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Writing retreat

One year ago I took Beth Kempton’s Book proposal Masterclass. With the help of the proposal I got an agent in August and a book deal with a U.S. publisher in September. This week I have been on a solo writing retreat, finishing the tenth chapter of my book, Listen to the wool.

If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see more from my writing retreat in my April 2024 video postcard.

I was thrilled when I found Beth Kempton’s virtual writing retreat Breathe, Write, Repeat, and realized that I could go away on a solo writing retreat. I booked an airbnb tiny house by a lake six months ago and I have been longing for it ever since. And now I am here.

Monday

As I roll my suitcase through the train station in Stockholm, people stand at the escalators handing out discount coupons. I board the train to Falun, a town three hours north west of my home in Stockholm. After an hour and a half I see melting snow on the fields that fly by as I point my wooden needle up-down, back and under the nalbinding loops around my thumb. My suitcase is heavy with laptop, mousetrapper, keyboard, books, yoga stuff, ice bath stuff and, yeah, some clothes tool.

A person nalbinding with a wooden needle on a train. In the background a jacket sleeve with embroidered flowers.
I’m nalbinding my way to Falun.

Falun welcomes me with a sweet afternoon sun as the train arrives at the station. The gravel from the winter’s de-icing is still on the bare ground and I need to drag my suitcase along the streets rather than roll it elegantly.

A booklet featuring a black and white picture of woman writing on a sheet of paper. She is dressed in early 20th century clothing. The title of the book is Selma Lagerlöf and Falun.
Selma Lagerlöf spent a lot of time in Falun writing. She even mentions the lake Varpan (where my airbnb is situated) in her book The wonderful adventures of Nils.

I don’t have access to my airbnb for a couple of hours, so I sit down at a café. On a shelf on the wall beside me is a booklet about the nobel prize laureate Selma Lagerlöf, who apparently wrote some of her most famous books in Falun. I see it as a good sign of what this town has to offer writewise.

Chocolate conundrum

I do some grocery shopping and hesitate at the chocolate stand. Perhaps I should buy myself a bar of 70 per cent chocolate? Nah, I think, I can’t buy more than the essentials or I’ll sink under the weight of my luggage. I pay for my few products and walk even less elegantly to the bus stop.

After a final walk on a puddled gravel road I finally arrive at my lodging. When I open the door, full of excitement, I see a bar of 70 per cent chocolate on the kitchen table. I smile, put the groceries in the fridge and walk down to the lake to check out the hole in the ice for my morning baths.

Tuesday

And so my writing retreat has begun, actually-really-no-kidding. This is the time I have carved out for myself to breathe, write and repeat. I feel giddy and terrified. What if I can’t deliver, then what? What if I can deliver, then what? But I do as I always do, I start, and trust that the words will flow. I doubt, I do, but then I dance. Or look at the lake, get some fresh air, do what I can to dissolve any blockages that sneak up on me.

A woman bathing in a hole in a frozen lake.
A sweet morning dip in lake Varpan.

After my first morning writing session I take a bath in the lake, giddy of excitement over a new tub. The ice is still thick, at least 20 centimeters, but the hosts have maintained the hole through the winter and it is majestic and inviting. Silence cushions me as I sink into the cold and listen to the wind in the trees and my singing heart.

The privilege of getting lost

After a total of four and a half hours of writing with relaxing Japanese music in my ears, I call it a day. The hosts have offered me to borrow a bike, so I roll in to the town center, get lost a couple of times and smile at having the privilege of getting lost in a new town. I imagine I am Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch in Edwardian dress, lost in streets of Florence, enjoying the view over the Arno, only my Arno is Faluån and I wear hiking pants and I have no poor cousin Charlotte to hold me back.

An old mitten in what looks like salt chrystals.
The born mitten, the oldest find of two-end knitting, carbon dated to between 1490 and 1645.

I walk through the textile department of the Dalarna museum. My heart tingles as I see the Born mitten, the oldest find of two-end knitting, carbon dated to between 1490 and 1645.

A house tour

When I browsed for locations and accommodations I had a few requirements. I wanted a tiny house in two floors with one bedroom. For some reason I imagined that it would feel safe to be in a small space. I wanted a vast view of a lake and large windows where I could work and watch the view. Of course I wanted a bathing ladder close by too. I needed nature around me, but also a reasonably short distance to a town for inspiration and food.

A woman writing on a laptop by a large window. A red barn, a bitch and rocks outside.
A room with a view.

This house is perfect. The living room has large windows over the lake. I sit at the kitchen table and see only nature. On the top floor, which only covers half the floor space, there is a small bedroom. An old iron gate works as a border between the landing and the open ground floor. A small window by the kitchen sink to peak out on the yard, floor heating all over and a large bathroom. I couldn’t ask for more.

Wednesday

A new day of writing, and I feel confident that I will finish this chapter here. It’s an empowering feeling. I write, take a dip, write some more, meditate, write in another spot and dance. Being able to retreat into a space of my own with no one to answer to or consider does wonders for my writing process. Even if I get blocked – and I do – I have tools to shift the block and allow the words to flow again. My mind is focused.

Giraffes and patisseries

I write for five hours today. The two squirrels that live in a tree nearby skip around on the rock in front of the house every now and then as if to remind me to lift my gaze. My optician tells me to look at the giraffes on the savannah. Our eyes were not constructed for screens, he argues, and we need to use them the way they were intended, to look for predators and danger. So I take the bike to town again to look for some giraffes. Not that I would consider them dangerous, I only decided on giraffes. I find my way through town better now, but even if I take the wrong bike lane from time to time, I know I will get to my destination sooner or later.

A person cross stitching letters, forming the words ”Jag skriver”, meaning I write. In the background a teacup and a carrot cake.
Carrot cake, cross stitching and writing. The words Jag skriver mean I write.

I bring my computer to a patisserie in an eighteenth century building and enjoy the sound of rattling teacups and giggling schoolgirls. It feels very grown up to sit with a cup of tea and a carrot cake and edit my chapter. Perhaps Selma Lagerlöf wrote in this patisserie too as she too enjoyed tea and cake.

An oasis among the barns

As I get back to the house I smile at how thoughtfully it has been placed. While it is in a natural garden with the hosts’ house next door and barns and cars all over the yard, the windows are placed in a way that I only see the lake, the trees and the sky when I look out.

