“I’m in over my head,” I said aloud as Barbados Blackbelly fleece—a mix of hair and wool—dried on a table on the back deck. When someone says “sheep fleece,” what pops into your mind? Is it a woolly, soft expanse of fiber? Springy to the touch? This was definitely not it. The dark hair and wool stuck out in all directions after washing, and now I needed to try spinning this fiber combination.
Barbados Blackbelly fiber is not an obvious choice for spinning into yarn because it is not a breed meant for yarn. Hair sheep often have fleece characteristics more like the ancestors of domestic sheep, not the fluffy silhouette we associate with today’s domesticated breeds.
E. Zambello Writing and Photography 