Friday, August 14, 2020

Fiber Arts Friday: Shave 'Em to Save 'Em, Shetland

Shetland - This batt is part of the Connecticut trilogy sourced from Tranquil Morning farm.


As mentioned earlier, I have a Shetland provider, but buying this, means that my whole fleeces can go directly into our products, rather than having to pinch 4 oz for my SE2SE quest.

I have been interested in Shetland Sheep for a long time.  I learned to spin on Shetland and they are on our short list, if we were ever to add sheep to the farm.  My friend, Deb Robson, is especially interested them, so I've had the opportunity to learn from her enthusiasm.

When I paused the Santa Cruz, next on my list was this Shetland which was provided in batts.... I decided that I'd prefer to have this in roving, so I spent some time with the fiber and spun the CVM out of order.


I spent a cold, rainy morning in June (6/9/20) breaking up the batts up and pulling them thru a couple of washers.  It's not a very refined roving, but should be easier to spin.


I weighed and separated the sections, so I could get to a relatively even 2-ply yarn... 51+53g.

This Shetland sample has a staple just short of 2-inches.


I started spinning this in mid-June, just prior to the Tour de Fleece starting, but completed both singles and the plied yarn in a few days.


This is the most irregular yarn I've made in a long time, but I think it would be fun in a hat.


There's still some VM in the final yarn, but I love the variation in color and the rusticness of this yarn.  I think it would be fun in a simple hat.


The Livestock Concervancy has the Shetland listed as Recovering, meaning that they have exceeded the Watch Category of 10,000 registrations, but are still in need of monitoring.

It feels good knowing that I am able to support a local conservation breeder of rare breed livestock.  :-)

Final Yarn: Shetland
Pull Batts into Roving:  June 9, 2020
Single Duration: June 17 - June 22, 2020
Ply Duration: June 22 - June 25, 2020
ounces: 3.5
yards: 18, 2-ply
wpi:  10

Ready to Submit:  June 27, 2020

SE2SE Status:
Total Breeds: 22
Breeds Sourced: 16
Breeds Spun: 10
Breeds To Go: 12

Months Remaining: 16 (12/31/21)


Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

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