Wensleydale. My Fiber Studies 21

I take part in the SpinDoctor Rare Breed Wool Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged SpinDoctor. The challenge ends June 30, 2011. You find SpinDoctor's podcasts in my Link List to the right.

The Sheep

Wensleydale sheep can be found mostly in Wensleydale in North Yorkshire. The rams are used for crossing with local hill breeds, producing crossings like the Masham for meat and wool. They are big, strong sheep with dark skin and big top knots. Wensleydale is listed as "At Risk" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

Photo from Beautiful Sheep almanac 2011

The Wool

Wensleydale wool has high lustre and silkyness. The staple length is 20-30 mm, the micron count 26-30. It's one of the finest of the luster longwools. It's used in many kinds of textiles, mostly for garments. It's also used for blending with other wools to add strength an luster. Wensleydales are white to creamy, and you can also find small flocks of black sheep.

My Experience

Raw fiber that I washed and prepared.

Worsted yarn sample

Preparation: hand combed on Valkyrie Extra Fine combs
Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Ratio spinning and plying: 1:8.5
TPI in singles: 12
TPI in worsted 2-ply: 8
WPI in singles: 30
WPI in finished 2-ply: 17
Twist angle in singles: 50
Twist angle in finished 2-ply: 45

A lovely fiber from The Spinning Loft! It's the first fiber I've combed with my brand new Valkyrie Extra Fine combs. The combs are designed for finer and shorter fibers than Wensleydale, but I took care in not to load the combs too full and to be careful when combing. The result was wonderful tops with nothing else than the longest and strongest fibers in them. They were very easy to spin.

I spun a fine short forward worsted 2-ply and from the left overs on one bobbin a 3-ply navajo.

Woolen yarn sample
Preparation: standard Finnish handcarders
Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Ratio spinning: 1:13
Ratio plying: 1:8.5
TPI in singles: 9
TPI in finished 2-ply: 6
WPI in woolen singles: 20
WPI in finished 2-ply: 13
Twist angle in singles: 50
Twist angle in finished 2-ply: 50

I got a lot of combing waste, which I carded on my standard Finnish handcarders. I spun a 2-ply woolen yarn, trying not to smooth out all the neps.

Conclusions

I loved working with this wool. I was happy to get a sample of the extremely rare black Wensleydale in The Spinning Loft's Super Sampler package. The two yarns I spun are both nice. I like the color changes and the structure of the woolen yarn, and I like the lustre of the worsted one. Both are very strong yarns.

Woolen to the left, worsted to the right

Read More
Internet
Rare Breeds Survival Trust
Wensleydale Longwool Sheep Breeders

Literature
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, 2011
M. L. Ryder, Sheep & Man. Duckworth, 2007
Nola & Jane Fournier, In Sheep's Clothing. Interweave Press, 1995
British Sheep & Wool. British Wool Marketing Board, 2010

Valborgsmässoafton - Walpurgis Night

Valborgsmässoafton med fin gäst - sjöborrekaktus. Den första bilden tog jag klockan 15.22, den sista 18.04. I morgon är föreställningen över.

Walpurgis Night with a celebrity - Echinopsis. I took the firs picture at 3.22 pm, the last one 6.04. Tomorrow the show will be over.

Ute hämtar violerna krafter efter att ha fått större krukor.

Outdoors the violets are gaining strength after being planted in bigger pots.

Och Kasper njuter av kvällssolen.

And Kasper is enjoying the evening sun.

Butterfly and socks - Fjäril och sockor

There are lots of butterflies now. And I have new socks, knitted from my own handspun yarn.

Det finns mängder av nässelfjärilar nu. Och jag har nya sockor av eget, handspunnet garn.

Teeswater. My Fiber Studies 20

I take part in the SpinDoctor Rare Breed Wool Challenge on Ravelry. My blog posts are tagged SpinDoctor. The challenge ends June 30, 2011. You find SpinDoctor's podcasts in my Link List to the right.

The Sheep

Teeswater sheep has been bred for about two hundred years in the Teesdale area in UK. It's a large, white, longwooled sheep, hornless, and with a big topknot. The face has dark brown markings.

The sheep is listed as "Vulnerable" by Rare Breeds Survival Trust.

If you google for "Teeswater sheep" you'll find plenty of pictures. It's an impressive sheep even on photos.

The Wool

This is a citation from the British Teeswater Breeders: Teeswater wool

Good, clean open lustre staple, not too strong and of medium length, with no black fibres.
Uniform over the whole fleece.
This should be fine, long-stapled lustre wool with no dark fibres in the fleece. It should be uniform in texture over the whole body.


The wool is mostly used for hand knitting yarns.

My Experience

The Teeswater top I bought from International Fleeces was just like it's described in the citation above. It was a joy to spin, I wish I had bought more of it.

Spinning

Fiber preparation: top from International Fleeces
Staple lentgh:  15-33 cm
Hand: medium
Spinning wheel: Louet Victoria
Ratio: 1:8.5
TPI in singles: 12
TPI in finished 2-ply:
WPI in singles: about 33
WPI in finished 2-ply: 25
Twist angle in singles (unwashed and at an average): 50
Twist angle in finished yarn: 45

I spun a thin high twist 2-ply yarn I thought could be used in a shawl.

Conclusions

I'm still not so used to spinning longwools. I liked this Teeswater top even if the big differences in staple length made it more difficult to spin even than a staples of the same length would be. I'm pleased with the yarn. It's quite soft and it has good luster. I didn't measure the yarn, but I think there is enough of it for a small scarf. The color is yellowish, which may come from the canary stain that sometimes occur in longwools. It may also be the natural color of the fleece.

I'm getting more and more fond of longwools. I need to spin much more to get the yarn I want, but I feel I'm closer to my goal this time than with other longwools I've spun.

Read more

Internet
Teeswater Sheep Breeders
American Teeswater Sheep
Rare Breeds Survival Trust

Literature
M. L. Ryder, Sheep & Man. Duckworth, 2007
Deborah Robson & Carol Ekarius, The Flecce and Fiber Sourcebook. Storey Publishing, 2011
British Sheep & Wool. British Wool Marketing Board, 2010
Nola & Jane Fournier, In Sheep's Clothing. Interweave Press, 1995

Flygekorre

Ibland är livet bara så förunderligt! Vi stod ute vid fönsterrabatten och tittade på vad som överlevt vintern när en grå varelse flög mellan oss i höjd med våra huvuden. Jag såg den inte först för jag studerade tulpanerna, men min man såg den landa några meter bort. En flygekorre! Den flög upp i en tall, sprang uppåt längs stammen, ut på en gren och så flög den vidare in i skogen.

Nu vet jag vad det är som håller till på taket ovanför mitt huvud ibland. Jag brukar tänka, "vad är det där, det är inte en skata och inte är det en katt". Flygekorre! Små skrapljud från små klor!

Här kan du läsa om den: Flygekorre i Wikipedia