Shearing Sheep - Spinning
Ah, Spring! That time of year, at least in my part of the world, when the lambs are on the ground and it's time to harvest the wool crop.... yes, shearing day is here at long last. While shearing day is something that every shepherd who spins ... [... more]
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Classifying Breeds of Sheep and Wool Grades - Spinning
Sometime back, Spin Off Magazine ran a contest called "Save The Sheep". The focus of this contest was using wool from rare breeds for a project to show that these breeds and their wool had value and were well worth preserving. Included with the [... more]
Bella Online |
I Don't Need Another Hobby - Spinning
Back when I decided to learn how to spin, wheels were not very common outside of museums. "Choice" was limited, no one in my area knew of anyone selling wheels, shops did not carry them, books were limited to older used ones which could not be . [... more]
Bella Online |
Wool Count Systems - Spinning
One of the most important qualities of a fleece is its degree of fineness or coarseness. A hand spinner must be able to judge this in order to select a fleece that will be suitable for the planned end use of the fiber. Over the years, various ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Structural Fleece Faults - Spinning
Processing a grease fleece for a project - washing, picking, and combing or carding it - is time consuming and nothing is more frustrating than finding that the fleece you plan to process is faulty. A faulty fleece takes longer to process, wastes ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Fleece Stains and Foreign Matter - Spinning
While structural fleece faults affect the actual structure of the staples, staining and foreign matter contamination is usually caused by substances getting into or on the fleece. A stained fleece or one contaminated by vegetable matter may be ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Crimp - Spinning
We all know that wool has crimp and that fleeces from different breeds of sheep have different crimping patterns. Some breeds, such as Merino have a high number of crimps per inch of staple length while other breeds; such as Lincoln have only a ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Breed History - Manx Loaghtan - Spinning
While doing research on "primitive" sheep breeds, I found some interesting information on the Manx Loaghtan sheep. This Northern Short-tailed type of sheep is found on the Isle of Man off the coast of Great Britain and is descended from the ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Shetland Sheep - Spinning
The word "sheep" brings to mind, for me, the image of a four-legged creature, about hip high on me, a bit weighty - 150 - 175 pounds or so - with wool that is white, brown, black, or any combination thereof. The size, in particular, has always . [... more]
Bella Online |
Border Leicester Wool - Spinning
I owe my love for Border Leicester sheep to a lady from the thumb area of Michigan. Janet McPeck sold me my first Border Leicester fleece. It was a black lamb fleece that was so dark and so clean, I actually asked her if it had already been ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Wool for a Purpose - Spinning
There are so many different breeds of sheep that the spinner's palette of choices is full to overflowing. But how is a new spinner to know what to look for? There are a few books on the subject, In Sheep's Clothing by Jane Fournier and Fleece in ... [... more]
Bella Online |
Making & Using Control Cards - Spinning
We all have many demands on our time: jobs, family and social obligations. We have errands to run and appointments to keep. With our busy life styles, it's not always easy to find the time to simply sit and spin. Many of us have only a few ... [... more]
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