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.
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.
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.
Three fleeces crawled out of their paperbags that had been strewn out in the corners of the living room for quite a while, pinned me down on the couch and hijacked my blog. This is what they wrote.
Doris the Gestrike sheep
I’m Doris the gestrike sheep. Feel my soft staples, they are not your regular gestrike fleece. No, my staples are curly-wurly-crimpy, they shine like the inner sky of a seashell, softly, kindly, with a twirl right at the tip end. I have skipped about in the pastures, brushing sweetly against the grass in the late autumn sun until shearing day.
I’m Doris the gestrike sheep and I truly enjoy getting picked. Reply to Wicked Rolags!
Pick me, pick my staples, mindfully, and you will feel my glide, my length and my give. Yes, I will give – give you the sweetest rolags once you shape my fibers into spinnable rolls of heaven. Pick me and you will learn my secrets, see what I can do, how I work in movement, in stillness. Close your eyes and feel who I am, follow my lead, search for my deepest secrets and I will guide you along the way. Listen, listen to my whispers and go with my flow. When I have your attention, when you feel my most subtle vibe, you will know how to make me sparkle and reflect that seashell shine.
Glorious gute
I’m the gute glory! It took me two weeks to get here, I was bundled up and rolled into a paper bag with meter after meter of transparent tape rolled around me. It really itched! I looked like a yarn ball, and nobody paid me any attention. When I finally got to my destination and had a hot bath, I was thrown into a dark drum, spun around for ages and came out felted. The brutality! I am deeply humiliated. My cut ends are all stuck together in a tight carpet.
I’m your favourite gute fleece! Know that I’m full of surprises with my oh-so-soft undercoat fibers and quirky kemp.
I’m not done in yet, though, I will be picked, I will be freed from the felted slippers and allowed air between my fibers. You see, I have many to choose from! I offer many a kemp quirk, in both black and white. They keep my staples open and upright. They are excellent travelers, they will spred through the living room like the rustling leaves when you open the front door on a windy September day.
Will you look at my glorious vanilla shine!
Some of them will stay in my fleece, but most of them will fall out and leave sweet pockets of air between the softest fibers you can ever imagine. The colour of vanilla at the tips, smooth like velvet, I tell you. Rustic grey at the bottom, strong and sturdy. As you pick me you will see what I can do for you. You already found out I can felt into a beautiful structure that will withstand wind and rain, just like I could before I was shorn off that sweet gute lamb.
Rya as dark as the night sky
Do you see the length of my fibers? On and on they go, from the solid cut ends to the tips with the sweet lamb’s curls. No, don’t play with them, it tickles! I’m black as the night, what were you thinking there, really? You know you can’t see to spin black!
I’m your rya diva! Come, let’s admire my long and shiny staples together.
But don’t you worry, I’ll help you. Just close your eyes and feel my sweet undercoat, soft and fine, enjoy the length of my strong and shiny outercoat. I will give you so many options to play with, to dive in to, to get utterly and senselessly wild with. Perhaps blend it all together, perhaps spin one soft and warm, one strong and shiny. Do explore! But pick me first, get to know me deeply, lean in and let me guide you to my strengths, my gifts, my spirit. Lean in some more as you pick me, staple by staple, feeling all my wealth, my treasures and my soul. Meet me in my core and spin from your heart.
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
The other week when I visited Claudia and her sheep flock, I realized that I have a seasonal cycle when I create yarn and textiles. In a year in wool, autumn is the beginning.
In October, when most of the vegetables in the allotment have been harvested, a majority of Swedish wool is also harvested. For the sake of sheep health, the law says sheep are to be shorn at least once a year. Still, many sheep farmers shear their sheep twice a year: In the autumn, before the ram serves the ewes, and in the spring before the lambs are born. The autumn harvest is when my wool year begins.
Shearing seasons
The autumn wool usually has the highest quality. During the winter the sheep has been pregnant and the lamb hogs a lot of the nutrition. The winter in Sweden is cold and the fleece is extra lanoliny, not much different from our own hair in the winter. Perhaps the sheep have been indoors a lot of the time, leaving time for lots of dirt, straw and bedding to find its way in between the fibers. This leaves a winter fleece that can be dirtier, in poorer condition and with more and heavier lanolin in it.
Professional shearer Elin Esperi shears Sylvester the Gestrike lamb in the autumn of 2021.