A red barn wall with lichen growing on the roof panel.
Lichen and barns. Could you ask for more?

When I do my yoga practice in the morning I see the surrounding nature from different perspectives – sideways, tilted and upside down. It helps me to see different perspectives in my writing as well. In my evening yoga I see nothing but a single light at the other end of the lake, contrary to the bright city I see across my own lake at home.

Thursday

I did it. I finished the tenth chapter of my book, and the manuscript is officially halfway done. The feeling is a sweet mix of accomplishment and horror – I’m over the moon about what I have achieved so far, yet in doubt whether I can really write another ten chapters. But I start the eleventh and keep dancing.

A woman dancing in front of large windows with a lake view.
A woman dancing in front of large windows with a lake view.
A woman dancing in front of large windows with a lake view.
And then she danced.

I realize that I have managed to leave my regular life at home. My mind hasn’t bothered with laundry, wool baskets, work or garden planning. I have just been here in my nature cushioned writing bubble, writing myself and my heart into new horizons.

Wild and unrestrained

I break my schedule today, taking more pauses to breathe and move, watching more inspirational videos from the virtual retreat, writing wildly and unrestrained in upcoming chapters that appeal to me in the moment. I want to squeeze out every drop of writerly juices this last day of my writing sanctuary, I want to see what I can make of it and how I can look back on this first one. Because there will be more. Going away like this with my words as my travel companion has expanded my writing mind, and I am grateful. Frankly, also a little proud, that I have put this together on my own, moved through town and worked with dedication and joy.

Friday

It has rained all night and somebody has rolled a foggy blanket over the lake. I pack my things and clean the house while sorting my thoughts and experiences from this writerly bubble. Today I just listen to the rain when I write.

A window with a lit candle, a teacup and two books. Outside a red barn and a snow covered lake.
Closing ceremony in my first ever writing retreat.

There is a closing ceremony in the battery of videos for the virtual writing retreat. I’m reluctant to start it, I don’t want this retreat to end. But I do, and reflect over what these days have given me, and have a sweet moment of tying the retreat ends together. It will require more time to process, though.

A new writer

I am a new writer now. I know what I am capable of and what time in a bubble can do for my writing. During these few days I have explored new ways of letting the words flow and new contexts for them to flow in. I have a writing retreat in my heart now. Whenever I feel lost I can go back in my mind to the lake, the vastness and the trees, to the dancing with my words.

It’s funny, the chapter I finished is called In the bubble. In it I reflect over the process of spinning as an equally important as the produced yarn. And here I am, in a writing bubble, throwing myself fearlessly into the writing process with heart and soul.

Even though I return home with the same things I brought here, my suitcase feels lighter. The weight of the first half of my book has been lifted and I walk towards the train with a spring in my step. When I come back to Stockholm main station, the same people hand out the same discount coupons at the same escalators as four days ago. How come they don’t see that everything has changed now?

The next ten

A couple of days after I came home I did the last editing of my my first ten chapters. With trembling hands and a beating heart I sent my half-baby to my editor and turned my focus to the upcoming ten. I wonder what gifts they will bring me.

A woman writing on a keyboard. A cross-stitch sign on the door says ”Jag skriver”, meaning I write.
Back home I keep writing the remaining ten chapters.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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The anatomy of a chapter

The anatomy of a chapter is complicated, involving sensations and dimensions you may never have heard of before. But they are definitely there and they turn up when you least expect it.

The words on the cross-stitch embroidery in the featured image says Jag skriver (I write).

I was reflecting over this one early morning on my bike ride to work, wind blowing in my hair and speed boosting me with freedom.

A blob

At first glance, I thought as I whooshed past an early dog walker, a chapter is just a large and shapleless monstrosity. When I took Beth Kempton’s Book proposal Masterclass we initially referred to the proposal as a blob that we poked from different angles to shape the proposal. To me, a chapter is also a monstrous blob, an entity with shape and no shape, a mass and no mass, and an inner world that won’t reveal itselves unless I work for it.

The blob structure

I have no idea how to approach the chapter blob, so I do the most obvious, I poke it. Once, to see what happens. Perhaps it responds and leaves a little feedback, and a dimple in the surface. Once again I poke, from another angle, with a new response. I keep poking, and the more I poke the blob, the more dimples linger on the surface. All of a sudden, all the dimples are connected, revealing a web, an outer structure. Some call this a disposition, but what do they know? I’m convinced the technical term is blob structure. It works kind of like a blueprint of a building, but it won’t reveal who lives inside.

The sea weed and tingle rooms

Iit’s time to go beneath the surface and see what the blob is made of. It turns out, it’s everything I never dreamed of, Mary Poppins’ bag, the room of requirement and Alice’s Wonderland all at the same time.

There are rooms in the blob, which I need to find, enter and move between to understand. The thing is, the rooms can be made of just about anything – cushiony moss, seaweed, angry ducklings or that tingle you feel when your feet are asleep. I need to figure out how to get into the rooms and how to move about in them. Perhaps cuddle the ducklings underneath their beaks, make a swing for the moss or paint the seaweed’s toes with sparkling nailpolish. I may need to enter the rooms backwards, sideways or walking on my hands.

The common thread

All the rooms are connected by a common thread. If I don’t find the common thread I will never get out of the blob. Just to make things even more challenging, sometimes I find more doors than I actually need. That’s when it’s time to decide which doors will get me to the next room and which are just dead ends.

When I have discovered and made sense of all the rooms, found the common thread and come out of the blob alive, it’s time to celebrate, I made it! I am most definitely exhausted, wrung out like a dish rag and, frankly, a bit tired of seaweed, but nevertheless a star! My grand prize is another blob to discover, only it has a completely different structure from the last one. I need to get back to poking again. I wonder what the rooms are made of in this one.

When I arrived at the office bike room I realized that I hadn’t felt the cold and I couldn’t remember what I had seen along the way, I had been exploring the anatomy of a chapter and writing this blog post in my mind since I started pedaling. I had literally written myself to work and my body felt utterly relaxed and balanced.

This past week I stayed in a tiny house on my solo writing retreat. I will tell you more about it in an upcoming blog post!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Survey results: Keeping records

Two weeks ago I sent out a survey about record keeping in spinning, and today I share some interesting results.

I am currently writing a chapter about keeping records in my upcoming book Listen to the wool. I created the survey to include other perspectives on record keeping than just my own.

