Teeswater

Remember that slinky little braid of lustrous longwool that arrived recently?

This is Teeswater from Sheepspot’s Fiber Club. Here is what the sheep looks like:

The staples are quite long and shiny.

I’ve never spun a longwool this long and was a little hesitant. Sasha recommended using a big (slow) whorl and slowing down the treadling a LOT. Eventually, I decided to spin a singles yarn that wasn’t too tight. I spun on my 9:1 whorl and drafted a longer amount that I usually do. I didn’t want to put too much twist in the yarn, lest it be wiry. I split the fiber vertically once, in order to shorten the color lengths a bit, and then spun it as it came. Here is the result, 320 yards (96 g):

It isn’t super soft, but it isn’t as rough as I feared it might be. And it’s strong.

Once again, I have no idea what to do with this. Maybe use it as weft for weaving?

In other news, I’m back to combing Oliver, a CVM/Romeldale cross with a deep, chocolatey brown fleece (from Sheepspot’s Fleece Club). I’m finding this more difficult to comb than Olivia. I think the staple is a little shorter, and the fiber seems doughier… like the strands want to stick together. I have to pull pretty hard to diz it off the comb. It’s hurting my hands. To be fair, I think my hands were primed to be hurt due to a recent burst of weeding, which uses the same muscles. I get one charge of energy for gardening in the spring, which will dissipate soon. I have learned to take advantage of it when it comes. So this week, I’ve been planting containers, weeding beds, and preparing to mulch.

And of course, the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is this weekend! It really snuck up on me this year. I will be looking for Down fiber this year.