One Pound of Sheep Wool Can Make How Many Miles of Yarn?

I know that some of you have been quite curious almost just how much yarn comes from one sheep. I was too! I've processed fully merely a couple of our fleeces, only never in a methodical enough style that I could really trace it, ounce for skein, or sheep for sweater, or however I wanted to measure information technology.

And then, today I bring you Cinnamon. Everyone's favorite sheep (she actually is) and Mama to this spring's Nutmeg and Clove (our only ram, who incidentally, is sticking around, which means oh boy, at that place'due south merely more yarn coming my manner).

Mind yous - everything I am about to tell you is coming from a consummate novice, please exercise keep that in mind. We have practically no idea what we're doing, just nosotros're certainly doing information technology. And so...

In the leap, we sheared the four ladies, only before lambing flavour. Nosotros're on a twice a year shearing cycle with our sheep - they're due for a haircut this month. It seems to grow long enough, and if we leave information technology for a full year, it but becomes matted and more difficult to deal with as a fleece. I've chosen not to coat our sheep - at least for now. Amazingly, they stay adequately clean without. Everyone with feel (meaning non u.s.a.) who visits them comments on but how make clean their fleeces are, and and then I'm riding that and not bothering at the moment with the expense and hassle of coating ten sheep. That might change in the hereafter, I don't know.

(These 2 photos are Anne, not Cinnamon, obviously. Simply I didn't take a photograph of Cinnamon'southward roving entirety and wanted you to see what that was like, as a whole. Anne's upward next.)

This year, as I told y'all, I sent those 4 fleeces off to be cleaned and carded professionally. Cinnamon's came back as roving, weighing just under 2 pounds. They're tiny sheep, these Shetland - I don't call up any of ours weigh over eighty pounds. That's part of the reason we chose this breed - I love that they are manageable by me and the older children, and that when the need arises, I'm perfectly capable of picking ane upwardly or wrestling them to the ground (of course I'one thousand much more graceful than that. Ahem).

Sending those fleeces off for some assist in processing may but take been one of the best decisions I fabricated all year. Being a new spinner, I tin can't tell yous what a relief and approving it is to be spinning with such perfect roving. And how much time it has saved me in the paw carding that I was doing before! I was able to go right to spinning it these by couple of weeks, and information technology was such a breeze having it and then beautifully prepared for me. I was surprised at how fast it all spun upwards - I finished with Cinnamon and started on Anne last night.

The finished yarn from Cinnamon, now plied, and with the twist set and all skeined upwards, is coming in at a total of 600 yards. I haven't done a swatch but I'm guessing information technology'due south an aran weight if non a beefy, fifty-fifty. (Someday, I'm promised, I'll be able to spin something other than 'fatty yarn'. That volition be lovely.) I've labeled and stored it and volition go on going on the spinning for now. Mayhap this winter I will return to information technology with knitting needles ready to transform it into something else.

I'm not exactly sure what this volition become. It'south still quite 'new spinner' yarn, meaning not entirely consistent and I think information technology requires just the right project as a result. Merely presently enough I'll detect simply the right thing for this yarn, and hopefully the spinning will go on getting better, and earlier long I'll be able to fulfill all the requests coming at me from my family. They're having a lot of fun dreaming those projects upwards - "I'd similar a Cinnamon hat!" or "I want a Jane sweater!" or "How well-nigh Charlotte socks!" and "A needle felted Clove pig!" And the listing goes on....

Until then...I'll keep enjoying the procedure and all the learning and fun that comes with it - from lambing flavor to sweater wearing. Enjoying...and pinching myself every once in a while too. This really is happening, in my own backyard.

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Source: https://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2014/10/cinnamon-from-sheep-to-skein.html