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Rya wool

Five staples of wool in different colours and textures. Some more wavy and some more sleek and shiny.

There are three wool breeds in Sweden – breeds where wool is an important part of the breed standards. I have covered two of these (finull sheep and Jämtland sheep) in previous posts and today I present the third: Rya sheep. In this seventh part of my breed study of Swedish sheep breeds from the spinner’s perspective I will share my experience with Rya wool. Previous posts have been about Gotland wool, Gute wool, Dalapäls wool, Värmland wool, Jämtland wool and finull wool.

This Saturday, December 12th at 5 pm CET I will host a free live breed study webinar on Swedish rya wool! I will share my experiences with the wool from a spinner’s perspective.

A background

The word rya refers to three different things – a textile, a wool type and a sheep breed. These are all connected. The word rya is believed to be connected to ragg (coarse hair, compare to raggsocka, a sock with added goat’s hair for extra strength) and related to the English word Rug. The word rya thus refers to a textile with a fur-like side, the pile.

The rya breed as we know it today was bred during the 20th century while the textile has been made since at least the 14th century. To be able to tell you about the rya breed I need to start at the textile.

Rya as a texile

Many of you may have come across rya rugs – woven rugs with looped knots making up a pile. These were very popular to make during the 1970’s. They have a far longer history than that, though, and used mainly for other purposes.

From the oldest sources known today it is evident that the rya has been used in the bed for warmth. Because of its lightness compared to animal skins it has been used as a more lightweight alternative to these. The first mention of a rya is in a regulation from 1420 for bed equipment for nuns in the Vadstena convent: They shall wear a kirtle of white wadmal. In addition to that a rya. And a sheep skin for the winter” (my translation). These regulations may very well have been used already in the 14th century.

Rya from Digitaltmuseum.se. Warp and weft in red and natural white S-plied yarn. Ghiordes knots in shiny white z-plied yarn. The knots are made in different directions in the two halves of the rya and don’t show on the smooth side.

Many ryas have been registered in inventories from mansions and castles, the oldest one from 1444. This also speaks for the value of these textiles. Ryas have been used in trading in exchange for important groceries like hop and salt. During the 17th century ryas spread to social clusters outside the nobilities.

Originally the rya was used with the pile side down and the smooth side up. Many of the oldest finds have a plain knot side – perhaps with some decorative elements at the top to fold over – and a more elaborated smooth side. During the late 17th and early 18th centuries many ryas were shifted – the fur side was facing up and was more decorated for a more fancy bed spread.

Searching for the Rya wool type

The earlier ryas had a remarkable shine, whereas the ryas from the time of the industrial revolution had more matte wool with a lower quality. The spinning mills were not adapted to the Scandinavian double coated (short-tailed) land races. Fat-tailed sheep with shorter wool were imported to suit the industry. Thereby the landraces became less common.

During the national romantic era in the late 19th century there was an increased interest in traditional techniques and artifacts. Textile experts were fascinated by the shine in the old ryas, a shine they couldn’t find in contemporary sheep in Sweden. They gathered that there would probably be sheep with this wool type left in Sweden. They searched and found. Dalapäls sheep was one of the breeds that became the starting point of saving the rya wool type.

Five staples of wool in different colours and textures. Some more wavy and some more sleek and shiny.
Staples from five different rya sheep. Second from right from a lamb, the rest from ewes. the three leftmost are whole-year fleeces from the same flock. The two rightmost staples are the most typical rya staple types – long and shiny with almost no crimp.

Economic interests were more important than saving old landraces, though, and focus was again directed towards more undercoat and more meat. Wool was not a part of the breed standards. In 1978 the Rya sheep organization was founded to protect the Swedish landrace the Rya sheep and the wool quality got a prominent position in the breed standard.

So to the wool type rya. Rya as a wool type has long and shiny outercoat and soft undercoat, with almost no crimp. The outercoat to undercoat ratio is between 60/40 and 50/50. Many other sheep breeds in Sweden, especially the heritage breeds, can have rya type wool, partly or over the whole body. The term rya type wool is thus a way to describe the staple type and distribution of undercoat and outercoat within that staple.

