This post is a continuation from my previous post (Beginning Adventures with Grey Sheep) which described my beginning explorations of working with grey fleece. While before I focussed more on the pleasures of dying grey fleece, and yarns that were a combination of grey and white fleece, I have also been exploring different breeds of grey sheep and what they are like to spin with.
Recently I made a big order of commercial tops, with trying out different breeds as my specific priority. I wanted some different grey breeds, and also bought some different shades of brown French merino to play with.
I started with a Gotland top, and spun it into a very fine lace weight single. Most of it was spun out in the garden on an unseasonably warm and sunny day.
Gotland is a Scandinavian breed originating on the Gotland Island in Sweden that has a long outer fleece and a soft, shorter, inner layer. Combed together it makes for a unique spin, because it has the softness and lustre of finer breeds, but the staples are long and spin up to have a slight halo akin to that of alpaca yarn. Long staples mean that you can spin it into a very fine single that is relatively strong. I wish I had spun with this breed when I was learning to spin, and was constantly over-twisting and breaking my yarn. It’s lovely to handle, but also easier to get a fine, even spin than other popular breeds, like merino and corriedale and blue-faced Leicester.
The result of all this outdoor spinning was this lovely single:
Although my plan all along was to chain ply this single, I took it off the bobbin to hand paint it, with the intention of plying it off of my yarn swift after I’d dyed it. However, I almost wish that I had just left it as it was because it was lovely in it’s natural, undyed state.
Next up: A much longer post about dying this single along with a lovely Massam grey top, some plying and some more spinning.
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