After that winter coat has been shorn off in the spring shearing, the lambs are born, and soon after the sheep gets access to lots of nutritious grass and fresh air, leaving the fleece in a better state for the autumn shearing.
Fleece hunting
The sound of moving shears sparks my year in wool: I look for fleece to buy, just like on any autumn farmer’s market. Or, rather, fleeces sort of find me and look at me with roe deer eyes and whisper: ”Spin me, spin me!”. And so, in late October I find myself with a compost grid on the floor with drying fleece, another fleece in the wash tub and a third dried and waiting to be picked.
The fleece of Lotta the Svärdsjö ewe is drying in front of the fireplace. Behind the camera are bags with fleeces of the Gestrike sheep Härvor and Doris, waiting to be picked.
This means that I do a lot of wool preparation and spinning during October, November and the first weeks of December. When the pantry is filled to the brim with newly harvested vegetables, I do my best to take care of the oldest fleeces before I dive into the freshly shorn. It is hard, but sometimes I succeed.
A tree
In late december a tree with glittering ornaments moves into the house, right where my spinning wheel usually stands. This is a quite time of year when I like to turn to weaving in the local weaving room. I get to destash and get out of the house during my two weeks or so of holidays.
Towards the end of the year I like to spend some time in the local weaving room.
When the tree is all glistened out and transformed to fire logs I get my spinning wheel back, and return to spinning. The sun is slowly coming back and lights up the living room again. I plan what to sow in the community garden allotment, alongside planning my spinning projects for the spring.
When the sun returns
The returning sun brings sprouts out of the soil and new inspiration into my mind. At this point I want to do everything at once. Weave! Nalbind! Two-end knit! Weave some more! I want to get outside and create textiles, and the spinning wheel gets a little dusty. My life moves outdoors step by step.
Small projects I can work on outdoors start to poke me in the head in the spring.
At the same time the fleeces in my wool queue start to squeak in the back of my mind and I get a bit concerned about the risk of the oldest fleeces going brittle.
Make room for flax
In the summer when the temperature rises and the crops are more independent than the tiny sprouts just a couple of weeks earlier, I like to take my spinning outdoors in one shape or form. I dust off my flax wheel and spin on the balcony in the afternoon shade.
In the summer I like to craft outdoors.
I also prepare smaller projects to bring to vacations and excursions – spindle spinning projects, band weaving, two-end knitting and nalbinding. Usually around five parallel projects or more.
Late summer collision
Towards the end of the summer, a lot of the vegetables in the garden need picking, all the while work has started after the summer holidays. I have harvested the flax, started lots of textile projects and need to finish some to ease my mind.
Towards the end of the summer I have lots of projects to finish.
When autumn has settled and the most critical vegetables are taken care of, I have finished some of the parallel projects that sprouted in the spring. The wool queue is shorter and neater and I forget all about it when shearing season is back again.
What is your year in wool like?
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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 visited my shepherdess friend Claudia friend twice recently. The first time for my husband Dan to take pictures for my upcoming book Listen to the wool, the second time to help her on shearing day. Join me in exploring the sweet breath of wool.
If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see more of Härvor’s fleece in my October 2023 video postcard.
Sunday
We drive out in the countryside, Dan and I. Autumn has started to reveal its favourite colours of yellow and red amongst the green. We pass pastures, fields and forests as the road ahead us gets narrower. When we arrive at our destination we stand before another pasture. A flock of sheep and three horses graze quietly and peacefully in it.
Images
We are here to take pictures of Claudia’s flock of Värmland and Gestrike sheep. Claudia and her partner Roger greet us and welcome us into her flock’s living room. The horses don’t mind our presence. A sub group of the sheep flock, brown in colour, approach us with curious muzzles, others, grey, stay at the back fence, munching apples from the neighbour’s garden.
The curious Värmland sheep are the first to greet us as we arrive at the pasture. The horses join them.
Claudia tells us that the behaviours of the breeds are remarkably different – while the Värmland sheep are instantly curious and up for adventures, the Gestrike ladies are more reserved, at least in the beginning. Both breeds are quite cuddly, though, and after a while I am surrounded by both brown and grey sheep, all nudging me for attention. Another muzzle pokes me gently in the back. It’s one of the Icelandic horses who wants to be part of the party.
