I’m sitting on a of meditation pillow on the floor, picking a Gute lamb’s fleece while listening to a livestream with my favourite writing inspiration Beth Kempton. Two bags are on the floor; one is filled with bundled sections of wool, staples holding on to each other at the cut ends, the other with an airy mass of newly picked individual locks, light and considerably softer. A pile on the floor with mostly kemp and felted parts.
The gifts of a primitive breed
The breed is not new to me, I know its challenges, or perhaps my challenges with it, but I also know its gifts. All the things I learn from exploring it, from handling a primitive breed.
A Gute ram lamb, not related to the one in this post.
A fleece from a Gute sheep can have coarse outercoat together with the finest undercoat. It also most probably has kemp, those short, rough and quirky fibers that usually break and fall out. They may seem undesirable to us, but they have a purpose for the sheep; to keep the staples open to bring in air for warmth, and upright to keep moisture out.
An unseparated staple in the center. To the right a flicked staple and to the right all the kemp that came out from the flicking.
The combination of fiber types is intriguing and my fingers keep pondering, wandering across the fleece. This lamb’s fleece has very fine outercoat, though, not yet fully formed into the rough structure it can have as an adult. Still, a fleece like this brings me closer to how the fleece on the original sheep was constructed; fine undercoat and coarse hair, albeit in slightly different proportions. The fleece grows to protect the sheep and I get to learn from it.
Pondering hands
I ponder with my hands across the fleece, systematically picking staple by staple. My fingers search for tip ends, curly, fine and silky. The cut ends have compacted slightly and I need to work to make them loosen their grip. Fiddly, but doable, and some of the kemp – located at the bottom of the staples – is separated from the other fibers in the process. I know that more kemp will fall out and result in a soft yield after my picking.
This Gute lamb’s fleece has lots of kemp, but also the finest undercoat you can imagine. In the loupe image you can see black kemp as well as fine and medium fibers that are probably undercoat and outercoat.
Another gift from handling fleece from a primitive breed like the Gute sheep is that I know I will find gold, one way or another The colours, the fineness and the silky shine. What may look like a rough and bristly fleece is indeed a rough fleece, but it does in also have great potential. It could be turned into a rug, upholstery, a fulled fabric or sturdy socks. But with the fine undercoat and not yet adult outercoat in this fleece I could also make something very soft. A lace shawl perhaps. Yes, this prickly-looking fleece could actually be wrapped around my shoulders in an openwork pattern, flaunting the beauty in the simple fibers.
Further exploration
I tease a few locks and am astonished at how easily the kemp separates from the rest of the fibers. What remains in front of me are silky soft and remarkably fine fibers.
Teased and unteased to the left, spinning in the center and a laceweight yarn to the right.
Look at the picture with three sections of wool in The gifts of a primitive breed above. In the center you see a whole staple. The light wool to the right is a similar staple that I have teased with a few strokes with a flicker. Almost all of the kemp is gone. You can see the flicked out black and white kemp to the left of the whole staple.
I carded the teased wool and spun it on a 9 gram double cross (Turkish style) spindle into a laceweight yarn. There is definitely kemp left in the yarn, but given how much has fallen out already, I trust the remaining kemp will fall out eventually. And if it doesn’t I will be humbly reminded of the fleece as a protection for a living being, that I am grateful to learn from.
This and other things is what my fingers reflect over as they walk their way through the hills and valleys of Gute lamb’s fleece number 8 on a Thursday morning, and later ponder further on the page, writing the experience down, joyfully.
What do your hands ponder about when they walk through a fleece?
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. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for joyful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
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.
A Swedish Gute fleece shorn after wind and rain call to me and I add it to my fleece stash, filling it with stories to knit into the loops of the yarn I spin. Read the whole essay on Substack: The wind in the wool.
When I release the fleece from its paper prison it poofs up as if taking the biggest breath after having held it for days. It keeps inhaling, slowly, until the mass is relaxed, staples quietly reaching, whisker-like.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for joyful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
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.
A year has gone and it’s time for a 2024 recap – a walk through the posts and projects during the year. Pour yourself a cuppa and dive in!
In the beginning of this year I wrote about my intentions for the years. These were
Write, write and write some more
Follow a textile
Connect with fibery people.
I did lots of writing, both for my book and for other purposes.