Rya sheep

The sheep that had been developed to save the old landrace characteristics with the long, strong and shiny wool was thus called Rya sheep, and had rya type wool to resemble the wool used in the old rya textiles.

A light fawn sheep with long and fluffy wool. One lamb lying in the grass, one nursing.
Rya sheep Beppelina with whole-year fleece, just before she was shorn and the fleece sent to me. Photo by Ann Arvidson

Rya sheep are medium-sized – rams weigh 70–100 kilos and ewes 60–80 kilos. Face and legs are wool free and the wool is uniform over the body of the sheep. The wool can be white, black, brown or grey. Rya sheep are skilled in grazing in rugged terrain. In 2019 there were 570 breeding ewes in 60 flocks in Sweden. According to the breeding goals the wool should be uniform over the body, strong and shiny and no less than 15 cm at 120 days of age and with 0–3 crimps per 5 cm.

Rya wool

As discussed in the paragraphs above, Rya wool was saved and developed to rescue the strong and shiny wool type that had been used in the old rya textiles. Rya wool is thus long, strong and shiny. It also has soft undercoat. Since the breed comes from old landraces there are still rooing tendencies – some individuals shed their fleece in the spring.

  • Shiny and white wool in a wood basket.
White, shiny and strong rya wool in my saigkorg (Gotland fir/juniper basket made for carded wool). Unwashed to the left, washed (water only) to the right. This fleece won a silver medal in the rya section of the 2020 fleece championships.

The outercoat to undercoat ratio is between 60/40 and 50/50. The outercoat is very strong and shiny and the undercoat soft and also quite shiny. Eventhough rya wool is quite homogenous over the body of the sheep, the dual coat makes the wool very versatile. As a hand spinner you can choose to spin undercoat and outercoat together or separated. If you consider the fineness of lamb’s wool and the strength of wool from ewes you have an even wider spectrum of qualities to play with.

The wool characteristics that I want to focus on when I spin rya wool is the exceptional shine, the amazing strength and the versatility over the fiber types and of wool from both ewes and lambs.

Preparing and spinning

At the moment I have a few rya fleeces in my stash – ewe’s and lamb’s wool in white, grey, brown(s) and black. Some of them are quite traditional rya fleeces with the long, strong and shiny staples. But four of them (one fleece and samples from three other sheep in the same flock) are a bit different. They have some crimp and finer fibers. They have a full year’s growth and have started to shed.

Four piles of fleece in natural colours.
Fleece samples from the rya sheep Alva, Lina, Beppelina and Bertil (ram).

Combing and worsted spinning

This summer I spent many walks together with the outercoat from this quartet and a suspended spindle. I had separated the coats with stationery combs and set the undercoat aside. I combed the outercoat and made bird’s nests.

A spindle and combed wool on a step down to a creek.
The outer coat from the whole-year’s shearing of the rya ewe Beppelina, spun worsted on a suspended spindle.

This whole year’s fiber is longer than any wool I have ever worked with before, around 30 cm. During the summer I generally spin on spindles, but even in the winter I think I would have preferred to spin this length on a suspended spindle. With the spindle I can control the speed and the intake in a way I think would have been difficult on a spinning wheel with fibers this long.

A white and a black ball of shiny yarn.
Combed whole year’s outer coat from the rya ewe Lina and the rya ram Bertil. Spun on a suspended spindle.

These shiny and fiercely strong yarns make excellent warp yarn. One day I will spin singles warp yarn, but I am not there yet. In the mean time I will spin 2-plied warp yarns.

Carding and woolen spun

The undercoat I had set aside from the combing resulted in a lovely knitting yarn. I carded the separated undercoat fibers into rolags and spun with English long draw on a spinning wheel and 2-plied. I am thinking stranded colourwork knitting for this quartet.

Four skeins of yarn in white, light beige, beige and dark brown.
Undercoat woolen spun from hand carded rolags of the rya sheep Alva, Beppelina, Lina and Bertil.

Keeping it all together

On my wool journey of 2019 I experimented with a sock yarn where I mixed 60 per cent rya wool with 40 per cent adult mohair. At the 2019 fleece championships I bought a gold medalist rya fleece and a bag of adult mohair for my sock yarn project. I try to keep a strict queue in my fleece stash and I have just started spinning this yarn. I have blended it with adult mohair and spun it woolen as a cabled yarn.

