I’ve been sitting on some fiber for a couple of my Shave ‘Em to Save ‘Em projects for awhile. I’ve been on a kick of spinning dyed fiber, and generally working on other projects. But I finally got around to pulling a new one out. This is my 7th SE2SE project – Gulf Coast Native from Gulf Breeze Alpaca Ranch. I purchased the fiber from Lynns Cozy Fibers on Etsy.
About Gulf Coast Native Fiber
As is my habit, I tried spinning a bit on my drop spindles first. Gulf Coast Native is a feral breed that developed in the Southeastern United States, like the Florida Cracker. According to The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook, the wool is variable in quality, but tends to have a moderate staple length averaging 2-4 inches, which was about the staple length of my sample. My first impression was that the wool seemed similar to the Florida Cracker I’d previously spun, but a bit whiter in color, where the Florida Cracker I spun was definitely more of a cream color. It’s fairly fluffy in the roving preparation, low in grease, and has a slighlty spongy feel that reminded me a bit of a down-type breed.
My Project
I then set about spinning the bulk of the fiber on my wheel. Lately when I try a new fiber on my wheel, I tend to spin it according to the preparation. So, since I was dealing with roving, I decided to spin the fiber using supported longdraw. I spun on a 9:1 ratio, and plied on the 12:1 ratio; judging from the breaks I had in the singles while plying, I probably could have spun on the 12: 1 as well. I’ve found shorter staple fibers like Clun Forest a bit easier to spin longdraw than this somewhat longer fiber, but the fiber drafted relatively easily and I was able to spin it quite fine.
I soaked and thwacked the yarn as I typically do. I ended up with approximately 447 yds of lovely fingering weight yarn at 20-22 wpi. The finished yarn has a nice amount of elasticity. I’m not sure yet what I’ll knit with this, but it might be nice to try dyeing and using for a colorwork project.
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