SO! Sheep! First off: different sheep breeds have different quality wool, and it's not just a binary scale of "good quality - bad quality" but more like a sundae bar of different properties, all of which can be useful, interesting, or just fun to work with. Historically, one of the biggest producers/innovators/exporters of wool was England - and they developed some AMAZING breeds don't get me wrong - but in true imperial fashion they'd import their "improved" sheep into anywhere they colonized, and either cross with or deliberately destroy local breeds. Ireland in particular suffered this heavily, and the only extant sheep breed with any original Irish breed genetics left at all is the Galway, and even that was heavily crossed with English breeds, and I have had exactly zero luck finding any breed-specific fiber or yarn online for them. But! The Manx Loaghtan still exist! They're native to the Isle of Man (Island btw Ireland and England). They used to be mostly grey & black, but a rare brown color got popular and they were bred heavily for that trait. They almost died out at one point - in the 1950s there were only 43 left - but they've rebounded through conservation efforts & now there's around 1500 registered breeding females. Plus, they're cute & funky looking! Spoiler: Possibly lorg img
NICE. fellow spinning nerd here, currently slightly obsessed with buffalo and alpaca, so i am absolutely on your page. what's that wool like? looks like short staple and very crimpy, from the photo?
man I am so stoked to hear more about that I've been kinda considering spinning with samoyed or golden retriever brushies?
I have turned into such a spinning nerd, like, I thought knitting was the special interest craft of my adulthood but holy cow am I going a bit nuts about spinning. The fiber is fairly short and crimpy! It has a softer hand than I expected (listing said 29-31 microns) and is very airy in its top. I've worked with Icelandic and Finn wool before and loved them both which is part of what started me on my "primitive" sheep kick, but this is definitely different from either of these (which are also very different from each other.) I want to play with it so bad, but I really do have three other spinning projects active and my drafting is going to get so confused if I try to add anything new.
Totally doable! Very slippery, though - some people recommend getting it blended with wool to make it easier to spin. I'm currently trying to collect enough Maine Coon fluffs to work with, but my boy only grows so much fluff at a time.
i have spun hermes's fluffs and they're quite nice to work with. you want to spin them very fine and tight because otherwise they don't grip very well, cat fluff is not crimpy. makes excellent laceweight. feels like rabbit fluff but longer staple. honestly, maine coons should be kept as wool animals. people would be lining up to brush them. :3 an sheeps
partner and I have been talking about getting maine coons and also a golden (or samoyed), so I am super hype to try :D
Samoyeds are the best and I can assure you there will be more than enough fluff, year round even (Winter coat is the best tho)
thank you, this is good to know!! we're leaning towards a golden retriever for a Starter Puppy because I grew up without dogs and have issues with abrupt/uncertain schedule changes, but we definitely want to get a samoyed some nebulous time in the future when the kids we're planning to have are a bit older I mmmmight have access to golden floods (friend of ours has one), but if anyone has advice on those, that would also be handy!! @paladinkit do you know if there are like...comparison charts/papers up anywhere? like, primitive sheep as compared to modern sheep/dogs/wool cats and rabbits?
I honestly can't think of any website references bc I'm so in love with the Fleece and Fiber Source Book - I don't own my own copy yet, but my library has it in ebook form so I can have it on my phone at a drop of the hat. It's super comprehensive about specific sheep breeds & other fiber animals, although it doesn't have specifics about dog breeds and discusses pet fur as a general category, I believe
Got more fabric, and interfacing! I got some Retro Rockets print fabric, and it's in the wash now; the interfacing is soaking in hot water. Once they're both dry, I should be ready to start cutting pieces out and sewing the dress!
Update: interfacing is now hanging up to dry, and the fabric is in the dryer! The fabric did fray some, in the wash, but I got more than I'll need so it should be fine. (I flubbed, when I was saying how much I'd need, and said three meters instead of three yards - but 3 yards is about 2.75 meters, so eh. I have a quarter meter more than I technically needed. I'll find a use for it.)
Bad ideas: deciding to try and press the pattern pieces. I mean, technically, it's not a bad idea in that it works and nothing went wrong? It's just...gonna be tedious af, and kill my back to try and do it without a proper ironing table to work with, so I've decided to toss that idea out the window and not press any further pieces. (I only did one.)
Three pieces cut so far! All front pieces - both front sides, and the front piece. So I'm working on pinning the first back piece now. I'm not gonna try and do any sewing, at this point - it's 2:15 AM and that is Way Too Late to be firing up the sewing machine, considering that Y and Hummingbird are asleep by now. (Or at least went to bed a couple hours ago.) But every piece I get cut out now is one piece I don't have to spend time cutting tomorrow morning. I've just been watching Markiplier do a charity livestream while I work, although I might go to bed once I get the first back piece done. It's late af.
Four pieces down, first half of the back is done. I gave myself a brief panic attack by thinking that I didn't have enough width for the second back piece, but I'm good. I've got enough material that I can just slide it down a bit and work from there. I've been sharing progress pics with Mom, and she loves the print and has called dibs on the scraps.
