Description
The Jacob sheep give us a pleasant tweedy grey. This is made by carding together the black and the white wool from these smartly spotted and patched sheep. The different fibre colours in the yarn give it depth of texture and a feel of life.
Jacob sheep have a fairly fine wool with a good staple length. As a result, the wool need not be spun so tightly. This gives it a very comfortable feel when knitting. Though the wool is more relaxed than the Shetland wool, the individual fibres are slightly thicker.
This is the middle-weight of the three yarns we have spun from out Jacob fleeces. We feel this work-a-day grey wool is particularly suited to substantial and relatively plain projects. We have made very warm fingerless mitts from this wool.
It is a good wool for a beginner as it knits up quickly, is forgiving of repeated unpicking and, with the depth of colour from the mixed colours of the wool fibres, disguises small mistakes readily!
The aran yarn is excellent for textured knitting with cables, ribs and simple textures such as moss stitch. We also have this thickness of wool in two other colours from the Jacob sheep, Chocolate Black from the Hebrideans, Cream from the Dorset Downs and a bright fawn from the Shetlands. This means that if you want to work with colours, there are plenty of combinations available to you . We think they are particularly good for simple stripy patterns.