  • A pile of white and silky wool locks, two hands demonstrating them.
Gold medalist rya lamb’s fleece from the 2019 fleece championships (left), blended with adult mohair for a strong cabled sock yarn (right).

Perhaps I will play with some dyeing for striped socks. I am not a big sock knitter, but this project might change my opinion on sock knitting.

A rya rya yarn

Another project I have in my mind is a yarn for rya knots in rya yarn. I may not be able to make a whole bed cover, but I could weave something smaller, perhaps a foot rug for the bed. I have woven chair pads with rya knots, but only with stashed handspun and not in rya wool.

A yarn for rya knots is spun in its entirety with both undercoat and outercoat and 2-plied. Some of the findings have a lot of twist – around 11 rounds per centimeter. Saved rya textiles have been both Z-plied and S-plied. I have asked several textile experts about how the wool for the rya textiles in the museum collections were prepared and spun, but there doesn’t seem to be any clear information about this.

Since a textile with rya knots tends to get quite heavy my plan is to card it and spin it woolen. Since I have no plans of making a floor rug out of it there is no need for super strong worsted yarn.

Use

As I wrote earlier rya wool has a wide variety of uses since you can use it together or separated and find different qualities in lamb’s wool and adult wool. I have already shared some ideas of what I want to do with the fleeces I have – socks blended with adult mohair, yarn for rya knots, stranded knitting with undercoat yarn and outercoat warp yarn.

A wooden lucet with some finished cord wrapped around it. An ammonite pendant hanging from the cord.
A lucet cord from Bertil’s outercoat made a lovely pendant cord. Combed and worsted spun on a suspended spindle.

I played with my lucet to make a cord for an ammonite pendant I bought myself a while ago. I made it with the dark brown worsted spun outercoat from Bertil the ram. The cord is very strong and sleek.

Other uses for yarn from rya wool is rugs, tapestries and embroidery. Due to the exceptional shine the wool is very well suited for weaving rugs and is said to get even shinier with wear. Yes, I might spin an embroidery yarn too.

Live webinar!

This This Saturday, December 12th at 5 pm CET I will host a live breed study webinar about Swedish rya wool from a spinner’s perspective. In the webinar I will talk briefly about the breed in Sweden, wool characteristics and how I prepare, spin and use rya wool. I will use rya wool during the webinar and show you glimpses of how I prepare and spin the wool.

Even if you think you will never come across Swedish finull this is still an opportunity to learn more about wool and wool processing in general. The breed study webinar will give you tools to understand different wool types and apply your knowledge to breeds and wool types closer to you.

This is a wonderful chance for me to meet you (in the chat window at least, I won’t be able to see you) and for you to see me live and unedited. The previous live breed study webinars I have done have been great successes. I really look forward to seeing you again in this webinar.

The event has already taken place.

Happy spinning!

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Finding a fleece

A white fleece with fine, crimpy staples.

Many spinners ask me where I find the fleeces I work with. I live just outside the Stockholm city center and there aren’t many flocks around here. Today I will share with you how I found my first fleeces and give you a few tips of what you can do in your pursuit of finding a fleece.

When I first started spinning I took a spinning class twice a month at a city sheep farm. I bought my first fleece on the first spinning lesson. After that I have bought several fleeces from the farm. Visitors can buy fleece in the sheep barn all year round. The head shepherdess basically know all the sheep by smelling it. The fleeces come individually packed in paper bags with the sheep’s name on it. I can reach the farm with the commuter train and investigate the fleece on the hoof.

But finding a fleece isn’t always easy. Many people don’t have sheep close to them and don’t know where to start. Some are also worried that they will get bad fleece. In this post I won’t go into what to look for in a fleece, but with the methods I use I make sure, or as sure as I can, that I find the people who can provide good quality fleece.

The soul behind the fleece

When I look for a fleece I try to stay as close to the source as I can. Preferably on a level of knowing the name of the sheep. I keep a list of shepherdesses and I always look for potential additions to that list. You can see it as sort of a fleece networking.