Writing Listen to the wool
I have had my book Listen to the Wool in my heart for many years, but after I signed a contract with a U.S. publisher in October 2023 it has been for real. I have written regularly, but the writing took new proportions from March and then during the summer until I handed it in to my editor half-way through September. And of course I wrote the writing process here on the blog.
A writing retreat in March, writing through the summer and photo shoots for the book.
In The anatomy of a chapter I explored the winding ways through a chapter and all its qualities, textures and secret passage ways. I went on a Writing retreat in March and stayed in a tiny house and had the time and the space to just write my little heart out without bother anyone. And do some dancing. I also invited you Behind the scenes of some of the photo sessions my husband and book photographer Dan and I did. Finally, in Press send I took you to a second writing retreat where I finished the manuscript by reading it aloud. It took eleven hours.
Writing on Substack
In May and June I took the River of Words online writing course by Beth Kempton and started a Substack account where I published most of the pieces I wrote during the course. Since then I have been writing there regularly and I invite you to come and have a read. If this blog is where I write mainly about wool and spinning and an occasional other craft, Substack is the space where I write for the sake of writing.
Through a few different fulling projects I have followed a fleece from fleece through yarn, weaving and eventually fulling. I presented the Fulling candidates I had for my weekend At the fulling mill with my wool traveling club in May. I turned three of the fulled fabrics into Fulled pillowcases.
At the fulling mill, fulled pillow cases and a Gute weave fulled by foot.
One of the fabrics that didn’t full very successfully in the mill got a rematch in a tub where I spent a few hours Walking waulking.
My friend Lena is shearing Frida, one of her Dalapäls sheep. To the right, Milis’ Åsen forest sheep.
I said no to most course inquiries, but I did teach my five-day course A spindle a day at Sätergläntan Crafting institute. This was the fifth year I taught it and as always I learned a lot in the time I spent with the students. I also published two short lectures, Tease your wool and Card your wool. Through the writing courses I have taken I have also connected to other writers and got lots of inspiration from them.
Hands in the fibers
While I have invested most of my time on writing the book, I have had some time to dig my hands into fibers as well. Mainly wool:
2.One of my daily joys is cold bathing. This is from the December solstice of 2022.
Listen to the wool
A couple of weeks ago I got three suggestions for the front cover of my book Listen to the wool, and after the new year I expect to get an edited manuscript from my editor to dive in to, probably more than once. I look forward to it, even if I am a little scared too. But with my editor and my agent having my back I know I am in good hands, as is the book. I have no release date yet, but I am thinking the second half of 2025.
I will keep writing about spinning and other occasional crafts on the blog but also on Substack for the sake of writing. You are welcome to both of these spaces, all free of charge.
Thank you for reading what I write and for you sweet notes of appreciation. They mean the world to me.
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. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
Many of the fleeces I buy come from sheep with stories, and it is these fleeces that bring that extra depth to whatever I make from it. Today I share some of those stories.
Pia-Lotta I, II and III
The first fleece I got was at a city farm where I took my very first spinning lesson. I got a box in my lap, filled to the brim with small and crimpy staples. The name Pia-Lotta was written on the side. Pia-lotta was a Swedish finull lamb, just relieved of her wooly fleece and skipping about outside the barn where we sat.
On a course in small-scale sheep farming back in 2015 I got to shear Pia-Lotta the Finull sheep. One of the things I made of her fleece was a Shift of focus sweater by Veera Välimäki.
Pia-Lotta wasn’t supposed to live beyond the summer, though. She wasn’t one of the lucky ones that would be allowed to stay at the farm. But just as a large van was coming to take her and her friends to slaughter, the sheep farmer changed her mind. The much loved ram who had fathered her had been bullied to death by some local children, and Pia-Lotta looked so much like him that the sheep farmer couldn’t bear losing her too. From that first fleece and a few more of hers after that I spun yarn for a couple of sweaters, a pair of mittens, an array of hats and a Fair Isle vest. Since then, Finull wool always makes my heart tingle and sprinkle memories from my first years of spinning.
Gunvor, queen of stripes
I asked a sheep farming friend of mine, Claudia, if I could buy fleeces from one of her Gestrike sheep over a few of years to see how the wool changed over time. Claudia picked out Gunvor, a lamb born white with large black spots. I got her first and second shearings. I used them both in the same project – a pair of pants with black and white stripes. The pants have been traditional in the Moroccan High Atlas, and Irene Waggener has adapted the orally transferred description for a western audience in her book Keepers of the Sheep. Women spun the wool on traditional spindles and their husbands, usually shepherds, knit the pants.
