What Do You Do With That Stockpile of Wool and Fiber?

As I said last post, we have a stockpile of wool and fiber. After combing the six pounds sheep's wool, it was still coarse and somewhat scratchy to the touch. It would not be suitable for a sweater or anything close to the skin unless you used a ton of fabric softener when you washed it. I even used baby shampoo and no more tangles on this wool to no avail. It was slick enough the spin to easily, but I knew with the first hand washing that nice feeling would be gone. It has a very nice crimp to it so when you spun it, it held the twist. The staple length was a passable 4" with longer back pieces of 5".

 I know that was a lot of spinning or raw wool jargon in the previous paragraph. But what I'm wondering whether to take the time to spin this gifted wool or not. I guess I could sell it as felting wool. I'd turn over the profits to the person that gifted me the wool. It's only right. With such a short staple length, it would require a greater number of twists per inch, but that isn't the problem because pure angora yarn is the same. Plying or taking the each strand of of spun wool and spinning them together would take 4 to 8 plies to make a usable weight for outerwear. Again like working with angora  except I'd have to heavily lotion my hand and heavily spritz the wool while spinning it.

I was thinking of this pattern

I'm concerned with the yardage. If I made mittens or a hat with the yarn, they'd have to be lined. But, I was thinking more like a coat. The coloring of the wool (dark brown with flecks of gold and tan), would make a gorgeous coat. The coarseness of the wool wouldn't matter. If only the processed wool was softer.  Even six pounds of wool, I may get 6.600 yards of worsted weight spun yarn. As any experienced knitter will tell you, that's pushing it mighty close if you are knitting a coat. For me, it would take  5, 184 yards of yarn (double strands of yarn throughout) not to mention enough yarn to frog (make it wrong) and the amount of yarn to sew the seams. It also depends on how tight you knit. These days, I knit pretty loose. Remember, I'm knitting one handed. This doesn't leave much error room. If I knit it perfectly with no waste, I could make some matching fingerless gloves to go with it, but I doubt it. For me, unless I've made two or more of a particular item, I'll frog it several times until it's finished. This is why I pick one pattern for (socks or sweaters) in a year and knit several pair. My brain can't handle multiple patterns at a time anymore.

Cath 2012

I only kept three pounds of the ten pounds of the pure, English angora fiber from our rabbits this year. If I knew I would losing 90% of them this year, I would have kept more instead of selling it. Once it is spun into yarn, I'll have enough yarn to knit my daughter in Alaska a couple of hats and vest. If I blend it with the other fiber rabbit's fiber and an equal amount of merino wool I have she might get a sweater for her next birthday. She's tiny and might wear a x-small, and have room to spare.

A lot of time has passed since this picture was taken, but she's still as tiny. No fat to speak of except in her bust area. With all the hiking and sports the family is involved with, I don't expect her to suddenly convert to my side of the family's body type anytime soon. Her aunt on my ex's  side is still wears little girl's size clothes at age 58. The only time either woman weighed over 100 lbs was when they were pregnant.

The four lbs of alpaca fiber will be blended 50/50 with merino wool to make a nice sweater for Mel eventually. I may just bead it with small pearls. Nah! Mel ain't that type of girly girl. I made her a cashmere shawl for our first Christmas together here. She hasn't worn it once. I'm half tempted to take it back and knit her a hat or maybe some socks instead. Now I could take the cream colored cashmere and bead it with crystals and I could sell it for a pretty penny. Would that make me an Indian giver?

Decisions, decisions, but that's half the fun of making your own yarn. The possibilities are endless.

Y'all have a blessed day!

Cockeyed Jo