263 of you answered the survey and I thank you all very much for contributing to the book with thoughtful reflections about different aspects of record keeping. This was the first ever survey I have made and I have loved reading your replies. They were very valuable for my book, but I will also share some results and thoughts here.

Written and physical documentation

First of all, I was curious about what the respondents document and when. Many of them kept written records of things like tools, techniques, breed, sheep owner, and different calculations like weight and length of the yarn, and fleece to yarn yield.

The questions in the survey I sent to my email list of spinners.

When it came to physical documentation fewer people documented, but the most common type of physical documentation was by far yarn samples. The most common time for documentation was at wool preparation, spinning and after finishing the yarn. Many sheep owners also kept records at the time of shearing.

A flora of record keeping systems

I also asked the respondents to comment on their written and physical record keeping and whether they document in the same way and the same things. It turned out that there is a wide variety of ways people document and. Some respondents expressed their curiosity about other spinners’ ways of keeping records. One respondent even offered to show me their system for documentation, and I’m meeting them this weekend.

Systematic record keeping

Some seem to document very systematically with samples of staples, yarns and swatches in different techniques in books and binders, transparent plastic pockets or in a card index. Many of these respondents seemed to document the same way and the same things through all their projects. At this point I really regretted not asking for pictures of their documentation, people seemed to have so many interesting systems.

Small scale documentation

Some kept their records to a minimum, perhaps just a sample by the spinning wheel or a label on the finished skein. “I’ll spin and swatch, make a decision and plunge forward”. Some saved swatches with inventive ideas as memory aids:

“I especially love to save swatches knitted at different gauges and in different patterns. This type of documentation is useful to me. I tie knots in the yarn tail to tell me what needle size I used.”

Others developed their record keeping through the years, perhaps starting in a small scale and working up a system as they learned. Or the other way around – starting big, with lots of details documented, and making it smaller as they learned. One respondent expressed their system like this:

“I tend to document the things I find interesting and the details that I think will help me make best use of the finished yarn.”

16 per cent of the respondents didn’t do any written documentation at all and 25 per cent didn’t do any physical documentation. However, I know some people said didn’t answer the survey at all because they don’t do any documentation.

Storage issues and solution

Some respondents mentioned storage as an issue, after many years of spinning there simply wasn’t enough space to keep all the records. Some had inventive solutions for keeping and storing records: “Sample cards are great references, I keep in my mom’s old wooden recipe file box. I can easily get out a card with information about spinning a particular breed or using a specific technique to help with a future project.”

What do you use your documentation for?

There were lots of interesting answers to this question. Many respondents kept their records for their own education,

“it isn’t just about keeping a record so I can spin the same yarn at a later date, it is about a growth in my crafting.”

Some keep records to remember what they had done, especially if they knew there would be periods when they wouldn’t spin. Some kept their records for consistency and for matching yarns with other yarns. Yet some did it for nostalgic reasons.

“I always tell myself that it’s a good idea to have records. So far, they haven’t changed my life much—I’ve never really gone back and tried to re-create a yarn I made a long time ago. But it’s nice to have a record.”

I especially love this quote:

“Some times I just like to page through my records for inspiration or to see my own progress, like a photo album but for my yarn children.”

A few respondents kept their records for a combination of reasons. Here is one example:

“I use the documentation to develop my learning of handling of the wool and the creativity, but also to just allow the senses to dominate as I have my hands in the wool or the swatch, letting my thoughts rest, come and go.”

(my translation from Swedish)

“Because I should be doing it”

Some respondents expressed that they were unsure of why they were keeping records and whether they were doing it enough or the “right” way.

“I haven’t started documenting yet. I suppose I should in order to be more consistent in my spinning. Being self taught, I’m not always sure what to document for better spinning”

In this context some seem to feel a pressure to keep records, from both the spinning community and from spinning teachers. Here are a couple of examples:

“Mostly to assuage guilt that I should be doing it! (As in, this is what good spinners do, right??)”

and

“people seem to think you have to, so there’s always conversation about it”.

As a spinning teacher I take this seriously. I need to find ways to talk about why I keep records of my spinning process and encourage my students to play with their wool without feeling obligated to keep records for the sake of keeping records. What can we as a spinning community do to make people feel comfortable documenting just for themselves or not at all?

Spin for pleasure or spin for numbers?

One interesting reflection made by quite a few respondents were about a feeling of a dichotomy between keeping records and spinning for the process – that keeping records somehow stood in the way of the spinning experience and joy.

“The pleasure of spinning is the most important reason I do it. Keeping documentation is not pleasant for me. I keep minimal written information on my ravelry page for handspun.”

One respondent took the dichotomy to a deeper level in their reflections:

”I have a divided feeling towards documentation. I can enjoy pretty labels and love to be organized. But I also struggle against the feeling of what isn’t documented isn’t worth anything. So I can wish that I documented more and that I documented less? I like to document, but perhaps I wish I didn’t? I wish that not everything needed to be a documented experience to fall back on but just something pleasant that I engaged in for a while and that later was allowed to be forgotten.”

(my translation from Swedish)

For me, record keeping is no hindrance for enjoying the spinning process. Record keeping and enjoying the process coexist in my spinning and are mutually beneficial. Can it be that a feeling of record keeping as a must stands in the way of the joy of the process? Perhaps we need to reflect more over why we keep records rather than assume everybody does it because they should.

A white paper with eight different yarn samples attached to it, each with a short hand written explanation of the technique.
Eight different yarn samples from one fleece.

Again, thank you all who participated in the survey. The results really helped me sharpen the structure and content. I have now almost finished the 9th chapter of the book. After the next chapter I’m half way through the manuscript!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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New online course: Tease your wool

Today I’m releasing a new online course: Tease your wool – invite air before carding. It is part of my series of short (30 minute) lectures.

In the lecture I talk about the benefits of teasing the wool before carding and show you how I tease with different tools. I also demonstrate the difference between carding teased and unteased wool.

Enroll in Tease your wool here

Why tease?

I like to compare wool preparation to sanding a piece of rough wood. I wouldn’t start smoothing the surface down with the finest grain sandpaper. That would be straining on me and on the wood and would leave a lot of waste. Instead I would start with a rough grain sandpaper and go down a couple of sizes. I see teasing as the medium grain sand paper, after picking and before carding.

