American Karakul sheep are listed on The Livestock Conservancy's endangered Shave Em to Save Em list. A dual coated sheep, adult fleece consists of a long strong outer coat and a fine soft undercoat. Prized for wool, pelts, cheese, and milk, Karakuls are known as excellent mothers and often breed out of season. The breed originated in the area of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, near the Black and Caspian seas, and lamb pelts were once highly sought after to create warm, soft garments, though the practice is now outlawed in many countries. Their fleece is easily spun, low in lanolin, takes dye beautifully, and a great felter. The outer coat is coarse, often deterring handspinners, but it really is a lovely fiber to spin, and ideal finished items would be hats (with a liner), coats, cardigans, bags, and rugs.

American Karakul Roving - 4 oz braid

 This wool was proudly sourced from a small farm in Michigan. This mill processed roving will need fluffing before spinning. The roving is rather thick, but once fluffed and thinned, does not require a great deal of drafting.

These braids were solar dyed in pickle jars, and no two are alike. The braid consists of 2 oz of white and 2 oz of grey overdyed (for 4 oz total) in the same jar to create a complimentary pairing. This was an interesting experiment, as the plan was to dye a batch and use the leftover dye in the jar to dye another set of fiber. For this grouping, let's start with the plan. Dyed one jar with a mix of green and blue to make teal, added fiber for the next jar, as there was still a good tinge to the water, and what came out when rinsed was a lighter teal. As for the experiment anomalies from the purple and green jars....the second run of the green jar came out as a decently bright teal that was similar to the original Teal Jar 1. The second run of the purple jar resulted in a light teal. Who knows?? Gotta love dye experiments!

If you need a SE2SE sticker with your purchase, please add that as a note at check out!

And the standard "color" disclaimer...: I do my best to take and post accurate pictures but please keep in mind that colors vary slightly from monitor to monitor and it may look a little different in person. If you are uncertain about the color, please send me a message requesting more photos.