(For English, please scroll down a bit)
Hace poco, una amiga me dio una bolsita con lana de una oveja que no conocía: Lacaune. Me dijo que es un oveja de Francia (eso me lo imaginaba por ese nombre) y que es la principal productora de la leche para el queso Roquefort. Como es normal en estos casos (siendo una oveja de leche), la lana no se aprovecha y los pastores tampoco se interesaban por ella en el pasado. Es más, creo que intentaban a reducir el crecimiento de la lana lo más posible. El resultado es que los rizos son muy cortos, apenas tienen 5cm. Pero la lana sí es muy fina. Por eso accepté la lana para probarla:
Algunos rizos con las puntas sucias antes del lavado
Algunos rizos después del lavado
La última foto: los rolags listos para hilar
Todavía no he hilado mucho, así que tengo que volver a escribir aquí sobre el hilado de esa lana. Continuará…
English:
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a small bag with some wool from a sheep breed that I didn’t know: Lacaune. She said that it is wool from French sheep (that I assumed due to its name) and that they live in the South of France where they produce milk for the famous Roquefort cheese. Since the Lacaune sheep are a diary breed, their wool is very short because nobody was really interested in its use and therfore even tried to reduce its growth by breeding. At least that is what I think they did. Because the locks are really short: most don’t even reach 2 inches in length. In the photos above you can see the locks’ length (5cm is about 2 inches).
I have posted some photos that show my usual washing process: I leave the wool in cold water over night, then rinse it twice, then wash it with warm water and soap in the bathtub. After rinsing twice again, I let it dry in the sun or at least outside on the balcony.
I carded some locks on my hand cards. You can see the rolags on the photo at the bottom. I haven’t spun much yet, so I have to come back here to let you know about the results. To be continued…