Josefin holding two carded rolags. The left large and uneven in size and fiber distribution. The right fine and even.
Rolag carded from unteased wool to the left and from teased wool to the right. The difference is remarkable.

Teasing is such an easy but powerful way to open up the fibers before carding. It makes carding easier on your body and on the fibers and will result in more even rolags and yarn. It also gives me more time with the wool, getting to know its characteristics and how it behaves.

A screenshot of the curriculum of an online course. An image of hands teasing wool on a hand card. A list of lessons and a bio of the author.
The course page of Tease your wool.

When I open up the wool by teasing, air comes in between the fibers and allows vegetation matter to fall out or makes it more accessible for me to pick it out manually. Most teasing methods also removes the shortest fibers from the wool, resulting in a higher quality in the teased preparation.

Teasing with different tools

In the lecture I show you how I tease with different tools, some of which you will have at home, others you may have or can borrow, but you won’t have to buy anything to tease your wool if you don’t want to. I show how I tease with my hands, with a hand card, a flicker and mini combs. They all work well for most types of wool. In the video I also talk about when I choose one tool over the other.

Hands teasing wool. The left hand pulls the fibers from a staple sideways, making them leave the staple in a bow.
Teasing by hand can be very meditative and is a great way to get to know the wool.

Joyful

I also talk about the joy of preparing my wool with the right tools and the right techniques. I have met so many spinners who have given up on hand-carding because it’s tedious or straining. I need all the steps from raw fleece to a finished yarn or textile to be joyful, to give me that feeling of flow and ease. With picking and teasing, the fibers are gradually opened before carding, making all the steps joyful and light.

You can read more about teasing here and see some examples here.

Enroll in Tease your wool here

Happy teasing!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Multiteasing

For some reason I’m working on sevaral spinning projects at the moment, and it has occurred to me that I have teased most of them differently. This week I’m multiteasing!

I always tease my wool before I card it, for several reasons. The most important reason to tease, though, is to open up the fibers to make carding easier on my body and on the fibers. I like the analogy of sanding a piece of rough wood – you wouldn’t go straight to the finest grain sand paper. Instead you would start with the roughest (picking the staples), then go to a medium (teasing) and end with the finest (carding). This way is more sustainable on both your body and the fibers. It also leaves less waste.

I use different methods of teasing for different purposes and different wools, and this week of multiteasing is no different. I’ll walk you through my current projects.

Hand teasing for the yum of it

I’m spinning an Icelandic weft singles yarn for a fulling project. I separated the tog and thel (outercoat and undercoat in Icelandic wool) with my hands, so the thel that remained was quite open already. I decided to tease the staples with my hands only. The reason for this was the way I planned to turn it into a textile. The weft yarn doesn’t have the same demands of durability as a warp yarn, and I figured it would be okay with the less thorough teasing I get from teasing by hand. Another reason was simply that I loved to get my hands in the fleece, sitting on the couch rather than clamp my combing station onto the table.

Hands opening up the fibers of a bundle of wool. A basket of wool in the background.
Hand teasing separated Icelandic undercoat.

And it was indeed the loveliest teasing. There is something buttery about this Icelandic fleece, while at the same time it is a bit rustic. Since the staples had been opened a bit already through the separation of the coats, hand teasing was a very soft and light process.

A staple, an opened staple, a carded rolag and a skein of yarn.
Icelandic undercoat – separated, hand teased, carded and spun into a singles weft yarn.

The hand teased wool was easy to card and spin. The rolags were slightly more uneven than they would have if they had been teased with a tool, but in the context I didn’t mind.

Flicking away the kemp

I’m spinning a warp yarn for another weaving project, from a Gute fleece blended with recycled sari silk. Because of the kemp in the lower third of the staples I teased with a flicker. Most of the kemp stayed in the flicker and the flicked staple was silky and soft.

Hands brushing a staple of wool with a hand brush against the back of a piece of leather.
A staple, an opened staple, a carded rolag and a skein of yarn.
I’m teasing the Gute staples with a flicker to get as much of the kemp out (left). To the right the staple, a flicked staple, carded finished and the finished 2-ply warp yarn that I blended with recycled sari silk at the carding stage.

I have spun a similar yarn – a kempy Gute fleece that I blended with sari silk at the teasing stage. I teased with my combing station back then, and a lot of the short sari silk ended up in the combs, leaving more kemp in the teased wool. The flicker technique for my Current Gute fleece removed more of the kemp.

Combing station for production

I used the same Icelandic thel for another weft yarn, only bulkier. My romance with the hand teasing was over and I longed for a work horse – a combing station. Teasing the undercoat that had already been opened by the separation was a dream, as was the spinning.

A square wooden basket filled with carded rolags. One rolag is floating in the air. A skein of wool over the edge of the basket.
A staple, an opened staple, a carded rolag and a skein of yarn.
70+ hand carded rolags of Icelandic undercoat blended with sari silk (left). To the right the separated staple, the staples teased with a combing station, carded rolag and the finished singles yarn.

I blended the teased wool with recycled sari silk at the carding stage here too. The carding was very smooth and I carded over 70 rolags in one afternoon.

Mini combs for short wool

I have a fleece from Doris the Gestrike sheep that is unusually fine for the breed. The staples are quite short, and while my go-to tool for teasing is the combing station, I was worried that teasing with the large two-pitched combs would result in more waste than necessary with such short fibers. Instead, I chose a pair of single pitch mini combs.

A staple, an opened staple, a carded rolag and a skein of yarn.
Staple from Doris the Gestrike wool, staples teased with mini combs, a carded rolag and the finished 2-ply woolen knitting yarn.

I got quite small amounts of waste with the mini combs and was happy with my choice. The short fibers arranged themselves into slim and sweet rolags that I spun into a fingering weight 2-ply yarn for a secret knitting project.

Combing station again

Doris’ friend Härvor, also a Gestrike sheep, grazes the same pasture and I took both of their fleeces with me after I had helped my friend Claudia on shearing day this fall. I decided to include Härvor in the secret project. After all, they were flock friends and would make a lovely combination in a project. Since Härvor’s staples were longer than Doris’, I decided to use my work horse again, the combing station.

A staple, an opened staple, a carded rolag and a skein of yarn.
Staple, wool teased with a combing station, carded rolag and 2-ply woolen spun yarn for a secret knitting project from Härvor the Gestrike sheep.

