Fiber Monday - Sampling

As I was still finishing up with everything that needed to be done in order for school to start this past week, I still didn't have a whole lot of time in my studio. But I did have one school-related project that needed to be done and would let me do some spinning. 

My second year students in my Sheep to Scarf class at our co-op are doing a fiber study using a sampler box with fourteen different types of prepared wool. I needed to create a page that they could use to record their results and also have a completed page as an example they could look at. This meant I had to do some spinning. Had to.

The final result: 

So you can see there is space to write about each breed of sheep and make their own observations. There is space at the bottom to attach a small woven sample (they'll be learning to use a pin loom) and places on the side to attach a sample of a spun single and a two-ply length of yarn.

The two-ply is on the left.

For my own records (because I have my own samples box(es) and will be doing this as well), I also want a knit sample, so I knit a small swatch as well.

This is definitely a work in progress because my small swatch doesn't seem quite small enough to fit neatly on the page. I'm thinking half this size for next time.

This was a sample of Gotland wool. I really liked it. It is not fine enough to be worn next to the skin, but wasn't so course I was bothered when I was knitting it. It would make a really excellent cardigan or heavier sweater. (And yes, I did a quick search to see what Gotland fleeces were going for. They're somewhat reasonable.)

What you can't see is that the yarn has a slight sheen to it which makes a lovely yarn to look at. 

So I didn't buy a Gotland fleeces because I still have quite a bit of wool to scout and process. To that end, I also did some sampling of the bit of merino that I washed a few weeks ago. Remember, it looked like this once it was clean.

It is a very fine fleece and would felt very easily. Before I did more of it, I wanted to see how the washing method I used worked, or did I need to do something differently. I also want to figure out how I want to prepare it... by either combing or just flicking the individual locks open. This week was the combing experiment. 

It combed really well and for combing, had relatively little waste. Here is the spin yarn from this preparation.

Next week I will try flicking the locks and then compare the two yarns. It's a really lovely color and I think I'm going to keep the natural color for now. I don't want to felt the unspun fiber while dyeing it and I also think having several skeins if this color would be lovely. I can always dye the finished yarn later if I want some color.