D2 writes: <<I don't consider a staple length of 4-5" as short. I've read that any staple longer than 5", poses a carding problem.>>
It depends on the kind of equipment you're using, as well as the characteristics of the wool. I can handcard wool of 6" staple, even a little longer if the wool is crimpy rather than silky/wavy (can still handcard the latter, but it won't work well, making more tangles that are desirable). I can drumcard 7", sometimes 8". Commercial carding equipment varies in what it can handle, but at least the McDermott equipment can handle 7-8". 4-5" is VERY short for BL. It would be a little long for Merino, just about right for Corrie, a fraction of what Lincoln can produce, etc. It's relative to the breed as well as end use. <<I question the idea of shearing these particular sheep once a year. If they have a 6 month staple of 4-5", a 12 month staple length could reach 10".>> That's actually not how wool growth works. Sheep grow most of their wool in the summer and early fall. As winter approaches, wool grow slows tremendously. I learned this (and have had it frequently confirmed by shepherds with other breeds) our first year of keeping sheep. Two ewe lambs we bought developed a stress break, and I had them shorn. They were about 6 months old, and the wool was about 6" long. Over the winter they only grew back about 2" of additional wool, and indeed, in our sheep (Shetlands), the first lamb fleece is about 8" on average. So shearing every 6 months doesn't make for two even fleeces of 5" or whatever each. <<The weight alone, of wool up to 10" long, could compromise the health of the sheep. That's an incredible burden for the sheep. I would expect that there would be health and nutrition problems in maintaining good healthy sheep and their fiber, if they were only sheared once a year or every 9 months or so.>> Many breeds originally selected for carpet wools, routinely grow 10" and longer wool--ask Ron about the Lincolns he used to raise. It's not an incredible burden, it's what they were selected, for hundreds of years, to grow. Any sheep that *can* grow that length of wool in a year, can deal with the 'burden', provided of course it receives proper care. <<As for the crimp, what does crimp have to do with the ability to spin a fiber?>> Crimp has a LOT to do with how a fiber is spun, even though I don't agree with the idea that it *determines* the spinning as Anne Field advocates. More specifically, the relationship of crimp, staple length, and thickness will greatly impact the ways in which a given wool can be spun. Crimp doesn't just disappear when the wool is spun. Lots of crimps per inch help hold a yarn together with little twist. Few crimps per inch mean you need more twist, if all other factors (length and thickness) are the same. In the case of the BL my acquaintance raises, a 5" staple with very little crimp and medium (probably low 30s micron) thickness means that the fiber will somewhat resist twisting (the impact of thickness), will have little crimp to hold it together, and have a short length to be twisted at all. So, instead of being able to spin a yarn at 15 degrees of twist, it has to have quite a bit more than 20 to hold together at all. The result, at that thickness of fiber, is a yarn that will feel and look wiry. Change the crimp to more, and you need less twist, so the yarn will be more lofty. Change to length to more, ditto. Change the fiber to finer, ditto again, because they fiber isn't resisting the twist as much--like the difference between twisting the wire that makes twist-ties vs wire that is much thicker. <<But, since you said the BL in the US are no longer producing carpet wool, but a softer wool, I'm wondering why you want the longer staple length.>> Soft is very relative :) A micron count in the low 30s for much BL in the US today is quite soft relative to the traditional thickness of around 40 microns. We're not, and never will be, talking Merino softness in a BL fleece, even lamb's wool. Short staples work well for spinning Merino because of the fineness and lots of crimp. BL at a medium thickness needs more length and/or crimp than my friend's wool to spin without a wiry result. <<Mohair has very little crimp. Ditto with any of the other long wools.>> Exactly my point. If the staple is long, lack of crimp isn't an issue. You can spin a low-twist lopi-style yarn if the staple is long enough, without much crimp (in fact, works better without much crimp). But medium-type wool with a short staple and low crimp can't hold together without much more twist. Holly