Gunvor the Gestrike ewe who was my longitudinal fleece study sheep. The life through her first two shearings shows in the fading stripes of my pants.
I used a Navajo style floor spindle to spin and ply the bulky yarn.The black spots in Gunvor’s fleece had faded some in the second shearing, something that is common with the breed. I placed the black stripes in a gradient with black at the bottom and lighter up the legs.
Unfortunately, Gunvor got two diseases that were painful for her and not advisable to breed on, so she had to be taken away. Her life as well as my project was cut short. But afterwards I realized that I did get a study of the changing of the wool over time after all, in the way I had placed the stripes in the pants. I wear them in the winter when I go down to the lake to take an ice bath, smiling all the way in my warm and wooly stripes.
Härvor full of cuddles
Härvor is also a sheep in Claudia’s flock. I met her a year ago when I first came for a photo shoot for my book and a few days later helped Claudia on shearing day. Härvor has the loveliest, rustic grey fleece, quite typical for the breed with conical staples with airy and warm undercoat and long and strong outercoat.
The Gestrike sheep Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. One skein of Härvor’s yarn (here together with yarn from the white Doris in the same flock) is part of a secret project.
Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. She was a bit sceptical at first, but then she kept coming to me, poking me until I placed my arms around her neck. How could I then not smuggle her fleece back home? I have spun one skein as part of a secret project.
Lotta and the red barn door
Last autumn I taught a beginner’s class in suspended spindle spinning in Uppsala, just north of Stockholm. One of the students, Åsa, has a flock of Svärdsjö sheep and on day two of the course she brought a couple of bags of fleece from her girls. Svärdsjö wool is usually white with fine and glittering wool in curly staples that sometimes curl back on themselves like ringlets. One fleece, though, stood out. The Svärdsjö glitter was there, but the staples were open and airy and had quite long outercoat fibers. Lotta was the name of the sheep. On a few places the wool was red since Lotta had a favourite barn door she liked to scratch her side against.
The glittering (and occasionally reddish) locks of Lotta’s fleece are becomingyarn for a Danish night sweater with its typical stitch and star pattern.
I bought the 1200 grams of wool and spent several hours picking it while I listened to an audiobook by Valérie Perrin. I spun it into a soft and fine 2-ply yarn for a Danish night sweater. As I approached the middle of the torso I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn. I contacted Åsa and she sent me 300 grams from this year’s shearing of Lotta’s fleece. There were no red stains in this batch. However, Lotta seems to have scratched against the ground instead – I found of dark granules between the fibers. Luckily the fleece is quite open and a lot of the vegetable matter fell out as I picked the fleece while listening to Jane Eyre. The rest will fall out during teasing and carding.
Frida in my arms
I met Frida in April when I helped my friend Lena on shearing day. Lena shears her flock of Dalapäls sheep with hand shears and I was happy to help while my husband Dan took photos for the book. I started with Parisa, two years old and with very long and airy staples. Since it was so late in the spring, the lanolin was thick and waxy and a struggle to shear. On day two I turned to eleven year old Frida, Lena’s oldest sheep, whose fleece was a lot finer and airier and easier to work with.
From shearing through spinning and dyeing with Frida the 11-year-old Dalapäls sheep.
Dalapäls sheep is a forest breed with a distinctive flock mentality. They pay close attention to potential predators, as they should – this flock lives on wolf territory. I wouldn’t be able to come close to any of Lena’s Dalapäls sheep. But on shearing day Lena drives them into the narrow shearing pen where they have no way to go and I get to lean my body against the sheep I am shearing, feeling her warmth and her sheepiness.
A few months later I met my walking wheel for the first time. In my basket I had fourty-nine glittering rolags of Frida’s wool ready for a dance with the wheel. And we waltzed and twirled until the basket was empty. As a final step I dyed the skein with my homegrown fresh indigo leaves.
Tvaga of the Baltic sea
On yet another photo shoot visit to a sheep farm I met Tvaga the Brännö sheep. Dan and I visited Louise who lives in an archipelago a couple of hours north of Stockholm. Louise picked us up in her boat and took us to three different island where some of her sheep were grazing. On the final island, where Louise lives, I met Tvaga, a lamb. Or, I should perhaps say I saw her, she was too shy to answer my invitations. But I watched her sweet lamb locks in a gradient from white to almost black and knew I wanted to explore it. I asked Louise if she could spare it and before I knew it I got Tvaga’s fleece in the mail.