The key element for me is connecting with sheep owners. Having a connection with a shepherdess gives me an understanding of their work and the day-to-day lives of the sheep. I try to find the soul behind the fleece. Do the shepherdesses represent what I want from a fleece? In the conversation I also get to explain what I look for as a spinner.

The key to a breed

One example is Lena. She is a Gute shepherdess, spinning teacher and weaver and has been a judge at many spinning competitions. I didn’t know much about Gute sheep, but since I know her work I knew that there must be something in the Gute fleece that attracts her as a spinner. I knew that she would be able to get me a Gute fleece of high quality. And I was right, I got a lovely Gute fleece that I have used for many classes to show the diversity of a primitive breed. And through that many of my students have grown fond of the breed too.

Gute wool from one individual. The sheep has long and strong overcoat, fine undercoat and kemp over the whole body, but to varying degrees.
Gute wool from one individual. The sheep has long and strong overcoat, fine undercoat and kemp over the whole body, but to varying degrees.

In the Gute case I didn’t know much about the Gute breed, but I knew about Lena and her knowledge and experience. That was enough for me to try the breed.

Connect with knowledge

Another example is Ann who has a small flock of Rya sheep. She is also one of the founders of a Swedish online spinning forum and very generous with her knowledge and encouragement. She is also a very experienced spinner. Someone posted a picture of Ann’s sheep and I knew I wanted to try the wool from her sheep. I had a few rya fleeces before, but I really wanted to try the fleece from Ann’s sheep since she knew so much about them.

Four piles of fleece in natural colours.
Fleece samples from the rya ewes Alva, Lina and Beppelina and Bertil the ram. I chose Beppelina (bottom left).

Ann sent me very generous samples of fleece from her four sheep and I got to pick the one I preferred, which wasn’t easy – they were all lovely. I had follow-up questions and Ann, with her long experience with fiber animals, could give me very detailed descriptions of her line of the breed and the individual sheep in her flock. She also sent me pictures of the sheep. I picked one and she sent me the rest of that fleece.

Handling the fleece from Ann’s flock has taught me a lot of the diversity within a breed, especially since rya is one of the three Swedish breeds that are bred for the wool.

Fleece feedback: Åsen fleece

My third example here is Ylva. I met her on the Fleece championships of 2019. As far as I know she didn’t have a competing fleece, but she was at the event selling her Åsen fleeces. I talked to her for a bit, asked her about the breed that I didn’t know very much about. I ended up buying one of her fleeces. In the fleece bag was a piece of paper with carefully made notes of the number of the sheep, when she was born, when she was shorn, some of the characteristics of the fleece and the weight.

I spun a lovely skein from the Åsen fleece and sent to Sara Wolf for the book Knit (spin) Sweden. Then I brought the fleece to one of my classes. The first fleece we ran out of was Ylva’s Åsen fleece. All the students loved carding and spinning the Åsen wool. It was open and airy and had just the right combination of fluffy undercoat and strong outercoat to make the draft nice and slow. Of course I told Ylva about this and she was very pleased that we had enjoyed the fleece from her sheep.

Lovely Åsen wool from an experienced shepherdess.
Lovely Åsen wool from an experienced shepherdess.

More Åsen fleece

I met Ylva at another fleece event and bought a very fine Åsen fleece from her, totally different from the first fleece I bought. I hadn’t planned on buying Åsen fleece, but since I knew she was serious about wool quality I was more than happy to buy from her.

The fleece I got had long white locks with black tips. When I got home I discovered that the tips broke in the join between the black tips and the white growth when I tugged the staples lightly. The fibers beneath the breakage was still soft and lovely. Since I had talked to Ylva I knew she was very dedicated and serious about the wool quality of her sheep. I knew this must have been an unlucky exception in her flock. I asked her what she thought was the reason behind the breakage in the tips. She told me that the lamb had been fathered by a new ram that obviously had some bad fleece genes. She was very grateful for my feedback and decided not to use that lamb for further breeding (the ram had already moved on to greener pastures).