Carding was a dream here too and the spinning smooth and joyful.

Joyful carding

In these five projects I have used different techniques in different contexts. But the aim has been the same for all of the yarns – to card even rolags in a way that is joyful for me and sustainable for my body and the fibers. To me, all the parts of the process from raw fleece to a finished yarn and textile need to be joyful. Creating a yarn is for me that whole process and not restricted to just the spinning part.

With the teasing I also open up the wool to let vegetation matter out – watching little pieces of moss, peat and seeds fall out help me come back to the wool as a gift from a living and grazing sheep. Having my hands in the wool through all the stages also help me learn about the characteristics of the wool and I become a better spinner through it.

If you think you don’t need to tease before you card, try carding one rolag with teased wool and one without, and see the difference. And do try different tools for teasing if you have them. Perhaps you find a favourite.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

A simple letter

Today I reflect over the complexity of a simple letter stitched onto a kitchen towel.

Hands cross stitching a green letter I on a linen towel.
Hands cross stitching a green letter I on a linen towel.
Hands cross stitching a green letter I on a linen towel.
Stitching a simple letter, filled with complex emotions.

One cross for the first row; three the second; two, one empty, one, one empty and another two on the third.

x

I’m stitching a simple letter, ‘I‘, on the last of three thrifted and handwoven linen towels, ‘I‘ as the initial letter of my son’s first name. Just a straight line, really, but in the scheme things, so much more.

xxx

I’m writing this on his 21st birthday. He spent the morning looking at an apartment. He is so ready to move into a place of his own, to find his space in the world outside of our bosom.

xx x xx

With all my heart I wish for him to take that step into adulthood. At the same time I know it will feel so empty without him, even if I’m lucky enough to just brush by him when our vastly differing rhythms meet.

x xxxxx x

Cross by cross the letter reveals itself. Slowly, I stitch my reflections of his journey since the day he was born and we took him home in a rush of bliss mixed with terror of that new life we had brought into the world. A child was born that day, but also two brand new parents. From that moment there was no button to press for someone to come and assist the clueless new mother that was me. A heartbeat later he is now a grown man. One era is ending, another one beginning.

x x x x

I won’t lie, we do have plans for his room when he does move out, to fill it with new furniture and new functions. But what about the space he is leaving in the living, breathing organism that is this household? What about the remaining three of us when one leaves the nest, even if it’s only only on a metro ride’s distance? How will we inhabit the rearranged organism?

x x

His shoes will be placed in another hallway, he will dry his dishes on that monogrammed towel, buy his own shower curtain and laundry basket, wake up with the morning light from another angle. Will he realize one Thursday afternoon that he doesn’t have a watering pot or a potato peeler (which, come to think of it, he actually does). Will he call to ask for the recipe of my grandmother’s birthday cake (and secretly to hear our voices) for a significant other? Will he see the sky from his bed?

x x

Will he miss having us around? Wait, I don’t want him to. Well, a little. But I want him to explore the world for himself, just as he did when he was three and explored every rock, stick and moss covered tree trunk he passed. He will stumble and fall, just as he did then. And he will rise again and move forward in the world and in the spirit that is he.

xxxxx

Perhaps I should hide his things so that he will have to come home every now and then to look for them, for the chance for me to brush by him again?

x x

I stitch the tenth row of crosses and wonder how he will settle in his new apartment once he gets one. I wonder when he starts calling it his home.

x x

I remember when I moved into my first apartment, just a few kilometers from where my parents still live. It started when I was accepted to the university at 20. I called the student admission from a phone booth, Dan stood outside holding his breath. And I almost cried when I got the reply: I had been admitted to the basic course in linguistics. That, in turn, meant that I would be able to take a student loan and pay my own rent. Once I got the apartment a month later, my mother took me to a hardware store and bought me a toolbox filled with tools, just as her parents had when she moved out. I was so excited.

x x x x

Oh, to experience that first night in one’s very first own home. That sense of novelty and unfamiliarity that gradually, seamlessly will turn into tuesdayness, coming home to parents for that first post-move-out Sunday dinner with a feeling of a new skin, with the old one still lingering in the shadows.

x x x x

I wonder what the first night in his new home will be like, if he wonders about the unfamiliar sounds around him, if the air smells differently, if he will learn to recognize all the dents, cracks and fossils in the staircase. I wonder what trees he will see from his kitchen window.

x xxxxx x

What will his neighborhood be like? Will he explore it and happily get lost among houses and streets? Will he find a favorite baker around the corner and chat with his new neighbours? I wonder if he will let his sister hang out at his place and they be brother and sister just as usual for a while. I was struck by how sad I was when my big brother moved out, and to another town. We had been close and it wasn’t the same without him.

xx x x xx

Oh, this must be the essence of bittersweetness, having guided a child into adulthood, and seeing him take flight and treadle his own path. Being thrown between pride and pain in one single breath.

xxx

I’m not getting him a toolbox filled with tools, he and his sister got one each when they were five, and they know how to use them. Their boxes stand next to the one I got all those years ago.

x

The stitches in the towel is a reminder that he is ready for his own household now. I weave in the ends after the last stitch and wonder how he will wake up to his 22nd birthday.

Hands cross stitching a green letter I on a linen towel.
The ‘I‘ is finished and I add the towel to the finished two.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Silk and kemp

I’ve done it before, married a kempy Gute fleece with recycled sari silk with surprising success. Today I’m combining silk and kemp again, with even more success.

If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see how I tease, blend and spin the Gute wool with sari silk in my February 2024 video postcard.

The combination wool from a primitive breed like Gute sheep, including kemp, with something as delicate as silk is quite intriguing, and I still giggle when I think about when the idea poked me in the eye a couple of years ago.

2021: First try

Back then it was a Gute lamb’s fleece. I teased the wool with my combing station, while at the same time blending it with recycled sari silk. A lot of the kemp stayed in the combs as I teased the wool. Sadly, a lot of the sari silk did too.

A person pulling grey wool off a stationary wool comb. Lots of colourful specks in the tines of the comb.
A hand holding up a grey ball of yarn with colourful specks in it.
A piece of paper with samples and swatches of grey wool and colourful silk. Hand writing that describes the wool.
Lots of the sari silk got stuck in the tines of the combs when I teased and blended the first Gute fleece back in 2021. I got a lovely little skein and did a couple of fulling tests.

