Oops. I’ve run off the track a little. I’m supposed to be finishing a birthday sweater for a special someone. Got distracted.
My sister, Ralene, has a flock of Jacob Sheep (Blue Flower Flock). Last year she gave me some yarn to dabble around with. 
I made a sweater pronto. Well, pronto for me means a while. That’s me below in the middle with my two sisters and my not-so-pronto but still awesome sweater made with Jacob Wool.
(my ravelry project info for my sweater: Shana’s sweater)
The wool is terrific to work with! Regarding the cones of brown and white Jacob Wool: If you look closely at the white, there are little bits of brown spun in as well. Let me tell you, my hands were very happy.
The other day I had the thought of making up some mini skeins of the Jacob Wool and dyeing a few for my Etsy Shop (Yarn Sundae). I’ve had a lot of fun with mini skeins. I love coming up with theme names for them. It’s a great way to experiment with color combos, too!
I just like winding skeins up for mini skeins. It is just plain fun. Then I played with some dyes. Now I need a project idea. If you have any thoughts, let me know. I’ll go for a walk later and see if anything pops into my head (besides Shamrock Shakes). I’m hoping to pop some of these little Jacobs into the store soon. If you’ve never tried 100% Jacob Wool, you really must.
While I was on that tangent, I remembered that my mother-in-law, who also has sheep, gave me a couple of cones of her wool. I’m not sure on the breed information for her wool yet. I think she has Cotswold and another type. I had actually dyed a few skeins up but wasn’t too excited about what I had done. Well, I got these skeins out and decided to knit a little something to see how it went. I decided on the Boneyard Shawl by Stephen West. This is a really cool pattern that you can absolutely use any yarn and any needle you wish and it turns out awesome. For increasing the pattern you can also use yarn overs instead of M1R and M1L which is fun! I actually am liking how the colors are working up now. I also do understand how re-skeining yarn that is dyed really helps people to see how things will work up.
I was thinking of typing “when you work with real wool” here. This is pretty funny. Almost every yarn I have is REAL wool. But this wool from my sister and mother-in-law is more REAL. Sometimes you might see just a little bit of hay that pops out. While knitting, your hands feel that excellent wooly almost lanolin-y feel. Oh, and it smells so good! It is so different than your commercially made merino/nylons. I love those, too. You’ve just got to use it.
I invite you to check out the Livestock Conservancy Site to see more information about heritage breeds like the Jacob Sheep and also read about the Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em program that is available to fiber artists who work with wool from heritage breeds.
This past May I met up with both of my sisters at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. My sister, Ralene, was part of the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association Booth. 
When I say part, I mean she was there all day long each day talking to people about her sheep and the wool and all of the fun things that go with it. She knows a lot of stuff and worked her tail off! This coming May, I hear that the Jacob Sheep may be the model for 2020! Wow, models! Here are some of my sister’s sheep and new lambs from this year!
One more word about the 2019 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: There was an information booth at the festival that had wool and knit samples of each type of around 80 different breeds of sheep. It was so interesting to be able to feel each type, see how the wool worked up, and read about how the wool is obtained. I was surprised to read that a couple of sheep just had their fleece fall off or get plucked off rather than getting a visit from a shearer. Neat stuff!
There are so many wonderful yarns in the world to work with. This is dangerous for a distracted knitter like me! Isn’t this a wonderful time to be involved with the fiber arts? I also appreciate that my family doesn’t solely depend on me to make them clothes as they would be wearing burlap sacks as there would be 150 partially finished things here and there. Hooray for 2020!
What is the most interesting type of yarn you’ve worked with lately?
See you next time!
Shana
Yarn Sundae 