Setbacks

I have bought a lot of fleece through the years and I figure I have quite a good sense of what to look for. But I do make mistakes. The good thing about that is that I learn a lot from them. Not so much due to bad quality, but in realizing that this wasn’t for me. Most of the mistakes have actually been pre-processed wool – quite early I learned that I want to get to know the wool from the start, from that dirty, poopy newly shorn fleece. It has also been about a breed that I didn’t really get along with.

Fleece events

A wonderful opportunity for finding a fleece is a fleece event, like a fleece competition, a wool fair or a wool festival. One of the most important fleece shows for me is the Swedish fleece championships. At this event the visitors can look at and fondle all the fleeces that have entered the competition, watch the prize ceremony and take part in the fleece auction afterwards.

A long table full of wool.
Over 50 fleeces competed in the 2019 fleece championships!

A lot of the visitors are shepherdesses that either sell their fleeces at the event and/or have one or more fleeces in the competition. I do several things at this kind of event to find fleeces:

  • The first thing I do is to go through the fleeces in the competition. I look at them, fondle them of course and make mental notes of their characteristics and which ones I want to buy.
  • During the competition I keep track of who gets the medals. I have been a visitor to the championships for the past four years (sadly not this year when it was a no visitor event) and I see a lot of the sheep owners come back and get more medals. These are people I keep track of. They obviously care a lot about the wool quality of their sheep. Some of them even get medals in both the fleece championships and the spinning championships. These shepherdesses are extra interesting to me since they share my perspective as a spinner.
  • If I win the auctions I have set my sight on I try to connect with the shepherdess who submitted the fleece. I tell them that I love what they do, ask about the name of the sheep and just engage in wooly conversation.

In my course Know your fleece there is a 47 minute video where I go through all the fleeces of the 2019 fleece championships together with my friend Anna.

A finull/rya master

Let me tell you about Margau. On the first fleece championships I visited I fell for a dark grey finull/rya she had submitted. It got a gold medal. She has worked for several years with this particular cross and she does a smashing job of it. On a previous blog post I wrote about another fleece I got from her, also a medalist. Later when I spun it I ran out of fleece. I contacted Margau and got the next shearing of the same sheep.

  • A gold medalist
  • Close-up of a grey sweater with white embroidered flowers
    Photo by Dan Waltin
  • Selma Margau sweater.
    Photo by Dan Waltin
The first fleece I got from Margau to the left. In the middle the Margau Beta sweater I knit from the fleece, together with some sari silk. To the right the Selma Margau sweater I knit from another fleece from Margau.

Later, when I wanted a white fleece of the same quality she sent me samples from three sheep that I could choose from. From that fleece I made the Selma Margau sweater pattern.

Getting to know a new breed

On that same first fleece championships I fell for a lovely Dalapäls fleece, that ended up with a silver medal. The shepherdess, Carina, wasn’t at the event, but I texted her. We had a long conversation and she told me about the breed in general and the sheep (Blanka) in particular. I hadn’t come across the dalapäls breed before, but once I had seen Blanka’s shiny fleece I knew this was a special breed.

Long, white and wavy wool locks.
Long and silky locks of Dalapäls sheep. The locks come from the same shepherdess, Carina, but from different sheep.

Later I also connected with Lena, another Dalapäls shepherdess and I even got to visit her on shearing day. On the course Know your fleece you can see a video where I interview Lena while she shears her sheep.

Fleece queen 1

On the 2019 fleece championships, one of the shepherdesses, Kari, got eight (8) medals for her fleeces. She has several different breeds and a passion for wool and crafting. She wasn’t at the event at the time, but I met her later at another wool event and bought two lovely rya fleeces from her. We chatted for a while and it was so lovely to connect with someone with such a warm passion for her sheep and their wool.

A white fleece with very long and silky staples.
The 2020 seduction of the wool guru, a Swedish Gotland/Leicester/finull fleece.

At the 2020 fleece championships she got another seven medals and I managed to win the auction of one of them, a Swedish Gotland/Leicester/finull cross. The fleece didn’t get a regular medal, but it did get a special award called “The seduction of the wool guru”. The wool guru is Alan Waller, one of the judges and the prize is awarded to a fleece he can’t take his hands and eyes off. And it is indeed a magical fleece – 18 cm staples with 13 cm undercoat, shiny and soft and just mesmerizing.

