is the Gotland, with its somewhat silky feel and wavy curl.

And to both of those, the Rambouillet has added fineness and a denser lock.

I rather want to meet this sheep. Because, you see, he simply cannot look like what my imagination paints him as: a softly curling ball of shiny wool with drooping spikes of tog in a crazy patchwork quilt of lock types—rather like a wilting porcupine. But he IS a confused little soul, isn’t he?

Given the variations in lock length even within the locks, there’s just no good way to comb this fleece without losing half the fleece. In order to retain as much as possible, carding seems to be the only viable option. That at least gives the opportunity to mix up the sections so you get some of all types of locks in a single batt, and then to blend those well. I’ll pull out any stiff hairs as I come to them, but thus far the fleece promises to be fairly soft, very silky, and have a lot of shine.

The batt in the Day 12 photo above was carded on the Strauch Petite, and nigh well exploded when I took it off the carder. It weighs 1.3+ ounces, and is over 4 inches thick, without being dense at all.

I am Totally entertained. And I can’t wait to see what the yarn will be like.