Save 'Em 2 Save 'Em, Chapter 1: Jacob

A couple of weeks ago I started listening to knitting podcasts for the first time in a while. 

Since 2016 or so I have been mostly a political podcast listener, but something about the state of the world made me want to listen to something a little less fraught. 

I can't remember who it was that mentioned the Shave 'Em 2 Save 'Em initiative, but I was immediately taken with the idea. 

Here's a little info about the program. 

Also, here's the website if you want to know more.

The long and short of it is: they're trying to encourage knitters and spinners to use the wool of rare sheep breeds so they don't die out.
It's a pretty cool project, which started last year in January, and goes until 2021.
There are incentives to work with a certain number of different fleece types, and it's going to be my favorite rabbit hole, I can just tell.

Last week I was cruising around Etsy and found some likely subjects. Along with many other things, our local fiber festival was canceled for safety so I felt no qualms in indulging.

The first package that arrived was 5 ounces of Jacob from Gypsy Mountain Farm.

It was nice and clean, almost no vegetal matter.
I seperated the two colors out to card and spin.

The yarn came out slightly inconsistent, between fingering and sport weight. I would estimate that I got around 300 yards from around 4 ounces of carded wool.
I decided to make a diagonal shawlette, using various charts for lacy stripes between garter stitch sections.

The fleece was about 2/3 light to 1/3 dark. I did my best to evenly distribute the darker yarn throughout.

My skills as a selfieist leave much to be desired, but here's the scale of the finished shawl.

A few takeways:
I LOVED working with the Jacob. It's a very soft and lofty wool.

The colors work well together (go figure) and I almost made a stranded project. Next time I order some Jacob I will definitely make some Norwegian mittens or a hat.

It's super fun to go from a bag of fleece to a garment in a week, even if the chores get seriously neglected, and I look forward to more Shave 'Em 2 Save 'Em projects flying off my needles as this year progresses.

Hiya!

Whew, it's been a minute.

I have been dealing with some major life changes for the past couple of years.
For 13 years or so I stayed home with my kids, while doing part time work on the weekends and evenings teaching music and fiber art stuff.
Once the Youngest was in Kindergarten I realized I didn't quite know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I tried a couple of years as a full time preschool teacher, how much different is it than staying at home with one's own kids? Turns out, pretty different. I wasn't able to find a good fit so I entered the world of temping.
That has been awesome, but with COVID-19 I got let go.

So here I sit, with a drastically reduced number of jobs (from 4-2) and work hours (from 40-8) and a fire in my belly to make stuff.

Last fall and winter I did a lot of leatherwork, spinning, weaving, and knitting, and made up enough stock to try a couple of craft fairs. I just about broke even, so that was fun.

We did a quick visit to the ocean in January,

which feels like more than a lifetime ago, and now we're hanging out at home, like most of you out there.
You gotta fill the time, though, right?

Baking? Check.

Large Scale Woodworking, and Gardening? Check, Check!!

Small Scale Woodworking? Check!

Dalgona Coffee? Check!

Baking? Check, Again!

Puzzles? Check!

Baking? More? Again? Check!

Facebook? You know it!

I don't know if anyone is still out there who remembers the fifthlampdown, but I'm hoping to come back and hang here more often. 

What's your quaratine routine?