I had no plans to buy this kind of fleece when I started planning which ones I wanted to buy, but with this award and this shepherdess I couldn’t help myself. I hope I can make this magical fleece justice.

Fleece queen 2

Titti is an experienced shepherdess who has grown up with finull (Swedish finewool) sheep, one of Sweden’s three wool breeds. She won her first fleece championship medal a few years ago and has since then worked with breeding for the fleece and teaching other sheep owners about breeding for fleece. She has kept winning medals for her excellent fleeces year after year and this year I decided to snatch me one. After all, finull is my home fleece, the one I started with nine years ago.

A white fleece with fine, crimpy staples.
The silver medalist fleece from the finull lamb Nypon (Rose hip).

I won the auction of her silver medalist Nypon (Rose hip) and it is just the yummiest of yum – soft, crimpy and shiny. Lots of finull wool has gone through my fingers over the years, but none with a quality like this one.

If you are a patron I have a treat for you – a short unboxing video where I unbox the three fleeces I bought from the 2020 fleece championships auction. Go to my Patreon page if you want to become a patron.

Nodes

Nodes (I just made the concept up) are what I call people with wool knowledge and lots of connections to shepherdesses. It can be wool handlers/brokers/consultants/classifiers, spinning teachers, fleece show judges, shearers etc. You may not know any of these yourself, but if you search a little you will soon find some that you can contact. Nodes are people whose judgements I trust fully. They have met many sheep farmers and/or had their hands on hundreds, thousands of fleeces and know what to look for.

A wool classifier

One such example is my friend Kia. She has worked for many years as a wool classifier in Norway. Tons of fleeces have gone through her hands and she is extremely knowledgeable about fleece. My first fleece adventure outside the city farm was with the help of Kia. She started a fiber club with rare and endangered Norwegian sheep breeds and I jumped along. In the fiber club she sent out four packages of fleece samples (also some processed fiber) from different Norwegian breeds that were rare or endangered. She also attached information about the breeds and what she thought of them. This was a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know different wool qualities in small batches. I ended up making a Fair Isle vest from most of the yarns I spun from the samples.

Ivy League vest by Eunnie Jang, knit from my handspun Norwegian rare and endangered sheep breeds in 2014. Photo by Dan Waltin

I didn’t know the shepherdesses of these batches, but I got lots of information of the breeds. I trusted Kia through her knowledge and experience of and passion for the breeds.

A wool broker

Another example of a node is Shetland woolbrokers. What Oliver Henry and his fleece crew don’t know about fleece isn’t worth knowing. They handle and grade tons of fleece from sheep farmers across Shetland every day.

A superfine Shetland fleece from the treasure room at Shetland woolbrokers. I bought it in their shop when I visited Shetland wool week back in 2015 with my wool traveling club.

Most of the fleece goes to spinning mills, but they also have a treasure room for hand spinners. This is where the best fleeces go. The first time I was there and got to go to the treasure room, but on several occasions I have got the loveliest fleeces from them via email inquiries. I have simply said: Please get me two superfine fleeces of so and so colour. And by that I have been confident that they will send me high quality fleece.

Finding a fleece

I have been a spinner for nine years and nowadays I have a well tried list of shepherdesses that I have a connection to and nodes that I trust. But I did start from knowing nothing about fleece at all, just like most of us have at some point. If you want to work with fleece but don’t know where to fine one, I have made a list of some ideas where to start.

Checklist for finding a fleece

  • Start as close to the source as you can. Have you seen sheep in your neighbourhood? Or somewhere you visit every now and then? If you see the sheep owner, start a conversation. Ask about the sheep and what they do with the fleeces.
  • Are you a member of a spinning guild? If so, see if the other members have sheep of their own or connections with sheep owners.
  • If you don’t live near sheep you can look in spinning forums – local, regional or national. Browse through the feed and look for people who have bought fleece they are happy with or spinners who own sheep. Perhaps you can find a connection there. Remember to check the forum rules, though. If it is a non-commercial forum you are better off making this kind of connection in a private message.
  • Do you know of any fleece nodes? Or can you find one? Again, check spinning guilds or spinning forums. Are there names that pop up often, people who seem to know a lot about wool or have a large wool network? This could be shearers, fleece show judges, wool classifiers/sorters/handlers/consultants etc.
  • Is there a wool agency in your region or country? In Sweden we have Ullförmedlingen, the Swedish wool agency where sheep owners can put their fleeces for sale. The forum has a tagging system so that the seller can give accurate information about the fleeces and the buyer can search for specific information.
  • Go to wool events, live or online. Talk to sheep owners, ask them about their sheep and try to get an understanding of how they work with their sheep, especially regarding the wool. Also, try to look at the fleeces with someone. Together you can investigate the fleece and get more information than had you looked at it alone.
Look at fleece with a friend. This is my friend Anna and I looking at Värmland wool.

