Lessons Learned so far

So, I have now spun 10 breeds of wool – some of them more than once. And I have knitted up little swatches from each. I thought it would be a good time to sit back and think about some of the things that I have learned so far. Not all pertain to the breeds! Some are just good, basic spinning lessons & life lessons.

#1. Test the fiber, silly!

Even the best sellers sometimes have fiber to sell that isn’t quite right. You need to test any raw or minimally prepped fiber to make sure it is not tender or otherwise damaged before you buy – every time.

#2. If it smells like it has lanolin in it, and feels like it has lanolin it, better give it another hot wash.

This one is kind of obvious, right? But I had to learn it the hard way. A corollary of this lesson is – spinning with grease still in the wool is a pain.

#3. Sellers do not always know what they are selling. It is up to you, the spinner, to educate yourself about the properties of wool so that you know what you are spinning.

I am thinking here of the grey Not-Suffolk. I don’t think the sellers had any intention of duping anybody – Suffolk is a pretty common sheep and there is really no need to do so. But evidently the word “Suffolk fiber” means more than one thing. You really do need to read carefully before you make up your mind about a breed!

#4. You learn more about a breed when you start out with raw fiber or washed locks. Commercial top is easy to spin, but kind of homogenized. You can get the basics this way – loft, softness, elasticity, staple length – but you really can’t get to “know” the fiber in the same way. I think it is something like knitting from commercial yarn vs. knitting from handspun. The handspun is just more “alive.” The same is true of fiber you process yourself.

A corollary of this lesson is that after working with challenging fiber, “normal” commercial top is dead easy. Indeed, every new experience that you have with different fibers makes a person a better spinner.

#5. Take a lock or staple from the fiber & attach it to a control card before you start spinning the sample! Otherwise, there will be no lock or staple!! (I still keep forgetting this lesson though – ugh!!)

#6. Organize your fiber and plan your approach before you begin. Otherwise you end up with a big jumble of fibers in boxes and become too confused to know what to do next.

#7. Down wools rock! Do I need to add anything else?!

#8. If the seller is kind enough to provide a note with the fiber, read it before you spin.

More Business

I have a few orphan posts that need to be put up – one was a “lessons learned” draft that I never posted. I also finished my Black Welsh Mountain sample and Dorset Horn, but never wrote anything about them. I probably need to re-do these samples as I really do not have enough in my notes to write anything meaningful.

The “lessons learned” will show up shortly, maybe even today.

Restarting and re-organizing for 2014

I am resolving to restart this project and get a good head of steam up in 2014. I have a LOT of breed samples, and I am more than ready to spin them up. I think that I got stymied because of a lack of a real plan – I need a good plan with milestones to keep myself motivated.

I just spent the better part of a day getting all of my samples organized and categorized. I created categories based mainly on the groupings used in the Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, but supplemented with categories from In Sheep’s Clothing or my own biases and impressions. This was basically to minimize the number of breeds that are listed as “other” in FFSB. My categories are as follows:

1. Down-type wools – I will start with the “true” Down wools, then move on to Cheviots, Dorsets, & Welsh Hill & Mountain (which are all categorized as “down type” in ISC). Then I will move on to some that are listed as “Other Breeds” in FFSB but “down type” in ISC.

2. Longwools – starting with the “true” English Longwools, then a few in “Other Breeds of Sheep” and “Wider Circles of Sheep” that ISC calls longwools. I am also going to go out on a limb and put Galway in here, even though it may be an imperfect fit to this group. I am only going to deviate from FFSB once here – they have Gotland as a Northern European Short-tailed breed (which it is of course!) but I want to include it with the longwools.

3. Fine wools – starting with the Merino Family from FFSB,  and moving on to quite a few that FFSB lists as “Other” and ISC (and my fingers!) calls fine wools. These are mostly NZ/Australian and North American-developed hybrids.

4. North European Short-Tailed – this could also be called the “rare and odd sheep breeds from little islands” group, as most of the breeds fit that description. The Finnsheep is neither rare nor from a tiny island, so it seems a bit out of place, and the Castlemilk Moorit is rare but not from a tiny island.

5. Double-coated: Includes the fibers that I have from the Blackfaced Mountain group, as well as a few from other groups. I lumped them together as the processing for them will be similar. I have a few commercial tops that may include both the outer & inner coat. I also included Heidschnucke though I am not positive this is a dual coated sheep. If so, I just have the long outer layer. But that may be all that it grows. Still, spinning that will be something like spinning hte outer layer of the dual coats, so I am putting it here.

6. American Ferals: These are sheep that lived on abandoned islands and became hearty ferals: Gulf Coast, Hog Island, Santa Cruz. I do not know what else they might have in common – I am leaving them to almost last as by then I feel I will know better how to classify them!

7. Others: I tried to keep this category small, but I have quite a few in it. A few of these are North American-developed hybrids raised mainly for meat – California Red, Outouais Arcott, Warhill. A few others are Continental European breeds that are included in FFSB in the “Wider Circles of Sheep” category, which includes very little information to guide categorization. As with the Ferals, I hope that my spinning knowledge will help me categorize them once I get to them. I also plan to see what the Blacker & Beyond group on Ravelry has to say about them, which may help me put them into a “real” category. And then there is Jacob, which stands out there all on its own. I also have a few tops from Woolgatherings that are not really identifiable, as the name given could apply to several different breeds of sheep (e.g. “Welsh” and “Norwegian”).

In all cases I will start with any washed locks that I have in each breed, then move on to top. Rather than doing just samples, if I have a larger sample (2 oz or more) I will spin it all and turn it into a skein right away. If I have any dyed top in my stash I also may spin it up when I get to that breed. I am not 100% committed to doing the dyed tops though – this is more an “if I feel like it” kind of thing.

The sheep should keep me busy for a long time!! But I also have samples in all of these categories:

8. Camelids (hucaya & suri alpaca, llama, guanaco, paco vicuna, baby camel)

9. Goat (cashmere, cashora)

10. Bovine (yak, quiviut)

11. Other furry critters (angora, cat, might save some combings from my dog)

12. Silk

13. Plant and man-made (milk, sea cell)

How long will this take me??? Who knows??