Spinning Shetland

Waaayyy back in July, the topic of The Sheepspotters' Society was fiber prep. I decided to unearth the bag of raw Shetland fleece I purchased at MDSW in 2019. It was prepackaged in a 1-pound bag and promoted as part of the Shave 'Em to Save 'Em initiative. I picked it up from Fluffy U Fiber Farm in nearby Dover, PA.

Normally it's not a good idea to store raw, unwashed fleece, as the smell really attracts unwanted pests. But I sort of forgot about this bag. It was so small and well contained. And the bag was thick and nicely sealed. Luckily, no ill effects came from this forgetfulness. 

I washed it in tubs, in my kitchen sink, with Unicorn Power Scour. Then I did some sampling to determine how to prep it. It turned out that the locks were too short for flicking or combing, so that left me with carding. I started making rolags with my hand cards ... lots of rolags. 

Some of my rolags were definitely better than others, and it's always good to practice. I did wonder if I got the fleece clean enough, though. Sometimes it felt like there was a fair amount of lanolin left and that makes it harder to card. Also, it was almost impossible for me to create a rolag without neppy tips. 

See how the tips are still kind of closed up? I think this is normal - this is the end of the locks that is most exposed to the elements - but it didn't want to open up in the cards. I tried various methods for getting into them, but almost nothing worked. Carding this fiber was kind of hard on my hands and wrists, so I started carding only 5 rolags a day (but every day) in order to move through the fiber.

I spun some of the rolags as I made them (it's nice to alternate, because carding and spinning use different muscles), and I noticed that those tips were a PROBLEM. They just caused lumps and bumps in the yarn. Sometimes I could pull slubs out, but many times I could not. I finally decided to just spin and not fret too much. I spun these rolags long draw. (I love long draw.)

At the very end of my carding process, I remembered that someone once said there's no shame in cutting the fibers. So I cut off the tips before carding the rest. This is the technique that worked best! But I estimate I only did that with the last 10-15% of the fiber. Still, live and learn...

I spun a full bobbin of singles, and then turned to other projects. But I came back to my boxes of rolags (2 tubs, heaped high) in September, wanting to get them spun and out of the living room where my might attract wee beasties. I put myself on a regimen of spinning 5 rolags per day. 5-a-day seems to be my current solution! Soon enough, I added two more bobbins of singles to the one I had from July:

So pretty. I made a 3-ply yarn. As expected, it is lumpy and uneven. It looks pretty rustic. It also looks browner than I expected it to:

In all, I have 596 yards and 278 grams. This comes in at 10 WPI (wraps per inch) which I think is a worsted weight yarn, more or less.

I was shocked at how dirty the water was when I finished the yarn. I knew the fiber had a lot of VM in it after washing because dust and twigs and sharp splinter things fell out of it the whole time I carded and spun it. But I didn't expect the water to be so cloudy and gross when I finished the skeins. I did an initial wash in Eucalan, then another one in Soak (because that was the very last of my Eucalan), and then another one in Power Scour (which is WAY more concentrated), and still the water was cloudy. I did a rinse with a glug of vinegar, and got more cloudiness. I gave up at that point, thwacked my skeins, and hung them to dry.

I can't say that this was the most pleasant spinning experience I've ever had, and I'm not especially proud of the result, either. I'm still unsure whether the problems were due to the initial fiber, or something more in my control (whether cleaning or carding). Clearly this is a growth area for me. But hey, at least it's out of my (fiber) stash.