Muzzles
As I dig my hands into the thick fleece of Härvor the Gestrike sheep I feel her warmth spread through the fibers into my hands. The lanolin glistens in the October sun, the smell of sheep slows my heart down into a pleasant calm. Härvor’s head is close to mine, I feel her exhale warm against my cheek. We exchange breaths, hers become my inhale and mine become hers. Her fleece encloses my hands, the staples she has grown since the spring shearing. The nutrients in the pasture have fed her through the summer, helping her create a fleece that has protected her against the elements.
Härvor the Gestrike sheep comes a-cuddling.
Another poke in my back from the horse, my arms around three woolly necks, my chest bursting with sheep joy. Meanwhile, Dan skips around in the distance and gets some lovely shots. After over 200 pictures both of us still have a hard time leaving the flock. But we do. Before we go back home,though, we have the loveliest chat with Roger and Claudia in their greenhouse, surrounded by the branches of a mulberry tree, accompanied by tea and apple cake. As we go back home my heart beats in tune with the memory of Härvor’s sheepy and warm exhale so close to mine.
Thursday
I take another ride to the countryside, this time by bus. The morning is a bit nippy and I put on my Värmland wool half mitts. As I arrive at Claudia’s I hear the buzzing of the shearing machine in the barn. A couple of brown and naked sheep trot around the farm yard, half insecurely, half bossily butting each other and bleating in their seemingly new and wool-less flock. The autumn shearing has already started.
Harvest
Roger hands Elin the shearer the next sheep as Claudia gathers the previously shorn sheep’s summer coat off the barn floor. I place my backpack in a sheep safe place and get to work. Claudia hands me the fresh fleece and a paper bag with the sheep’s name written on it. As I receive the wool harvest I feel its warmth as if it were still on the sheep. The bundle moves softly in my arms, breathing, like a being of its own.
Wool wealth
I spread the treasure onto a grid and start picking out whatever vegetation matter, second cuts, felted parts and poo I can find in the short time Elin the shearer shears the next sheep. As soon as the shearing machine stops buzzing I know it’s time to put the fleece in its bag and be ready for the next one from Claudia, together with a bag with another name and the date of the shearing hastily scribbled onto it. Some of the bags have crossed-over names with older dates. For just a couple a minutes I get to survey each fleece and get a glimpse of their characteristics.
Värmland wool mittens and Värmland fleece.
The bag I get together with the next armful of body warm fleece has the name Härvor written on it. My heart tingles as I take in the wool wealth with all my senses, inhaling the moment, feeling all the summer days the wool has protected her.
The fleeces from Härvor and Doris the Gestrike ewes (left and center) and Sylvester the Gestrike ram (right).
In the corner of my eye I watch slim bodies with their true colours revealed poking around in the paper bags. The new fleece they produce will protect them during the winter months, perhaps it will also protect a new life that will grow in their wombs.
Härvor and her fleecless friends. Sylvester the Gestrike ram right behind her.
After the 35 minutes it takes Elin to shear the 14 sheep we have soup and a chat in Claudia’s kitchen. Elin tells us about what breeds she doesn’t enjoy shearing. Apparently Dorpers are a nuisance and the Disney-like Valais black nose bulky and wooly on every inch of their bodies, not to mention a hazard with their unreliable horns. This is a kitchen of warmth, and I don’t mean from the steaming soup only.
Coming home
Two bags come home with me on the bus. The names Härvor and Doris are written on them. I am sure they haven’t taken the bus before, let alone the metro. I giggle as I think about the adventure they are on as we approach Stockholm Central station for the last change of transportation.
Härvor and Doris take the bus with me back home to the city.
I spread Härvor’s fleece onto the balcony floor when I get home. The last rays of sun peak through the thin foliage, casting a golden shimmer onto the locks. I see staples long and conical, short and crimpy, white, gray and anthracite. Claudia calls this kind of fleece a household fleece – its versatility opens up for a wide variety of textiles that a household might need.
When I have finished admiring Härvor’s loose locks I press them all down into a tub of warm water. The soapy suint feels slippery against my skin. A welcome air of wet wool puffs toward my face as I lean over the tub.
A breath of wool
During my evening yoga practice I can feel the familiar smell filling the living room, where I have placed the fleece to dry on a compost grid under the table. My mind sweeps me back to the Sunday pasture, I close my eyes and imagine digging my hands into Härvor’s soft locks, once again feeling her breath sweetly whiffing against my cheek.
