Good Things That Come To Those Who Wait
In late Spring a cyber-friend was de-stashing, as she has developed vision problems. I have purchased (too many) lots of de-stash spinning items and yarn from her over the last year and everything has been excellent quality and mint condition. So when she listed that she had 13+ lbs of spotted Jacob blanket fleece (just the best part) at a bargain basement price I didn't hesitate to contact her. It turns out each fleece was accompanied by a photo of it's producer and she had planned to hand prepare them for a comparison project of some sort. Essentially they were still in their raw state as she had never managed to get around to the project. So because everything else from her had been so good I purchased them, sight unseen(!).
Make no mistake, I had NO intention of hand processing 13 lbs of fleece myself! I had her sent it to Anne at A & B in Alberta instead of to me. When Anne received them and had had a chance to look them over we discussed what I wanted her to do with them. She explained that although the fleeces were "spotted" they were really more like very large splotches so she didn't necessarily have to turn the whole lot into grey spinning fiber. To my delight, she offered to separate it into white, black and "non-separatable" which would become grey. I told her I didn't want her going to extreme lengths to do this but she assured me the fleeces would allow this without much difficulty. Remember, I hadn't seen any of these! Anne also said there were 2 fleeces of better grade that she would process separately into grey because they would be wasted to be mixed into the others. Wow! Talk about taking care of things like they are your own!
Enter the postal strike in June which bought Anne all the time in the world to fit my fiber into her schedule! LOL! Imagine my excitement when the bulky box finally arrived! The bags of fiber that burst from it exceeded my expectations! The white fiber is pure white without any stray whisps of grey in it and the black is jet without any streaky bits of white! There are two bags of grey fiber, one noticeably softer than the other. The small white bag in the middle is a creamier slightly coarser white Jacob I had sent as an addition, not realizing the superior quality of the original Jacob fleece. And I do mean superior quality! I have spun grey Jacob fiber before and knit with grey Jacob yarn from a custom mill. It is usually a grizzly old character with lots of white kemp and a mind of it's own. Not so with this batch! It is amazingly fine without kemp or excessive crimp. My eyes drank it in as the bags bulged from the freshly opened box and my hands dove into the bags as I opened them to verify what I thought I saw. Spectacular fiber indeed! I was absolutely over the moon! I had gambled and hit the proverbial jackpot!
Anne really outdid herself on the processing, which CAN make or break even the best of fleece! Kudos a million times over Anne! I couldn't be happier! So if you're looking for a top notch processor for your fiber with a fast turn-around time just email her: soaplady2 at Yahoo.ca and tell her I recommended her!
Although I will be blogging about some other completed spinning projects over the next few weeks, once I have cleared off the spinning projects I have on the go right now I will be pretty much spinning this Jacob and I intend to keep every bit of it for myself! I don't care if it takes me all winter but I really want to spin this all myself as I doubt I will ever come across Jacob this nice again any time soon. And don't expect to see the finished yarn in my Etsy Shop either. When I say this stuff's a keeper, I really mean it! Cheers all!
Make no mistake, I had NO intention of hand processing 13 lbs of fleece myself! I had her sent it to Anne at A & B in Alberta instead of to me. When Anne received them and had had a chance to look them over we discussed what I wanted her to do with them. She explained that although the fleeces were "spotted" they were really more like very large splotches so she didn't necessarily have to turn the whole lot into grey spinning fiber. To my delight, she offered to separate it into white, black and "non-separatable" which would become grey. I told her I didn't want her going to extreme lengths to do this but she assured me the fleeces would allow this without much difficulty. Remember, I hadn't seen any of these! Anne also said there were 2 fleeces of better grade that she would process separately into grey because they would be wasted to be mixed into the others. Wow! Talk about taking care of things like they are your own!
Enter the postal strike in June which bought Anne all the time in the world to fit my fiber into her schedule! LOL! Imagine my excitement when the bulky box finally arrived! The bags of fiber that burst from it exceeded my expectations! The white fiber is pure white without any stray whisps of grey in it and the black is jet without any streaky bits of white! There are two bags of grey fiber, one noticeably softer than the other. The small white bag in the middle is a creamier slightly coarser white Jacob I had sent as an addition, not realizing the superior quality of the original Jacob fleece. And I do mean superior quality! I have spun grey Jacob fiber before and knit with grey Jacob yarn from a custom mill. It is usually a grizzly old character with lots of white kemp and a mind of it's own. Not so with this batch! It is amazingly fine without kemp or excessive crimp. My eyes drank it in as the bags bulged from the freshly opened box and my hands dove into the bags as I opened them to verify what I thought I saw. Spectacular fiber indeed! I was absolutely over the moon! I had gambled and hit the proverbial jackpot!
Anne really outdid herself on the processing, which CAN make or break even the best of fleece! Kudos a million times over Anne! I couldn't be happier! So if you're looking for a top notch processor for your fiber with a fast turn-around time just email her: soaplady2 at Yahoo.ca and tell her I recommended her!
Although I will be blogging about some other completed spinning projects over the next few weeks, once I have cleared off the spinning projects I have on the go right now I will be pretty much spinning this Jacob and I intend to keep every bit of it for myself! I don't care if it takes me all winter but I really want to spin this all myself as I doubt I will ever come across Jacob this nice again any time soon. And don't expect to see the finished yarn in my Etsy Shop either. When I say this stuff's a keeper, I really mean it! Cheers all!
Posted by Gloria Patre at 8/4/2011 6:14 PM 
Categories: Spinning, Fiber
Tags: jabob fleece jacob spinning fiber and B Fiberworks
Categories: Spinning, Fiber
Tags: jabob fleece jacob spinning fiber and B Fiberworks
I have spoken with Anne a few times on Ravelry. How I wished she was closer to Ontario!
I have never tried Jacob but have heard people talking about it. Your roving looks lovely...have fun
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