This year when Tour de Fleece rolled around, Brown Sheep Company asked if they could donate some spinning fiber to The Corner of Knit & Tea team. I was thrilled!
Did you know Brown Sheep offers spinning fiber? Currently they have an undyed Rambouillet/Columbia cross that is washed, combed and carded and has a micron count of 24. That means it’s soft! Retailers can purchase the fiber by the pound. Brown Sheep also lists their undyed yarns and fibers for your purchase!
Brown Sheep offered to send several pounds of their spinning fiber and my friend and colleague Stefanie dyed the fiber up in some gorgeous colorways. She then sent me 1.5 lbs of fiber dyed in bright pinks.
I decided to spin up the fibers in sort of a gradient skein. Ultimately, I wasn’t quite successful because only two of the skeins were actually tonal complements, but I still had a great time doing it.
First I split each colorway into two roughly equal bumps. I had decided that I wanted to spin one long bobbin and then ply from a center pull ball so I arranged the colors in order of spinning: A –> B –> C –> C –> B –> A.
Then in each transition I tried, mostly successfully, to combination draft just a bit of each fiber together to ease the transition between colorways. What I ended up spinning looked more like A –> AB –> B –> BC –> C –> C –> CB –> B –> BA –> A.
Throughout the spin I was impressed with the fiber. It was very soft and easy to draft. I found very few fiber neps, vegetable matter or any else that didn’t belong there, and I had virtually zero fiber waste when I was done. Complements to both Brown Sheep and the dyer for that!
While my gradient didn’t end up working out perfectly, I netted about 450 yards of a 2-ply yarn out of 5.6oz, so somewhere between a sport and DK weight. The yarn itself is lovely and I think I’ll find a shawl pattern to show it off.
If you’re interested in dyeing (and spinning) your own fibers, I can highly recommend Brown Sheep for your adventures.
A special thank you to the Brown Sheep Company who sent me 1.5 pounds of spinning fiber for free. I received no other compensation for this review. All opinions and photos are my own.
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