Thursday, July 29, 2010

A New Spin


This is the start of a bobbin of Merino (sheep) wool and some gray/white Angora (rabbit) wool yarn. It's a bit overspun, adding in the loose Angora while spinning the Merino roving has a high learning curve. I'm not even sure if that's how you're supposed to do it. But I really like the results and this is only a single ply.

I've been spinning for almost a month. I think I'm fairly decent at it for a beginner. Since our land is only 5 acres and part of that will be needed to help sustain us, we need a product we can sell to cover those things we can't do ourselves. Enter in: Fiber.

Last December we started with one Angora. Now, we have three. We're hoping the farm will be able to support a small flock of sheep, herd of goats and a dairy cow. This Merino I'm spinning is so nice. Having a few of these sheep would be magnificent.

I'm hoping to take a class at the local knitting store to teach me -finally- how to knit properly. I already have a cozy, cream colored hat in my imagination made from my first spinnings.

My only issue now is not wanting to part with anything.
The fibers, the yarn; I love it all.

3 comments:

Kaylala said...

That's my problem too...I find a nice yarn, then I'm afraid of "wasting it" by using it on a project I'm surely to fumble along with...

Bex said...

I'd be hesitant to include Merino sheep in your area. They're like wooly Sharpei (sp?) dogs and have some pretty serious fly problems because of all the folds. Maybe look into some of the hair-type sheep. I wish I could bring up names but my brain is in weekend mode. But, I want to say that the hair-type are bred for high humidity areas. As for the yarn, once you expand into carding your own wool (if you haven't already) you add the angora during the carding process. That way it's a fairly even mix. Like, card the two wools separately to get them ready then card them together to get the final roving.

Okay. Caffeine-induced comment over now. :D

Crystal said...

This first spinning will be for my own use. I wanted to see how the angora works so consistency in the angora/merino ratio isn't that important to me right now :)

I've been looking at drum carders, I might have an opportunity to get some sheeps wool free early next year and I'll be carding that. The hand carders tore. me. up. My knuckles will sport scars.

I'm still investigating the types of animals we're able to have here. The thing I've found is that it gets hot EVERYWHERE, even up north it's getting hot -if not hotter- than it is down here. The humidity might be another thing though. We have angora's now and yes, tending them is more work since I usually have to go out when its hottest and cool them off so I would imagine sheep would be the same.