Highlander sheep part three

 pre-wash Highlander

So, not my most even spinning but its good enough :-) spun beautifully, nice shine, soft, feels like a woolly Romney haha.

I'm going give this a wash, soak, ball it up and knit a small sample. This fleece is probably going to be used in my hats over winter.

After washing, I hope you can see the shine :-) the background yarn is Ryeland spun at a coffee house last week.

Will I wash and prep the whole fleece? definitely !

I hope these few posts have been interesting to spinners, I split it into three as it would have been a bit too long as a single post. For non spinners, there is another travel post coming up along with a bit of knitting and some cross stitch xx

Highlander sheep part two

 Hi

you can find part one here

Once dry I gave the fleece a final quick pick over and started loading it onto the combs, lock by lock to keep the fibres running in the same direction.

like Romney, these locks are a good 7inch plus in length and I could have done with finding my mister as static was a little problem.

These nests are around 5gm each and I've settled on a test spin, two ply, around 30 gm.

As you can see, I sit sideways on to my e spinner and draft across in front of me.

Back with part three tomorrow x

Back to the fluff ... Highlander sheep fleece part one

 Remember I mentioned a new breed/cross fleece from highlander sheep?

Well, I opened my front door just before we went away to find a box sitting in the doorway, a big box which has been residing in the kitchen waiting for me to return.

It weighs over 3 kilos and I suspect that it contains the promised fleece, I will open it properly tomorrow and investigate ( as long as its not raining )

I found some breeding info here but I haven't found anything that relates to the fleece yet.

later

the box was opened and I  found a lovely letter from Val explaining that she knows the farmer and the shearer and is a spinner herself. She wants to educate other spinners about this breed as she was so delighted with it.

First impressions are good, Romney like lustre and fairly fine. I emptied it out of the bag and tried to unroll it but the fleece is so open that it drifted apart very quickly.

Well skirted, clean, very little veg matter. Val had enclosed a sample of washed and spun fibre which gave some indication of what to expect.

I have two bags soaking in hot water, very sudsy as even though there is not much detergent I made the mistake of putting it in before the water... bubbles everywhere again :-)

Once the fleece is dry. I will comb, spin and spin a sample so look out for part two in the next couple of days xx