- Small fleeces, about 2.5 to 5.5 lbs.
- Two to four inch staple.
- Easy to spin.
- Crisp hand, but soft.
--- Three natural colors available from each fleece. You can divide the fleece into white, "blacksheep," and "blend", the interstices between the solid color areas that have both colors. Note that three colors is enough for most Icelandic sweaters. Some individual Jacobs have "speckling" of dark in the white, which heathers the light wool, but is attractive in itself when blended. In the first picture, I'm sorting Quark's fleece. In the next picture, you can see the resulting batts in the three shades.
--- The white AND the blend can be dyed, for example goldenrod yellow: the blend ends up a brown shade of the color. The blacksheep color can be dyed too in case of a heavy white undercoat; in that case only the lighter fibers will show the dye, probably brown or rust or black dye.
--- Crisp hand, excellent for cables and such that a finer fiber doesn't define as well. Considered a medium wool. Better for outerwear than underwear.
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