You will find fleece you like and you will develop your own list of people and places to find fleece. Sooner or later you will make mistakes, just like I have. You will learn from your mistakes, perhaps more than from your successes –you will learn what to look for and what to stay away from. A wise friend of mine said:

You don’t have to know to get started, but you need to get started to know.

Embrace your fleece buying mistakes and learn from them on your next fleece hunt.

When you have got a fleece, remember to give feedback to the shepherdess! Show what you spin and what you make. Tell them what is good about the fleece and your suggestions for improvements from your spinner’s perspective. I am sure they will appreciate the feedback and remember you in their next shearing.

Happy spinning!

P.S. I have just published an edited version of the webinar The Hand spinner’s advantage that I streamed live on September 19th, 2020. The webinar is free to watch at my online school.

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Combing different fiber lengths

At the moment I have around 20 fleeces waiting to be spun. It is not always easy but I try to work them in order – first in first out. I have had to give up on some fleeces that have gone brittle and stale. The other day I finished a Gute fleece and next in line is a beautiful finull/rya cross that got a silver medal in the 2018 fleece championships. In this post I show you how I am combing different fiber lengths.

The finull/rya fleece has the most beautiful locks. They are more rya-like in their appearance, but still soft like finull. The outercoat is long and silky and the undercoat soft like cashmere. The draft feels like a luxurious night cream.

Finull/rya lamb's wool
My finull/rya fleece when I bought it at the auction at the 2018 fleece championships.

Cookie Monster wants all the cookies

One of the reasons why I have procrastinated for so long with this fleece is that I really didn’t know how to bring out the superpowers in it. Should I go for shine or softness? To get the shine my choice would have been to comb the wool and spin it worsted and for softness I would have opted for carding and woolen spinning. But deep down the Cookie Monster wanted all of it – both shine and softness.

To get both shine and softness in one yarn takes some planning and testing. Since this yarn was so soft I decided to go for a combing preparation – I figured that the wool was soft enough to still result in a soft yarn.

Combing different fiber lengths

After having read an article in the fall 2020 issue of Spin-Off magazine I knew what to do. Kim McKenna writes in her article Wool combing and the importance of planking about how to comb more evenly for a strong worsted yarn. My goal for this fleece isn’t a strong worsted yarn, but I think the technique will suit my goal perfectly – I want to make sure the fibers are as evenly distributed as possible.

Choosing a comb

Since the fleece I work with has quite a lot of different fiber lengths I want to make sure they are as evenly distributed as I can manage. Therefore I use a single pitched pair of mini combs. Using two-pitched combs may result in more of a separation between the fiber lengths.

Loading

I load the combs with the cut end as close to the tines as I can. I try not to load more than a third of the height of the tines. Too much wool will make it tougher on my hands and arms. It will also give me an uneven result.

  • Close-up of a person loading a wool comb with white wool locks.
I load the combs with the cut end as close to the tines as possible.

First combing

I comb five passes, starting with the outermost part of the tip ends. If I go further in it will be more work and more waste. I use a circular motion – horizontal for the first pass, vertical for the second and then horizontal again. To save my wrists and shoulders I lock the arm of my stationary comb against the side of my torso.

I start combing at the very tip of the staples.

After the fifth pass I doff the wool off the comb in one continuous length. I pull both left, right and center to make the pulling motion easier on my hand. A lot of very short fibers are still on the comb, but they are too short to spin and I use them for other things.

I pull the fiber off the comb in one continuous length.