The staples from Tvaga the Brännö sheep comes in a range of colours, lengths and crimps.
As I picked the fleece, probably to the Jane Eyre audiobook too, I found not only different shades of grey, but a range of both lenght and crimp. I could have divided the fleece in numerous categories. However, the fleece was only 850 grams and I settled for three colour categories – white, light grey and medium grey. Perhaps there won’t be much difference between the greys and I might settle for only two categories.
Sheep with stories
All these stories add depth and dimensions to the spinning experience. Having met the sheep, walked its pastures or heard the sheep owned tell stories about the character of an individual gives the fleece life and an added value that is, in fact, invaluable. By having the fibers and the stories go through my hands I feel rich. The wool becomes so much more than just a material. It is a partner in craft and a song in my heart.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in seveal social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
Today I have a new post for you on Substack: Hearts of slöjd. I reflect over the kind and heartfilled conversations that emerge among crafters crafting.
”Making in the company of other makers brings something unique to the surface from deep within the heart. The act of making something in a natural material that is both esthetically appealing, sustainably made and useful, is for me a sign of respect to the maker and the made. I believe being in our hands makes us a little humbler, a little kinder and a little more responsive to the world. I know it makes me a better me.”
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
During the past year Dan and I have visited sheep owners to take photos of Swedish sheep breeds for my book, Listen to the Wool. Today I invite you into the forest for a photo shoot of a forest breed, Åsen sheep.
Dan and I go to see Milis and her 24 Åsen sheep. The breed used to be bundled with Gestrike, Helsinge, Värmland and Svärdsjö sheep as skogsfår, forest sheep, but since the end of the 20th century they are all considered individual breeds.
Into the forest we go
Milis keeps half of her Åsen flock in the forest a ten minute drive from her house. The forest belongs to Per who wants it grazed. When we get there we are struck by the openness of the forest – the understory and the forest floor are light and airy and the light magical.
Per takes the lead with a bucket full of bribes as we walk along paths the sheep have paved through the vegetation. Silently, as not to scare the sheep who become nearly wild during the summer, we wade through waist high fern and duck under hazel branches.
The Åsen sheep stand patiently while Dan gets some lovely photos of them.
After ten minutes into the forest we come to a hill with a collection of stones, rounder than the ones we have passed on the way and in all shades of grey. Curious black heads rise from between them, and we realize the stones are the sheep themselves. They see Per and know it means treats, but they also see Dan and stay, linger. Dan is used to lingering sheep by now and has his telephoto lens ready. They flaunt their clean and shiny fleeces and Dan gets beautiful shots despite the distance. When he has what he needs Per offers his bribes to the flock and they tumble around the bucket, toss it into the air and empty it in seconds. We walk back in silence, all I can hear is my heart tingling.
For the love of wool
Milis has decades of experience as a spinner and bought her sheep 24 years ago for the sake of their wool. She documents the wool meticulously and uses it all herself, mostly for weaving. That means the fleeces of 24 sheep twice a year. We talk about the treasure that her wool is, about all the work that is put into its quality. Milis and her husband have changed the way they feed the sheep during the winter, to keep the food out of the fleeces. When I look at the wall of baskets full of wool I see no sign of vegetation matter in the flora of greys. All I can see is the treasure her wool is and the love, skill and dedication she has put into it.
Singing the song of wool
Just as the other Swedish heritage breeds, wool from Åsen sheep can be very versatile, between flocks and individuals as well as over the body of the same sheep. The quality also differs between seasons and years. Usually they grow quite a lot of undercoat during the winter to keep the body warm. At the same time, the wool can be of lower quality due to pregnancies, but this year the sheep haven’t been served by the ram and all the nutrients have gone to the sheep themselves. This year’s spring shearing is spectacular with its abundance of airy undercoat, glistening with lanolin.
Raw sampels from four of Milis’ spring shorn Åsen sheep. She says these have a lot more undercoat than the autumn shorn wool.
I get to take samples from four fleeces and I treasure them like diamonds. As I write this piece, the sheepy smell fills the room and my heart with a song that only a spinner can hear.
Tack Milis!
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. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
I spend a weekend at Lena’s place, helping her shear her Dalapäls sheep while Dan skips around taking photos for my upcoming book Listen to the wool. I shear Parisa, Orkidé and Frida and learn from the wool producers themselves.
