Handspinning
WoolSpecializing in top quality Jacob fleeces
At
Barking Rock Farm, our sheep have been carefully bred and selected
for generations to produce quality handspinning fleeces. If you're a
spinner and have never tried a Jacob fleece before, we urge you to
give one a try! The multi-colored yarns you can produce from one
fleece are not only fun to spin, but make the most incredibly
variegated or patterned finished pieces. Please do keep in mind that
the Jacob breed has one of the widest natural variations in fleece
type of any breed of sheep...and not all Jacob fleeces are
necessarily pleasant to spin and/or use for garments. If you have had 
a
bad experience with Jacob wool in the past, please consider trying
one of our quality fleeces. We feel certain you'll be pleasantly surprised!
We skirt our Jacob fleeces for sale as we do fleeces for our own use! Virtually all the wool you'll get will be usable...no short pieces, manure tags, belly wool, heavily contaminated wool, etc. Such skirted fleeces usually weigh between 2 and 4 lbs. Jacob wool carries relatively light grease, so you should get a good yield from the washed fleece.
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Jacob Fleeces Available:
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Barking Rock Deidre - aged ewe fleece; approximate weight at shearing 4 lbs. Black:white ratio is about 55:45, with some grey areas. Very strong 5" staple! Deidre is one of our darkest ewes. Price: $39 + shipping sale pending |
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Barking Rock Justine - Justine is a very old girl, but still going strong! She had triplets this year, and the size/quality of her fleece reflects this huge load on her again body. The fleece is a mottle grey, with some darker areas. Staple is quite tender . Weight 1 1/2 lbs. Price: $12 + shipping |
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Brighton Dewey - Outstanding fleece, from a young ram in the prime of his life! Weight 5 1/4 lbs. This is a strong fleece, with no breaks and very well-defined black/white areas. Staple is 4 1/2". Absolutely gorgeous, top-quality Jacob handspinning fleece! Price: $55 + shipping sold |
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Moonhill Peaches- Very good quality aged ewe fleece. Peaches' fleece is not as white as the photo suggest; it is primarily light grey, with some black. Staple is 4", with moderate tippiness. After raising vigorous twin rams, her well-skirted fleece weighed just a tad over 2 lbs. at shearing. Price: $19 + shipping on 3 lbs. sold |
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Barking Rock Audrey- Excellent fleece with well-defined areas of black and white. Weight at shearing was 3.75 lbs, with a 5" staple. No breaks, save for a very moderate weathering/tippiness. Price: $37 + shipping on 5 lbs. sold |
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Barking Rock Alouette - Excellent quality hogget fleece! Weight was 4 lbs. at shearing. Fleece has well-defined black/white areas with a nice 5" staple; no obvious breaks. This first fleece from a healthy ewe lamb has a nice hand. Price: $42 + shipping on 5 lbs. sold |
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Barking Rock Gretchen - This fleece is definitely the star in our 2008 ewe fleeces! Weighing in at 4 3/4 lbs at shearing with a 5 1/4" staple, Gretchen's yearling fleece is about 50:50 black:white, with very well-defined areas of color. Staple is strong, and hand is very soft! Price: $49 + shipping on 6 lbs. sold |
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Moon Hill Strangely Enough - Aged ram fleece; weighing 5 lbs. at shearing. Another excellent quality fleece, with a strong 6" staple. Advancing age is causing some greying in Strangely's black areas. Price: $48 + shipping on 6 lbs. sold |
NOTE ABOUT SHIPPING CHARGES: WE CHARGE ACTUAL USPS PRICE FOR SHIPPING, which will vary depending upon your location; (we add 1# for packaging.) Insurance is optional, at buyer's option. IF YOU'D LIKE A QUOTE, PLEASE DROP US AN EMAIL AND BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR ZIP CODE. Multiple fleece purchases will be packaged together, whenever feasible, to save on shipping costs. Remember postal costs are increasing in May; so don't delay!
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Facts about Wool Grading We get a lot of questions about grades of wool, and offer the following information which we hope will help clear up some confusion! Jacob wool grades from 40's to 54's, a very broad range indeed for one breed! Our selected fleeces tend towards the higher end of this scale. Over the years, several systems have evolved to classify the various grades (or thicknesses) of different wools. To understand these various measurements, it's essential to understand how the different systems came to be. Originally wool was was graded by the blood system, with a Merino (a breed of sheep producing the finest of wools) considered to be "fine". Theoretically then, a half-blood wool would be comparable to what one would obtain from an individual sheep that was one-half Merino. It's important to keep in mind that this does NOT mean that a 1/2-blood fleece is necessarily half Merino; but rather the fleece is akin to the type a half-Merino would produce. The USDA grade is a measurement of the number of theoretical 560-yard hanks that can be spun from a specific wool. Hence, one pound of 70's grade wool could produce 70 560-yard hanks of yarn. A finer wool can spin a finer yarn, and so the finer the wool the more hanks a pound could make and the higher the USDA grade. The newest and most accurate method of grading wool is simply to measure its diameter, and that is exactly what a micron count is. The smaller the micro count, the finer the wool. Here's a scale that correlates the three grading systems: *
*Sources:
American Wool Council Official Standards for the US for Grades of Wool It's important to bear in mind that virtually no fleeces except the finest are thoroughly consistent in fiber diameter throughout. The best wool can always be found on the neck/back area; the shortest wool on the legs, head and belly (this should be removed during skirting), and the coarsest on the rump and back legs. Generally, the coarser wools have the longest fibers. |
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©2008
Barking Rock Farm All Rights Reserved. This page updated 4/24/08.