The result was a surprisingly soft yarn, though, with little specks of silk next to the quirky kemp. Sadly, I only spun that one small skein as a test when I bought the fleece, and when it finally was the Gute fleece’s turn in my fleece queue, it had gone old and brittle. With a heavy heart I placed it on my garden beds as mulching. I was quite crushed by this (even if the vegetables weren’t).

2024: Second try

A year or so ago I got myself another Gute lamb’s fleece, with beautiful soft undercoat and quite a lot of kemp. This one made its turn in the fleece queue before it got brittle.

A bundle of raw wool with coarse looking staples and dirty tips.
Another Gute lamb’s fleece came home with me. Just as the first one it has lots of kemp.

This time I tried teasing it staple by staple with a flicker. And it really did the trick – by gently brushing the cut ends I got rid of a lot more kemp than I had with the combs. All that was left after the flicking were astonishingly soft fibers. Some kemp is still there, but I don’t let it bother me.

Two hands holding a staple of grey and coarse looking wool.
A brush stroking a staple of white wool.
A hand holding three pieces of wool: a staple in the middle, a bundle of coarse fibers in the bottom and a teased staple of fine and soft looking fibers in the top.
With a simple brush with the flicker I remove lots of the kemp and end up with fine and silky fibers. The rightmost image shows the original staple (middle), the flicked staple (top) and the waste in the flicker after flicking (bottom).

When I look at the flicked staples I can see that there are outercoat fibers, but very close to the fineness of the undercoat fibers. Just sweet locks of silky vanilla kindness, light as feathers and dying to spoon with some sari silk.

Two baskets with wool. Soft and white teased wool in the left, staples of coarse looking wool in the right.
Flicked (left) and unlicked (right) staples of Gute lamb’s wool.

My usual yield from raw fleece to finished yarn is around 55 per cent. I expect this yield to be lower due to the amount of kemp removed, but the result is truly astonishing and definitely worth it. Flicking staple by staple is time consuming, but I do it while bingeing Downton Abbey, and enjoy the slow movements of the flicker. Once a staple is flicked it feels like a luxurious soap against my skin.

Enter recycled sari silk

My plan was to use combs to blend the sari silk with the teased staples. However, when I tried adding the sari silk straight onto the cards I realized that it worked wonderfully well. I just pulled a staple length of the sari silk off the braid, teased it sideways to match the width of the wool on the card and placed it on top. Carding was a dream and the silk blended smoothly and evenly into the batt.

A hand dressing a hand card with white wool.
A hand card dressed with white wool and colourful silk fibers.
A hand card with wool blended with colourful silk.
I’m dressing the card with first the flicked staples and then the recycled sari silk.

When I find the rhythm I can card for ages. It’s like a dance and I swirl away to the muffled sound of brush strokes. The teased fibers make the smooth movements possible. My latest ebayed hand cards are a dream. I think they are from the -70’s, but made with old techniques. I have never experienced such smooth cards.

A hand shaping a rolag between two hand cards.
A carded rolag on top of a hand card. The wool is white and has specks of colour in it.
Shaping the gute/sari silk rolag into pure yumminess.

Woolen yarn and fulled dreams

I am spinning the rolags with an English longdraw on my spinning wheel and 2-plying it. I am spinning the yarn quite fine, around light fingering to fingering weight. As you can see in the picture below, there is still kemp in the yarn. Most of this will fall out during weaving, leaving air pockets that will make the fabric light and warm.

My plan is to weave it in tabby on my rigid heddle loom. I’m not sure how much yarn I will get, perhaps I will use it all as a warp yarn and spin some Icelandic undercoat wool the same way for the weft.

A skein of handspun light grey yarn with specks of colour. Some coarse fibers are sticking out.
A 2-ply yarn spun with English longdraw from carded rolags of Gute wool blended with recycled silk.

In May I will go to a fulling mill with my wool traveling club and full the finished weave, along with some other woven projects. More kemp will fall out in the intense handling, leaving a magical cloth. That is my plan, anyway. I’m truly excited about both the wool journey and the results. I will of course keep you posted.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Triple time

When I count I automatically group the numbers in clusters of four – counting four steps and then another four in the staircase, four stitches in a pattern repeat, groups of four breaths in the cold bath. Also, usually four treadles at a time on the spinning wheel, as if I were spinning in common time. This yarn, though, wanted to be spun in triple time, a waltzing yarn.

I spin in triple time, treadling each wooly part through dancing hands
Trip-le-time, trip-le-time,
trailing wool, back and forth
One-two-three, four-five-six, gather twist,
seven-eight-nine, make the draw, arm's length back,
thirteen-fourteen-fifteen, yarn slides through
gather twist four-five-six.
fibers live, open up the twist,
finding space in the yarn, yield to the twist,
four-five-six, make the draw,
back and forth, leaning in to gather, back to draw the yarn, floating the twist, live in the fibers, between my hands, leaning forth again.
A row of wool staples in the snow, colour sorted from black to light grey.
Two hands separating the outercoat and undercoat of a staple of wool.
Two hands teasing a tuft of wool. A thin layer of fibers between the hands.
Icelandic wool separated, and the undercoat teased
Once sweet locks of Icelandic wool
pulled apart,
overcoat left, sparkling of charge
undercoat right, hair on end like the morning after
orderly piles, one for each
tease by hand
arched fibers stretched, layer by layer
Welcome air!
to breathe, to puff, and gently let go.
A person carding wool, the wool stretching between in a movement between the cards.
A person carding wool, transfering the fiber between the cards.
A person shaping a rolag of wool between two cards.
Card, tease and roll, in triple time.
A handful of wool
offered to the card
softly-softly brush,
one-two-three
transfer wool
four-five-six,
shape the roll
promising loft
carding a waltz.

