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These handspun yarns are truly unique. Their textures leave the rules
of the hand spinning world behind. The color combinations create a
garden party mood. The names of the colorways of each yarn resemble the
inspiration for that individual yarn. ”Snowy Birch” is a natural gray
wool spun and plied with white mohair locks; reminiscent of a birch
tree on a snowy day. Often, the yarn is named for the sheep that grew
the fleece. The fleece from a sheep named Puff became known as “Puff’s
Magic” which is a white wool with streaks of brightly colorful mohair
pastels spun into it.
All of the yarns are handspun by
Juaquetta. The wool she uses is only the softest; freshly shorn from
sheep raised by her shepherdess friends. They tend carefully to their
flocks to keep the fleeces free of vegetable matter. Some even put
jackets on their sheep! These are called covered fleeces and results in
wool relatively clean of straw, weeds and burrs. After being shorn from
the sheep, the raw wool is hand washed in Orvus or Tide and allowed to
dry or immediately dyed with Gaywool dyes or Kool-Aid. Usually the only
processing done before spinning is picking the fibers with a Pat Green
triple picker. This allows the yarn to spin up with lots of texture and
allows the colors to show. A seven to ten pound colorway of yarn can
take over a week to produce; from start to finish. Most yarns also
contain the softest kid mohair and sometimes other luxury fibers such
as alpaca, angora bunny, camel down, silk, fine wools, linen and dog
hair brushings are spun in as well. Many unusual, textured yarns are
created by plying a strand of handspun yarn with chenille or boucle
yarns. These handspun yarns are truly unique. Their textures leave the rules
of the hand spinning world behind. The color combinations create a
garden party mood. The names of the colorways of each yarn resemble the
inspiration for that individual yarn. ”Snowy Birch” is a natural gray
wool spun and plied with white mohair locks; reminiscent of a birch
tree on a snowy day. Often, the yarn is named for the sheep that grew
the fleece. The fleece from a sheep named Puff became known as “Puff’s
Magic” which is a white wool with streaks of brightly colorful mohair
pastels spun into it.
All of the yarns are handspun by
Juaquetta. The wool she uses is only the softest; freshly shorn from
sheep raised by her shepherdess friends. They tend carefully to their
flocks to keep the fleeces free of vegetable matter. Some even put
jackets on their sheep! These are called covered fleeces and results in
wool relatively clean of straw, weeds and burrs. After being shorn from
the sheep, the raw wool is hand washed in Orvus or Tide and allowed to
dry or immediately dyed with Gaywool dyes or Kool-Aid. Usually the only
processing done before spinning is picking the fibers with a Pat Green
triple picker. This allows the yarn to spin up with lots of texture and
allows the colors to show. A seven to ten pound colorway of yarn can
take over a week to produce; from start to finish. Most yarns also
contain the softest kid mohair and sometimes other luxury fibers such
as alpaca, angora bunny, camel down, silk, fine wools, linen and dog
hair brushings are spun in as well. Many unusual, textured yarns are
created by plying a strand of handspun yarn with chenille or boucle
yarns.
Most yarns knit up at a bulky gauge. Knitting with a size 8 needle will
give a firmer mitten type fabric, while knitting with a size 17 needle
will create a flowing, easy to drape shawl fabric. Rainbow dyeing and blending many colors and fibers results in one of a
kind, uniquely textured yarns, which are impossible to duplicate. Even
the same sheep’s fleece will vary from one year to the next. Your
project of handspun yarn will be truly one of a kind.
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