Skein #8 Wool Fine Woolen Yarn

Image 1: Fiber Sample Image 2: Yarn Skein Image 3: Yarn Detail

Fiber

Wool

Type

Clun Forest lamb fleece

Reason for choice of this sample

This short staple fleece is moderately soft and has a springy hand but is quite filthy. It is not from a fiber flock. Clun Forest is a meat sheep with a fine, short fleece.

Source

Mary Arthur, Shearer — Roseburg, Oregon

Preparation for spinning

Scour and flick to remove VM, second cuts and open the tips. Pick and mix to distribute the color. Card and make into small rolags.

Equipment used

Dog brush, wool hand cards, wood dowel, flyer spinning wheel

Type of spinning

Unsupported long draw

Direction of Twist

Z

Number of plies

1

Finishing

Wet blocked

Suggested uses

This yarn is fragile and best suited to weft, preferably with an end delivery shuttle. It could also be used for fine crochet and a four-ply makes an acceptable knitting yarn. This yarn is lofty for its grist and makes a lightweight fabric which is best when fulled.

Notes

Maximum 54 points

Examiner 1: 54

Examiner 2: 51

Examiner 1 commented on how much nicer the yarn looked than the original lock. That wool was pretty nasty and nearly all was stained. Examiner 2 commented on a few inconsistant spots but otherwise liked it.

This was a big pain to spin, not only was the wool short and filthy, but it's just hard to draft an even yarn woolen style. Even the best fiber prep doesn't draft perfectly evenly one-handed. The other reason I flicked everything was to get the short fibers out, they make the fiber draft less smoothly. More twist helps even out a slightly varying single, but here I don't even have that. Classic English-style woolen is lofty and soft.