Trip-le-time, trip-le-time,
swaying and dawning a promise of yarn
seven-eight-nine, pulse of the twist eager to rush through
How can't I see it, that dazzle of fibers?
ready to catch the yarn,
make the yarn,
strengthen, soften
to the tune of the waltz.
Trip-le-time, trip-le-time
swaying the waltz,
softly.
Gently.
Fiber and yarn, that sweet spot between,
free to glide,
free to twist,
stay in the space, conform to its shape
Once there, inviting the twist back in
to seal, to protect the strength,
to surrender to the yarn.
A woman spinning from a rolag on a spinning wheel. A basket of carded wool in the background.
Bildtext
Four-five-six
make the draft,
shooting the fibers into its power,
still somewhat fiber, still somewhat yarn,
in limbo,
suspended between airy and dense,
between soft and strong. 
Hands in conversation through the yarn,
the bubbling
of the fire
in the point of twist engagement,
a point that is no point,
but a context of in-betweenness,
neither rolag nor yarn,
yet both, and still none,
open and close,
until my hands feel the spot to settle in, allow the twist back,
to seal, to confirm, to conform
in a newborn yarn, 
to land quietly, gently on the bobbin,
strand next to strand,
an arm's length from the rolag they were once part of,
yet a lifetime away,
a new shape, a new purpose.
Reading my words
makes me see
that I write
in clusters of three,
to the beat
and the sway
of a
tri-ple-time waltz.
A woman spinning from a rolag on a spinning wheel. A basket of carded wool in the background.
Still somewhat fiber, still somewhat yarn.
Trip-le-time, trip-le-time,
the dance in the yarn
in my hands
in my mind,
in my words and my soul.
The echo of three
as the yarn moves through me,
rippling the sway through my sizzling skin,
leaving a smile in my face and a song in my heart.

Buonanotte fiorellino was the waltz that breathed through my mind as I spun the yarn and wrote this piece (you can see a waltzy spinning reel on my instagram. What is your favourite spinning beat?

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Fjällnäs wool

Fjällnäs sheep is a heritage and conservation breed in Sweden and one of our rarest breeds. This is my twelfth breed study. Previous breed studies have been about Gotland wool, Gute wool, Dalapäls wool, Värmland wool, Jämtland wool, finull wool, rya wool, Klövsjö wool, Åsen wool, Gestrike wool and Åland wool.

Fjällnäs sheep

Fjällnäs sheep is one of the 11 (the eleventh established in the autumn of 2023) conservation and heritage breeds in Sweden. It is the smallest, both in size and in number. According to the statistics of 2022 there were 40 breeding ewes in 8 flocks in Sweden. The rams weigh 30–50 kilos and the ewes 30–40 kilos. For reference a merino ram can weigh up to 100 kilos.

The flock that was the original for the gene bank comes from the northernmost part of Sweden. Traditionally the Fjällnäs sheep have tended themselves on the mountains during spring and summer. In the autumn they were gathered to graze the regrowth of the newly harvested hay.

Just like Dalapäls sheep, the fjällnäs sheep have a strong sense for the flock and are suspicious of strangers. When they graze there are always a couple of individuals that are on the guard, looking out for danger. Tending to themselves during the summer months has made the breed very sturdy.

On the fjällnäs sheep website you can see pictures of the sheep and their lustrous wool.

Wool characteristics

Fjällnäs wool is usually white with a soft yellow tone or with black or grey spots. Some lambs are born fawn but fade to a light copper with age. The wool is quite similar to rya wool – a dual coat with long and very shiny outercoat fibers and plenty of soft and lustrous undercoat.

Two staples of wavy white wool on sunlit moss. The tips of the staples are wound around each other. A piece of melting ice in the upper left corner.
Gentle locks of Fjällnäs wool.

The sturdy wool has been used for mittens, socks, sweaters and warm undergarments that have been needed in the daily lives with forestry, reindeer husbandry and as protection against the cold winter in the northernmost part of Sweden. The wool was also used for fulling, for both the majority population and for the Sami. Research has shown that over 100 year old Sami sewn sheepskins are identical to the modern Fjällnäs skins in texture and colour.

Cixi the 4H bronze medalist

The Fjällnäs fleece I got is a bronze medalist from the 2021 Swedish fleece championships. The ewe, Cixi, comes from a 4H farm (the oldest in Sweden) in the northernmost part of Sweden, where the sheep have lived traditionally. She was their first lamb born in the gene bank. Due to the small amount of Fjällnäs sheep it took the farm a few years to find a ram that was genetically suitable. She was born reddish and now has a light red tint to her fleece.

Cixi’s wool

The first thing I notice as I start picking the fleece of Cixi is its tendency to fall apart. You know that softly woven carpet of staples you get with some fleeces? This is totally the opposite. The staples are very loosely placed next to each other, making picking very easy. The staples are soft, silky and very fine. The rareness of this breed makes me want to make something very special with the fleece and resulting yarn, using it as wisely as I possibly can.

A pile of raw white wool in the sun on a wooden board. The wool is shiny and the staples almost straight.
Raw Fjällnäs Wool.

To guide me in how to make this particular wool shine I like to pick out three main characteristics. I only have this one 200 gram fleece and the characteristics will inevitably be unique to it. The characteristics I choose for Cixi’s Fjällnäs wool are

  • The shine, oh, the shine. This is such a lustrous fleece and I can’t stop looking at it.
  • The strong character. Yes, this wool has a will of its own. Very kind in its appearance, but quite strong minded in the draft.
  • The colour, a warm vanilla with a whiff of red.

Prepare

This is such a small fleece and despite the wide variety of length and character in the staples, I decide to work with the fleece as a whole and not separate it. The combination of long, strong and shiny outercoat fibers and soft and fine undercoat fibers steer me to carding rolags and spinning a woolen 2-ply yarn.

A pile of hand carded white rolags.
White carded rolags arranged in a grid.
Carded rolags of Fjällnäs wool.

After picking I teased the wool with combs. The wool was very open and easy to tease. Carding was a joy, with the openness of the fibers and the delightful blend of outercoat and undercoat fibers. The soft undercoat making up the volume in the rolags and the long, strong and shiny outercoat fibers to armour the rolag and keeping it together is a match made in heaven.

Spin

I love to spin rolags like these with an English longdraw. Gathering twist, making the draft, keeping the twist live in the point of twist engagement, and then add the final twist when I am happy with the thickness and evenness. A rhythm and a dance that makes my heart sing.

Three skeins of handspun yarn in untouched snow.
Three skeins of white handspun yarn in the snow. Some snow is on the skeins.
Three skeins of white handspun yarn are hanging in front of a wooden shed door.
Three skeins of Fjällnäs yarn, woolen spun from carded rolags of both undercoat and outercoat.

