A while back I had an email from a friend – someone she knew had some Jacob fleeces available. She knows I spin and wondered if I was interested. It turned out that the lady in question’s daughter was house sitting and looking after a small flock of Jacob’s sheep. They had been sheared and the fleeces would be thrown away or burnt if nobody wanted them.
I asked for four – two for me and two for my friend Y. The fleeces were at the other end of the country but another family member was visiting and brought them back so I could pick them up locally.
I didn’t know what to expect really. I have read about premium spinning fleeces where the sheep are coated to keep the fibre clean and free of vegetable matter (VM). I certainly wasn’t expecting that but when I unpacked the fleece I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge.
It had been packed away wet and absolutely stank. It was pretty dirty, with discolored tips, lots of VM and a fair amount of second cuts (very short bits of fibre where the shearer had gone over the sheep twice).
I took it outside and put it on the skirting rack to remove the dung tags and as many second cuts and bits of VM as I could before washing it in the sink with washing up liquid and boiling water. Urgh! The water turned the colour of builders’ tea!
After repeating the process three times the water was running clear – hopefully I’d done enough to remove the lanolin from the fibre too. I hung it up to dry and thankfully the dreadful smell had disappeared.
I’ve recently acquired some fibre combs and these have come in handy to prepare the fleece for spinning. There is some wastage (those pesky second cuts). I’ve separated out some of the black and white fibre and combed it separately. Where the colours can’t be separated they blend to a rather lovely grey. The fibre feels quite soft with a lovely crimp……I’m looking forward to spinning it.
Stitches by the Sea 