It dawns on me that I wouldn’t be a spinner without sheep like her or sheep farmers like Claudia. The fleece Härvor grows and gifts to me and the love, dedication and hard work Claudia puts into her sheep and pastures make me a better spinner. How could I then not spin this wool from my heart? How could I then not create the best yarn Härvor’s fleece can be? How could I then not return the gift by sharing my words with the world? In my mind I lean in and hear Härvor whisper softly: ”Listen to the wool”. And I will. There is my answer, there is my connection, back to the pastures, back to the soft breath and whisper of the wool.
Thank you Claudia for your generosity!
Fleece for sale!
Claudia has fleeces for sale from the shearing. They are remarkably clean and of high quality and I would buy them all if I had the time and the space. Crotch and belly wool has been removed and also any poopy bits and visible vegetable matter that can be found in roughly two minutes. The fleeces come as they are, raw. The lanolin content in the Swedish landrace and heritage breed is quite low and they can be washed in water only.
The sale of the fleeces brings in money to keep the sheep happy and fed during the winter.
If you want to buy a fleece from Claudia’s flock you can email her: info (at) swedishwoolbroker dot com
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
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 patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.
Do you ever wonder what the wool would say if it could talk? How would it then describe its characteristics? How would it sell itself in an ad, like a pice of fine chocolate?
Featured image: Staples from a black rya lamb’s fleece and a white Klövsjö ewe’s fleece.
There are many systems of describing wool, most of which have their foundation in quantitative parameters. Length, micron count, wool type and distribution of fiber types. More or less of shine, strength or crimp. While these parameters can describe part of the characteristics, I sometimes feel something is missing; a qualitative aspect. Today I play with the thought of the wool describing itself to me.
Look at me with all my fancy curls,
twirling about in concentric waves.
See my silvery shine,
how it lights up the room
when the sun casts its rays upon me.
You have never seen grey like this,
I can promise you that.
I will make the prettiest tailspun yarn you have ever seen.
Did I mention my neck curls?
Sweeter than raspberry pie
with their perfectly spiraled soft locks.
Don't they remind you of
sipping elderberry lemonade
in the shadow of a birch tree?
Rya lamb with the adorable lamb’s lock in the tip end.
I am the raving rya lamb.
See my long and glimmering fibers,
shining their way forward
like a gushing river in the morning light.
With equal measures
of undercoat and outercoat
I am soft and strong.
In any way you combine me
I will give you what you want –
the durable warp,
the shiny rug,
the warm sweater and the soft shawl.
The sweet curl of my tip end,
the one I was born with,
will catch your eye and make you mine.
Soft undercoat, strong outercoat and quirky kemp in a Gute lamb’s fleece.
We are strong!
Undercoat, outercoat and kemp.
Together we stand by this staple,
making it sturdy, yet light,
strong, yet gentle.
We may look rough,
but underneath we are mostly air
hiding between the fibers,
keeping you light and warm.
Our kemp may look quirky and rough,
and it is.
But wait until you see what happens
in the pockets of air
we leave behind
as the kemp falls out of the yarn.
The captured air
turns to softness and warmth,
protecting you from the elements.
When fulled
we stand even stronger,
keeping you safe
on the harshest of winter days.
Nypon (Rose hip), a silver medal winning finull fleece.
Little crimp, little crimp,
feel my gentle bounce,
see my subtle shine,
watch it reflect
the early spring light
like velvet.
I will be your softest friend
right next to your skin.
Staple types from one single fleece of Värmland sheep
I will give you all the staple types.
The long and strong
with lofty feet like ballerina skirts,
make mittens for everyone!
The fine and crimpy,
sweet like an evening breeze on your cheek.
A lacy shawl for you.
Steady, strong outercoat only,
sturdy socks perhaps?
Softy, lofty, thin tails of strength
for fulling and filling
the gaps
in mitts
In midwinter wind.
I am your dalapäls
creamy dreamy
billowing curls.
I shine on you
Like no other curls.
I give you the loftiest of loft
and the most gentle touch.
Don’t think I won’t provide strength
because I will.
My wool is what you never thought
to even wish for.
I come in grey
I come in white
I come in all the shapes
Of your woolly dreams.
I dress you
inside and out,
I give you warmth,
and strength,
and carpets to walk on.
Lean on me
as I comfort
your soul.
What do you think your fleece would tell you about itself?