The first skein I spun was a bit of a struggle, though. The yarn broke as I spun it and I overspun a lot of it. The plied yarn was wonky with sections of phone cable. For the second skein I listened more to the live fibers in the point of twist engagement and managed to understand how the fibers worked. The skein turned out beautifully, as did the third. And then I was out of fluff.

Use

So, I have my three skeins. It’s not much, but I want to do something special with them. Perhaps a pair of mittens or wrist warmers. A hat or a detail of something larger, or stripes together with another yarn in the same fashion.

Just like most of the Swedish conservation breeds, Fjällnäs wool is very versatile with its dual coat. With more wool than the 200 grams I had I could separate the fiber types and prepare and spin them differently for different projects – strong warp yarns with the outercoat fibers, soft next to skin yarns with the undercoat, and sweaters, mittens, hats, shawls and socks with the fiber types together or semi-separated. The opportunities are endless.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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What’s it for?

How many times have you been asked that question, ”What’s it for?”. To me, it’s for love, for flow, for the connection between hands and mind, for the memory of the process.

A little ball of blue yarn, packed with adventures and so many tales to tell. It could never know what the world had in store for it. I am grateful for its gifts, for its stories and for the memories still vibrating in my hands.

Norwegian rains

It all started with white fleece from a Norwegian sheep. Long staples, showered with the misty mountain rains, lanolin pushed out to the tips. I picked it out among a flock of fleeces on a woolly journey many years ago.

A white fleece with dark and dirty tips.
A skein of white and shiny handspun yarn.
A Norwegian sheep with solidified tips turned into the sweetest yarn.

The tips a while later – solidified and gunky. Fighting me, tangling, not allowing the combs through. I go for the flicker, gently open, break the solid grease and release, fibers fanning out into the air like branches in the autumn winds. Combing has turned into a creamy dream. Gone is the fighting, the struggle against the elements, here are only smooth fibers gliding gently into the dance of the combs. A bird’s nest of gentle shine and soft evenness, like a silken salon for the sweetest baby birds.

Drafting a dream

I spin and dance, hands in the wool, a dialogue back and forth. The fibers whisper to me, guide me through the draft. Hands softly mumbling, guided by the wool, listening to it, hearing its every whisper. Roll the thumb here, allow more fiber in there, stop, breathe and wait for the twist to settle. Let the fibers flow, glide past each other, keeping the rhythm, the smoothness, the ongoing process in my hands, the settling of the fibers into sweet yarn of mine.

Weaving with the trees

I weave a dream with a tree, the both of us tensing the warp, the movement of the up and down, talking to the tree, my partner in warp. Gently pulling away to tense, coming closer, inviting the slack, moving gently with the tree to allow the weft through the shed, the batten to beat, the cloth to take shape, grow and mature. Woven in the sweet shadow below the century-old linden tree, under its sprouting sticky light-green leaves in the pale May sun, brown leaves still covering the ground, the sky blue between diamond holes in the lace canopy.

A woman weaving on a backstrap loom attached to a tree.
A person weaving on a backstrap loom, a band and wooden sticks through it.
A person weaving on a backstrap loom. A 30 centimeter broad weave in blue and natural white wool yarn.
Weaving with the trees in the early days of May.

Stitch by stitch I shape a bag, purposely planned, nothing wasted, nothing overflow. Just a strap and a body of sweet blue. A blue I always long for and against all expectations get just right this time. Kindly framing the natural sheepy white, soft and gently shining. A couple of stitches to assemble it all, roses in the belly, a pocket for heddles and sticks for other weaves, other trees.

A woman with a blue and white woven bag. She is wearing a yoked knitted sweater.
Photo by Dan Waltin
The interior of a woven bag. The bag is lined with a rosy fabric and contains yarn and weaving supplies.
A camera with a woven strap with a blue center with white hearts, framed by black.
Weaving bag and straps for my singing heart.

I can’t leave the yarn, I can’t leave the weave. I need more and I keep weaving. Even slower now, a pick-up pattern, a camera strap for Dan who so generously shoots my crafting, the bag, the sheep and the wool. A camera guard in gratitude for his eye for beauty, light and angle, his art in my craft. White hearts winding down the strap of blue, pitch black rya to frame, thin bands to hold it together.

What’s it for?

My hands are cold on the keyboard, says Dan. I knit him a pair of mitts, tiny blue dots embraced by gentle grey. The blue ball is back, warming, embracing his hands. What are they for? they ask. Well for dancing across the keyboard as he types his brackets, darts and commands to turn the world around underneath his fingers.

A pair of mittened hands on a keyboard in the grass.
Close-up of a person braiding a band. The far end is tied around the toe.
Mittens for Dan and band for joy.

Little band, little, band, I need to braid you. Darts and arrows, blue on white, white on blue, winding down the band. What is it for? they ask. Well the band is only the reminder of the process that goes through my mind as I braid, over two under one, left to right, right to left, keep moving the strands across until the band reveals its pattern, keep moving the process in my mind.

Hands warmed by tea

Just a couple of balls left now, still usable though. A white for a seaweed hat, a blue for another, a bubbly sideways stripe.

A woman wearing a slouchy hat with a bauble-like pattern in browns and blues.
A woman wearing a stranded colourwork hat with white algae growing up from a folded brim. The background colour begins in petrol at the brim and change to turquoise and dusty blue towards the crown.
Blue and white sideway stripes and white algae in stash busting hats.

Smaller and smaller, a short strand for reading the sweetest words, a kind reminder of where I finished the last sentence, hidden between the pages, keeping the words in order when I am not there to inhale their beauty. What’s it for? they ask. Well, for words to enter my heart and soul, for inspiration to flow and for hands to be warmed by tea.

An open book with a thumb book holder with a blue yarn through it.
A gentle strand of yarn serves as a book mark to keep the words neatly in order.

A ball of yarn is all that is left, a little blue ball, reminding me of its adventures through the Norwegian mountains, the rains, the flooded ballerina skirt wool before it landed in the twist into the yarn into the weave of my heart. What is it for? they ask. Well for love, for beauty and for the vibrating memory of a process, of creating the sweetest little blue ball of yarn.

Close-up of a ball of blue yarn.
The little blue ball of yarn reminds me of the process in my hands and my heart.

Inspiration

My friend Anna sent me this essay by Barbara Kingsolver that may be some of the most beautiful words I have read. It inspired this post, together with a skin thinning meditation by Beth Kempton.

Projects mentioned:

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.