Icelandic wool has two dual coated, meaning that they have two distinct kinds of wool mixed together. The longer wool is called guard hair and the shorter is also softer, and is the undercoat. There are lots of other names people have for these two coats, but most of them depend on what type of sheep or animal it is. These ones are just about universal.
You can separate out the two coats and make two different yarns, the undercoat makes a great, lofty woolen yarn, whereas the guard hairs make a strong smooth yarn.
The guard hairs in Cloud's fleece were very soft, so I blended the two coats together with handcarders to make a handspun textured yarn.
Today is Christmas Eve, the day our family has the big dinner. We have a collection of friends who come from other places, and don't have any family in town to share Christmas with. So we gather them together at our place for a big Pot Luck dinner tonight. Busy day cleaning house, but first I'll sit back and enjoy my coffee before everything becomes hectic.
This is also the beginning of the traditional Spinners Vacation. Though traditions vary from place to place, in the past, a person would spin every day of the year, except for the 12 days of Christmas, starting again on Distaff Day. Because I'm on such a roll with my spinning right now, and don't want to loose momentum, I'm taking the Yuletide holiday and spinning only yarn for myself. A few treats that I've been wanting to spin, but couldn't justify taking the time off from other projects.
1 comment:
I got a change to try spinning using fibre that was came from an animal I had seen in a photo, and I knew its name. While spinning I was thinking that animal too, and it felt good, fibre felt even more warmer and softer. If "ready to spin fibre" or uncoloured yarn were sold with animals photo and info, were it then selling better? Most yarns in shops are only yarns.
Beautiful sheep, horns are growing evenly. It surely would like to jump into cars back seat and go to town with you. (My great aunts family had sheeps a long time ago. They had a small car that they used to transport sheeps! Well, back seat was removed and sheeps häd to stand.)
Jani
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