Dan and I drive an hour or so south to Lena, an experienced spinner, and her ten Dalapäls ewes. Usually she shears them a lot earlier, perhaps in early March, a few weeks before lambing. This year, though, the sheep are not in gestation, for the first time since she got them 18 years ago. Therefore there is no rush in getting them shorn.
Shearing prep
Since Lena got the sheep she has most of the time shorn them herself twice a year with hand shears. She has never owned a shearing table. Instead, she has simply placed the sheep in her lap and started shearing where she could and in no particular order. This time, though, she has borrowed two home-made shearing tables and is super excited. We place them facing each other in the middle of the narrow shearing pen. They have a remarkable resemblance to sheep.
The shearing tables that look like sheep. We’re all set for bringing out the flock.
We bring out the newly sharpened shears, boxes for spinning wool and garden wool respectively, pens to mark the boxes with the sheep’s names, all sorts of bribes, and fence in the narrow shearing pen. All the while Dan sharpens his lenses, ready to portray the flock.
A to Q
When Lena got the sheep she gave them names beginning with the letter A, and every year the names of the lambs begin with the next letter of the alphabet. Usually visiting children get to name them. Her oldest sheep now is Ester and the youngest Quinoa. Before Lena lets the sheep out from the shed I peak inside and meet Quinoa’s curious-cautious eyes.
Quinoa peaks out from the sheep shed before we let them out to the shearing pen.
Lena herds the flock from the shed, through the larger pen and into the narrow pen. After a few minutes of sizzling and bleating, the sheep quieten and all we can hear is soft chewing. Lena shears Ester’s fine fleece while I work on the considerably younger Parisa, only 2 years old. The names come from two of Lena’s grandchildren. Since the sheep have had access to silage in a trough indoors during the winter, there is a lot of hay in their locks and we start by brushing the fleeces to remove some of it. The rhythmic motions seem to have a calming effect on the girls.
I shear
I have tried shearing twice before. The first time on a course in small-scale sheep farming back in 2014 (where it took three people three hours to shear one sheep). The second time was with Lena five years later, with her signature lap technique. I started, but after a while the sheep slithered away from my inexperienced grip. Lena caught her and had no trouble shearing two sheep in her lap.
Now, another five years later I am not sure whether I am any help to Lena or actually a burden. But even if my shearing skills need some sharpening, I know I can assist her where she needs an extra pair of hands.
After a while I find a technique that works for me. In the upper right corner you can see how the fleece is denser toward the spine. Photo by Dan Waltin.
Parisa ruminates calmly as I place the shears with a trembling hand across her back. The rest of the sheep huddle together and mind their own business. Quinoa gently nibbles at the pull tab on my my leg pocket zipper.
The beginning is tricky; I need to find a spot along the spine where I can insert the tips of the shears in the dense fleece and open sort of a path from back to front. Once I have that it’s easier to follow and broaden. I fiddle, but after a while I find a method that works. Parisa is warm and and calm under my hands, and helps me find my confidence and work on my skills to make both her and the shorn fleece pretty. The lanolin glistens in the spring sun and my skin enjoys the moisturizing.
In the living room
Here I am, belly to belly with the sheep who has produced this magnificent wool as a shield against the elements, and it is my duty and privilege to free her of it. I won’t get any closer to the wool than this. I am in Parisa’s living room, exploring her habits through what I find – what seeds and plants are common in her pasture, what’s on the menu in her silage and what side she likes to sleep on. It’s all there.
Typical staples from Frida (left) and Parisa (right).
What’s more, I get to experience the wool right on her back. I learn how the wool behaves and what wool quality grows where on her body, while she is breathing and chewing right underneath my hands. I go through every fiber with the shears, transforming them from her shield to a product for me. In return for this invaluable gift I have the responsibility to translate it into a shield for me, into the best yarn I can possibly make from the superpowers of this magnificent wool.
I soak in everything I learn from Parisa’s wool as I shear. Photo by Dan Waltin
As I slowly shear my way through the layers of wool I find and remove larger pieces of vegetation matter, poo and my own second cuts. The wool I place in the bag is wonderfully clean and airy, the wool I remove will serve as fertilizer and soil improvement for my garden beds. For every inch I shear I learn something new. I welcome and cherish what Parisa has to teach me through her wool, right there in her living room.
