Lately I’ve been working with various fiber experts to help me understand the traits of the various fleeces my flock produces and what uses can be recommended for them, especially those with hybrid genetics.
The individual breeds, Babydoll Southdown and Finnsheep are relatively straight forward.
Babydoll wool:
- Staple length: relatively short – 2″ to 4″ of growth per year
- Appearance: chalky, scales on fibers deflect light in multiple directions
- Crimp: 3 dimensional, has “cush” or “loft” that springs back when compressed. Resists felting.
- Fineness (average fiber diameter in microns) 26 to 36 in my flock = medium fine
- Color(s): Off-white and black fading to various shades of gray
Finnsheep:
- Staple length: Long – up to 7″ of growth per year (2 shearings possible)
- Appearance: has a sheen to it = reflects light
- Crimp: has a 2 dimensional wave that nests (felts) easily with or without water, soap, and agitation
- Fineness: 22-33 microns (Robson & Ekarius, 2013. The Field Guide to Fleece)
- Color(s): Pure white, deep black, gray, brown, and fawn
Minnesota Felters’ Guild Evaluation
The state’s felters’ guild agreed to evaluate my flock’s fleeces to see at which percent Finn the wool lost its feltability or if it was a gradual reduction in feltability from pure Finn to pure Babydoll. The results they gave me were quantitative (measureable) and qualitative (tactile perception and ease of felting). There results are presented below. I sent them from 1 to 4 samples per genetic category. The report was written by Linda Johnson-Morke, to whom I am extremely grateful, as well as the rest of the testers.
“The numbers are graphed above, but do not tell the entire story. You really need to see and touch and feel the felt. What the data does show is that there is very little shrinkage with the Southdown, and the sample although it was smaller does not look like felt.
The 50% genetics show remarkable consistency, and an increase in feltability. The felt was more difficult to make than that at higher percentages of Finn, it tended to spread out more and was slower to skin.
The 75% was surprising to me in that there was a lot of variability. The average was still higher, but one sample was only more like the 50% genetics.
The 88% was again an increase in feltability in some, but not others. This was the lamb and even the grease wool felted well but has a different surface, kind of fuzzy like a lambswool sweater.
The 100% Finn was the best of course and all liked felting that. It felted fast and gave a nice tight felt.
… The real story is when you see and touch the felt samples.
- I would grade the 75% to 100% as fast felting
- I would grade the 50% as medium felting
- I would grade the Southdown as slow to no feltability”
Batt production by Tom Yates at Minnesota Woolen Mill
Tom Yates’ woolen mill is a smaller mill located in Austin, MN. He provides various processing services of wool batches down to individual fleeces. Tom has processed Babydoll wool from various farms over the years and approached me about the possibility of testing my (100%) Babydoll wool for it’s utility in producing batts (= sheets of wool for quilting, comforters, etc.) that would not need to be refluffed each 5 or so years (depending on use) because they had matted down and thus, lost their insulating properties.
With some difficulty, due to the fibers not wanting to separate from the carder, Tom was indeed able to produce batts with serious loft and very low probability of felting/matting from the 100% Babydoll fleeces that had fibers from 3/4 to 2.5 or 3″ long. He is continuing his experimentation with my “seconds” which are between 1 and 2″ long. His results will be forth coming. I had previously been able to have batts produced from seconds by the St. Peter Woolen Mill, but had not stressed their resistance to matting/felting in my marketing.
The hope is that quilts with these batts may be able to be machine washed with the gentle cycle and air dried!