Tag: Jacob’s sheep

Calculating yardage

On By CarynIn Craft

I’ve wound my handspun 3-ply Jacob’s wool yarn into center pull balls. But how much do I really have?

Photo description: two cakes of yarn and two center pull balls of yarn in different shades

Hand woven magazine published an article about yarn balances. I followed their instructions to make a balance and used acrylic yarn of a known weight per yard.

Photo description: yarn balance with known acrylic yarn on the left and unknown yarn on the right

Because of my scientific background, I have to do my math by using the factor-label method (here is an explanatory video). I know that the yarn on the left is 142 grams per 241 meters, so my 120 cm weighs 0.071g, a weight I would not be able to measure with a kitchen scale. My hand-spun yarn that balances measures 97 cm. I now have the weight per length and can calculate yardage. (Oh yes, I completely mix my metric and standard measurements, but as long as all the labels cancel properly, we’re golden.)

Photo description: scratch pad with hand written yarn math for all four shades of yarn

To see how accurate the calculations are, I measured the lightest ball of yarn by laying out a yard with tape on a counter. I measured 29 yards. I put a section of the yarn on the balance, did my calculations and predicted 33 yards. This is a 12% difference in weight, which I find an acceptable margin for error. When planning a pattern, you should have at least 10% more yarn than what is called for. In the case of my hand spun yarn, I will pick a pattern that needs at least 12% less than 530 yards I have.

Photo description: silver ball of yarn with scrap paper hand written math

This was an interesting exercise, and confirmed what I felt when looking at the yarn: it isn’t enough to make a vest. It may be enough the make a hat or two.

Finishing Jacob’s wool

On By CarynIn Craft

I transferred all my three-ply hand spun Jacob’s sheep yarn to my PVC niddy noddy.

Photo description: four shades of three-ply yarn on a very full PVC niddy noddy

I like the PVC niddy noddy because I can rinse the hanks while still on the niddy noddy. I usually let them dry there too, but I put too much yarn on and the noddy niddy came apart when I twisted it to dry, so I had to hang the hanks instead.

Photo description: large hank of hand spun yarn hanging on a circular drying rack

I am pleased that the yarn is well balanced. There are no kinks or twists, it is all laying nice and straight.

Photo description: closeup of hanks of all four shades after drying

Plying Jacob’s wool

On By CarynIn Craft

All the singles I spun with my Jacob’s wool from Sweetgrass farms had sat on their bobbins for a few days, so it was time to ply! I put a makeshift brake on the bobbins on their stands on the wheel. I used a cotton string and applied enough tension so that the bobbins will turn, but not spin freely. This saves me from future tangles.

Photo description: three bobbins full of spun singles on an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel
Photo description: jumbo Ashford bobbin full of three-ply Jacob’s wool yarn
Photo description: left over dark and silver marled yarn with the middle bobbin empty
Photo description: three-ply yarn made with two dark singles and one silver single
Photo description: left over yarn from round two of plying
Photo description: four bobbins of three-plied Jacob’s wool yarn in four colors

I used the silver single spun with the remaining two bobbins of dark colored singles, then when the dark ran out, chain plied the silver. I ended up with two jumbo bobbins full of three-ply yarn, and two regular bobbins half-full of yarn.

I need my bobbins free, so this yarn doesn’t get to let time set the twist. Next up is the niddy noddy.

More Marled

On By CarynIn Craft

I liked the two-tone Jacob’s sheep roving spun up so much that I decided to make more marled yarn with the other two colors of Jacob’s roving I bought from Sweetgrass Jacobs farm.

Photo description: a dark brown ball of roving and a light brown/gray ball of roving in the bottom of a popup hamper with a jumbo bobbin

I pulled the ends from both balls of roving and am spinning them together on my Ashford Traveller spinning wheel.

Photo description: single spun marled yarn on a regular sized bobbin with a sliding loop flyer

It will take longer to spin this two color yarn, just because there is more. My plan is to chain ply it like I did for my other marled yarn, and then make plans for a warm vest.