Follow the curves
I do quite well over the back and down across the sides in sort of a saddle shape. But all of a sudden, the belly curves and I find myself shearing further and further from the skin. The thick fleece does nothing to help me understand the shape of the body and I need to change the angle and rethink my path for every layer I shear. Even further down the belly the skin is looser and the risk of breaking it is higher.
A newly shorn Parisa.
Shearing truly takes concentration. Concave shapes around the leg insertions make me sweat and I shear smaller and smaller amounts with longer and longer pauses to breathe and assess where to go next. Parisa is approaching the height of her fleece denseness age (which I have leaned is around 3–4 years of age), but it turns out that her fleece gets even more challenging to penetrate; towards the belly the wool suddenly becomes considerably thicker and greasier, and I find it hard to even find a spot to insert the shears. Lena comes to my rescue and does the most difficult parts – belly, crotch, udders and neck.
As we finally open the neck holder and Parisa skips down on the ground, her flock sisters curiously sniff the assumed newcomer and start butting her. She is soon followed by Ester and the butting ceases slightly.
Spring and autumn shearing
We have a nourishing soup lunch in the afternoon sun and get back to work with another couple of sheep – Lena shears Nehne (whose autumn fleece I bought a couple of years ago to finish my two-end knitted jacket sleeves) and I Orkidé (Swedish for orchid). Her wool is even longer and a little more tricky to shear than Parisa’s, but I have a better technique now and my confidence is heightened.
Usually spring shorn wool has a lower quality than the autumn shorn wool. This has to do with the cold that results in more lanolin, indoor feeding, which can end up in the fleece, and gestation, where the fetuses can take lots of the nutrients. Since these ladies aren’t in gestation this year, the wool has an even quality over the length of the staples, be it a little greasier and with a little more vegetation matter. Lena reminds herself to buy silage without timothy next winter; we find lots of the miniature cigarrs that, tangled in a fleece, are ticking seed bombs.
Bad time for shearing
Both Parisa and Orkidé have patches of extremely dense wool, especially under the belly and along the spine, that Lena has never experienced before with her sheep. She asks around in social media and understands that April and May are the worst months for shearing sheep – this is peak lanolin time, while June is a month where the greasiest outgrowth has grown past the skin and left less greasy outgrowth underneath, according to some of the replies. Rumour has it that shearing in June works like butter.
I work faster and more efficient as I shear Orkidé. Still, she has denser fleece and I need Lena’s help towards the belly, crotch and neck.
I give up on Orkidé way sooner than I did with Parisa – the lower side and belly wool is impossible to penetrate and I ask Lena to take over. She is of course way more experienced than I, and I assume the sheep feel safer with her fiddling with scissors at their crotches than a complete stranger and hopeless beginner. This doesn’t mean I can’t help, though – while Lena gives Orkidé a well needed pedicure I drape myself softly over the freshly shorn back like a weighted blanket. She calms down and I can feel her belly rumble against mine.
When Orkidé finally skips down from the table, shorn and trimmed, tiredness hits me in the head with a hammer. I realize I have focused deeply snip by snip for 2 x 2 hours.
Predators
Dalapäls sheep have traditionally grazed in the forest. For this reason they have a strong sense of the flock and are watchful for predators. We are in fact in wolf territory, and since a couple of years Lena brings her flock indoors every night. Her chicken coop next to the sheep pen is empty – all the chickens were taken a couple of years ago by what Lena believes to have been a ferret.
The flock instinct becomes very clear on the second day when we let them out from their shed. The aim is to drive them through the larger pen into the narrower shearing pen. The flock rushes out into the larger pen, but refuses to go into the shearing pen. They circle like a school of fish, constantly huddling fleece to fleece. Lena places me (the assumed preadator) in one corner of the larger pen while she herds them towards the other end and the entrance to the shearing pen.
Mud, grease and manure
After about ten minutes she succeeds and we can close the gate and scooch the next sheep onto the table. We choose Frida, who is old and has quite fine fleece that is considerably easier to shear than the fleeces of the two younger ewes I worked with the day before. We work together from the start this time – Lena with the hardcore spots and I on the breezy back and sides.
Lena’s skilled hands work swiftly across Frida’s body.
I’m tired today, my brain has worked overtime and processed all through the night. The rain makes my lanoliny hands slippery, the photos I take are all blurry through greasy lenses. But Frida’s fine fleece is so much easier to get through, though, and Lena and I have found a way to work together with a mutual understanding of what needs to be done and where. Frida is old and has more concave parts and loose skin. I need to find ways through the hollows and take extra care not to cut through her skin. As Lena does the hoof service with her rose snips, I once again drape myself over the warm sheep back. Lena decides to hold the shearing for the remaining five sheep a few weeks to see if it works better in June.