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
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.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. 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.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.
I have a long queue of fleeces. In the storage of my sofa bed I have at the moment 12 fleeces that are washed and picked but not spun. These are my ladies in waiting.
When I buy a new fleece I try to keep a strict order – first in first out. It’s not always that easy, a new fleece is so exciting and shiny and much more tempting to dig my hands into than the older ones. But I have had fleeces that were too old go brittle, so I try my best to work my ladies in waiting in strict order.
The fleeces in the featured image above are not part of my stash.
Pressure
Out of the twelve fleeces in the sofa bed nine were shorn in the autumn of 2021. This means that nine fleeces are older than one year. I try to keep my queue no longer than one year, and obviously I have failed at keeping this goal. Having that many fleeces in my queue and knowing that the quality will deteriorate does put pressure on me.
Gestrike, Gute and Tabacktorp fleeces when I forst got them, now in paper bags waiting for me to spin them.
The ladies in waiting
So, here are my ladies in waiting, all washed (with water only), picked and stored in paper bags in my sofa bed:
On the spinning wheel I have Nypon (Rose hip), the last of a silver medal winning finull fleece from the Swedish fleece championships of 2020. This is my oldest fleece, but still in excellent condition.
Elsa is a Gestrike fleece shorn in the autumn of 2021. I have sorted the fleece according to staple type and spun all of one category into a hat and a pair of mittens. The rest of the categories are neatly stored in individual bags.
My sweet gute fleece that I am planning to tease together with recycled sari silk is also from the autumn of 2021, but the lanolin feels a bit sticky. This will be the next fleece I spin.
Four Åland fleeces from 2021, long, fine, silky and delicious.
Three medalists from the 2021 fleece championships – Fjällnäs, Helsinge and Dalapäls wool.
Tabacktorp, Dalapäls and Icelandic fleeces shorn in the autumn of 2022. My most freshly shorn and therefore most attractive fleeces. I’m spinning the dalapäls fleece at the moment (see below). I have separated the Icelandic fleece into undercoat and outercoat.
Lately I have been spinning my newest fleece, a shiny dalapäls fleece with long, silky locks, shorn in October 2022. The fleece ruthlessly cut in line since I needed more yarn for a pair of two-end knitted sleeves that had run out of yarn. Spinning this wool this fresh is a dream – the staples are open and airy. The fibers lightly and smoothly join into the twist like a breath of fresh air and a dance. An older fleece on the other hand can be tougher to spin, as if the lanolin has gotten tired and cranky, fighting me as I try to get my head around it. An older fleece can also have become compacted and slightly felted after having been compressed in the sofa bed, even if I have picked it before storing.
Putting my foot down
As I was spinning my merengue white and fresh dalapäls fleece I realized that I need to make some changes in my fleece purchasing pattern. I don’t have to buy every unusual, unique, special or otherwise interesting fleece I see. Wool grows back again. There will be other chances. And I have enough of a network of sheep owners to get a high quality fleece when I need it, not only when I see one that looks interesting.
Sweet dalapäls yarn, spun from freshly shorn fleece.
This new and fresh thought got my shoulders to sink in relief. Spinning is such a joy to me and should never, ever be involved with pressure of any kind. It is and should always be a sanctuary, a place for creativity and making.
A new plan
I decided that I want to shorten my fleece queue to a level where it doesn’t stress me. I have so many other projects and baby ideas I want to work on– mending, upcycling, designing, destashing, course creating, webinar planning, writing etc. And of course spinning the twelve ladies in waiting, beginning with the oldest and/or most urgent fleece. I will in no way, shape of form be without craft.
Mending, sashiko and embroidery are on my list of crafting for 2023.
So, my plan for 2023 is to not buy fleece, at least not before I have spun the 2021 fleeces. This is not a resolution, not a promise. A plan and a wish, a year of cleaning up and organizing in my idea cabinet.
A current weaving project in the local weaving room – 1/3 twill from handspun singles in both warp and weft. If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see the beginning of this almost 4 meter weaving project in my January 2023 video postcard.
I will still spin, knit, weave and write. I will just create from what I already have. Perhaps that will give me the opportunity to expand my creative horizons. One plan is to frog old garments (handspun and commercial) that I don’t use anymore to knit new and shiny things from.
How do you deal with a large fiber stash?
Happy spinning!
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Read the new 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.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
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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.
