So today I took my product to have it looked at by another fiber Artist ... I call her my personal "Pro". Most of you know her as Tempted of Tempted Yarns. Or you might even remember her from another post of mine... And you can sometimes find her hanging out with the Knitgirllls. Anyway, Her name is Ms. Stacy and she knows all about fiber. She spins and knits and dyes yarn. And she is the one that spun and knitted up our sample for This years harvest. We plan on having one done each year to see the improvements we make each year. She did it in about 10 minutes and had it ready for today's post ... It isn't soaked to set the twist or anything just spun and knitted. And we didn't even block the sample. Check this out...
I know some will hate what I have come up with but here is why I like it and say that it works for me. I am YoungShepard owner of RJ's QTs ... Where Fiber meets the West. I am about being down home grown, outdoors, rustic, cowboy, western, down to earth as some say. Well, I think this spins up to say the same thing.
Some will not like the little bumps in the roving and they may say it makes it hard to ply I say the strength of the Mohair and the bumpyness of the Southdowns give it a rustic, durable Western look. Couldn't you see this made into a barn sweater?? Mom can.... Me? I see it as those fingerless gloves. (then again that is just us .. You might see it as something else) I also think I am not going to dye any either. I like it natural. It is all organic, down to earth and it just screams YoungShepard. The one thing I am aiming to change is the VM that is in the roving and yarn. After Lambing and Kidding Season we are going to start jacketing our flock. We will have two or three size jackets for them to grow their fleece under so we should get little to no VM in next falls Crop.
With all that said Ms. Stacy did say one thing that made me feel pretty good ... Okay three really ... First she said my roving spun up really nice. Then she also said she liked my Mohair, and last she said I had the color thing down pat. These three things made me feel pretty good about our first crop. The spinning up good makes me happy because I have heard some fibers are hard to spin and I didn't want my Roving to be hard or people won't want it. Then she said she liked my Mohair. This is from a lady who says she doesn't like Mohair because it is itchy. Well, we found a blend that allows the shine of the mohair to come through while having the softness I wanted. (I had to be happy with the face test for it to be soft enough) To be honest I had to blend wool into it to get the softness but being a kid I really couldn't afford to blend in Merino, which is the softest wool ever. So I settled for something else and came up with a 70/30 blend that I think I can be proud of. Okay, Mom helped me sort that part out but I had the final say.
Some will not like the little bumps in the roving and they may say it makes it hard to ply I say the strength of the Mohair and the bumpyness of the Southdowns give it a rustic, durable Western look. Couldn't you see this made into a barn sweater?? Mom can.... Me? I see it as those fingerless gloves. (then again that is just us .. You might see it as something else) I also think I am not going to dye any either. I like it natural. It is all organic, down to earth and it just screams YoungShepard. The one thing I am aiming to change is the VM that is in the roving and yarn. After Lambing and Kidding Season we are going to start jacketing our flock. We will have two or three size jackets for them to grow their fleece under so we should get little to no VM in next falls Crop.
With all that said Ms. Stacy did say one thing that made me feel pretty good ... Okay three really ... First she said my roving spun up really nice. Then she also said she liked my Mohair, and last she said I had the color thing down pat. These three things made me feel pretty good about our first crop. The spinning up good makes me happy because I have heard some fibers are hard to spin and I didn't want my Roving to be hard or people won't want it. Then she said she liked my Mohair. This is from a lady who says she doesn't like Mohair because it is itchy. Well, we found a blend that allows the shine of the mohair to come through while having the softness I wanted. (I had to be happy with the face test for it to be soft enough) To be honest I had to blend wool into it to get the softness but being a kid I really couldn't afford to blend in Merino, which is the softest wool ever. So I settled for something else and came up with a 70/30 blend that I think I can be proud of. Okay, Mom helped me sort that part out but I had the final say.
As for the color thing I like to get a wide range of color from the Chocolate to the whites and every shade in between. I think I have found our mix on that.
I have added the chocolate shetlands and that will be my next venture... Figuring out what will work for their fleece and the alpacas.
Over the next few days I will be packaging and getting all the shares mailed out ... Did I mention Mom is wanting to get our own Merino sheep??? Turns out she is serious and is trying to locate some for sale.
Over the next few days I will be packaging and getting all the shares mailed out ... Did I mention Mom is wanting to get our own Merino sheep??? Turns out she is serious and is trying to locate some for sale.
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