When Dan and I go back home we have two bags of manure in the trunk, beside a bag of poopy wool and two bags of spinning wool. Not many people would know what a treasure that is. A wave of gratitude rushes through me, for all I have learned from both two- and four-legged friends.
Tack, Lena!
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!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
Back in October I helped my friend Claudia with the fleeces in the autumn shearing. I brought the fleeces from the Gestrike sheep Doris and Härvor home, and I bet they hadn’t taken the bus before!
Just a few days earlier I had cuddled these two wooly ladies at a pasture photo shoot for my book. Getting to create yarn with fleeces whose sheep I have met and shared breaths with made me realize what a special opportunity that was, and it gave me an extra tingle in my heart.
Doris and Härvor take the bus to the city.
You can read more about the two visits to Claudia’s farm in the essay style post A breath of wool.
A secret mission
A few weeks ago I talked with A, a wooly artist who will remain secret for a while longer. She is working on a secret project and I suggested a collaboration: that I would send her handspun yarns from the fleeces of Doris and Härvor and she would incorporate them in her project. She loved the idea and we started to plan our different ends of the process. A and I don’t know each other and have never met, it is just one of those sweet Instagram connections that make my heart sing once again.
Typical and not
Neither of the fleeces is typical of Gestrike wool. The most common staple type in a Gestrike fleece would be a dual coat with long and strong outercoat fibers and soft and airy undercoat fibers. But it could just as easily be another dominant staple type. At the same time, Gestrike wool can be very variegated. The white locks from Doris’ fleece are very fine and crimpy and with a soft sheen, almost like a finull fleece.
Newly shorn fleece from Doris (left) and Härvor (right) the Gestrike sheep.
Härvor’s locks are more mixed, with both straight and crimpy staples, long and shorter, white and grey. A little rougher than Doris’ fleece, but still soft. Since the wool of Gestrike sheep tends to lighten as the sheep grows, chances are that Härvor was born a lot darker, perhaps with white spots.
The yarns
A gave med creative freedom with the yarns. I decided on two fingering-ish weight 2-ply knitting yarns. I wanted to create them so that A would be able to use them for the same project, should she want to, perhaps in a stranded colourwork. With that as my starting point I aimed for two yarns that had the same qualities, even if they came from fleeces that did not.
Doris (left) and Härvor (right): Staple, teased wool, carded rolag and finished 2-ply yarns.
I had already picked the locks right after the fleeces had dried after washing, so my hands had already made their acquaintance with the wool. In the next step I teased for each fleece around 50 grams of wool with my combing station. I wanted lots of loft in the yarns and decided on woolen spinning in one of my favourite techniques: English longdraw. So I carded my teased wool into the sweetest rolags and took my seat at the wheel.
Treadles and twist
English longdraw means that you gather twist in front of the rolag, make around an arm’s length draw to let the twist travel up the drawn section, and then add the final twist before you allow the spun yarn to roll up on the bobbin. As I do this I like to keep a consistent treadle count – in this case I treadle six to gather twist, make the draw, treadle ten to add twist, and then roll the yarn onto the bobbin. This gives the technique a beautiful rhythm, and also a consistency. Together with a similar counting in the carding, a yarn spun this way has the potential to become very consistent.
Doris and Härvor as finished yarns.
I used the same rhythm for both yarns and they turned out quite similar to each other and landed on a grist of 1700 and 1790 meters per kilo. The Doris skein may have a little more elasticity since her wool has more crimp than Härvor’s. I have cuddled these skeins numerous times, or just admired them. Today I sent them to A, so I will have to just cherish the memory of them. And, of course, I have the rest of the bags of fleece left, and I may spin them the same way as these first two skeins.
A new journey
So, Doris and Härvor are going on a new journey. This time in the shape of yarns and probably in a truck, but still, a journey to a new town and to a new home. I wonder how A will give them a new shape. I hope they all get along and that A can make Doris and Härvor shine! I’ll let you know when the secret isn’t a secret anymore.
Resources
Do you want to dive deeper? Here are some resources.
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
Today I reflect over the complexity of a simple letter stitched onto a kitchen 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.
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!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere 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.