Planking and second combing

The resulting length now has most of the long fibers in one end and most of the short fibers in the other, which I don’t want. Therefore I divide the lengths into three to four shorter lengths and put them back onto the comb for a second combing. This is the planking part.

I divide the continuous length into shorter lengths and put them back onto the comb.

I comb another three passes to even out the fibers again. The motions are now very light since nothing is sticking to the combs anymore.

Three more light passes after the first combing.

Dizzing

I pull off the fibers through a diz and make a bird’s nest. Had I owned a pair of single-pitched combs with a combing station I would have used them for this step. Pinching the comb between my thighs isn’t ideal. The position isn’t very good for my back and my legs are far from relaxed.

I use a small dizzing hole since I want to spin a fairly fine yarn. There is still an uneven distribution of the fibers, but much more even than after the first time. The quality is also higher than after the first pass – I see no uneven parts and no nepps in the dizzed roving.

I pinch the mini comb between my thighs and diz the fiber off the comb.

With a roving as well prepared as this the spinning feels very light. With the second combing the preparation takes more time, but I win it back when I spin and use the yarn.

Spinning a fiber as well prepared as this is a pure joy.

Since I combed the wool twice and dizzed the yarn gets very evenly spun and I find a relaxed focus behind the spinning wheel.

A Cookie Monster yarn

The yarn is finished. I 2-plied it and washed it last night and this morning it has dried by the air source heat pump over night.The yarn is very evenly spun and shiny. It is not as soft as I had hoped, but I still think I can wear it next to skin, perhaps as a shawl in some sort of lace pattern. Looking at it I realize that all the short fibers I removed were a part of the softness I imagined when I analyzed the staples. But there is not much I could have done here – had I kept the short fibers in the yarn they would have crept out of it sooner or later and created nepps. Still, I love the result. Considering that there still are different fiber lengths in the yarn it wouldn’t have been this even had I not planked after the first combing.

My Cookie Monster yarn is mostly shiny and still a little soft.

I made a video of the combing process. This time the video is available for patrons only. You can become a patron here.

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

A journey

Pia-Lotta the sheep and mittens from her fleece. Photo by Dan Waltin

This week a nine year old picture of a bag of Swedish finewool popped up in my Facebook feed. The picture showed of my very first fleece on my very first spinning lesson. It was also the very first time I ever held a spindle in my hand. A lot has happened since then. In this post I walk you through some of the highlights from this journey.

A bag of wool from Pia-Lotta the Swedish finewool sheep.

My friend Anna is my husband’s colleague. At an office get-together Anna and I talked about knitting. She mentioned that an acquaintance of hers had sheep but didn’t know what to do with the wool. The acquaintance also said that a large amount of Swedish wool was wasted (I think the number at the time was around 80 per cent), or even burnt. This was shocking to me and I looked up an evening spinning class that Anna and I signed up for.

A ram and his lamb

Meanwhile there was a Swedish finewool ram called Muffe. He fathered many lambs, one of which was called Pia-Lotta. For some reason kids were bullying Muffe. He got very stressed and had to be put to sleep for this reason. Muffe had been very loved by his Shepherdess Ulla.

Ulla had not planned to keep the lamb Pia-Lotta. But when Ulla saw Pia-Lotta on her way to the truck that was going to the butcher’s she saw so much of Muffe in Pia-Lotta that she couldn’t bare losing her too. Pia-Lotta got to stay on the farm.

It was at the farm where Pia-Lotta lived that the spinning course took place every other Tuesday evening and it was Pia-Lotta’s fleece that ended up in my bags on that first spinning lesson. After that I have got two more of her fleeces, one of which I shore myself.

Me shearing the Swedish finewool (finull) sheep Pia-Lotta.
Me shearing the finull sheep Pia-Lotta in the beginning of my spinning journey.

The journey of a fleece

I got very fascinated by the journey the fleece made from newly shorn to a finished textile. Since the world of wool and this process was all new to me I was totally smitten by it. I wanted to tell the world what a beautiful thing spinning and the process from fluff to stuff was. So I did. I made a video that became a two year project. During that time I shot the whole process from the newly shorn sheep (Pia-Lotta) to a finished sweater where I showed all the steps – sorting, washing, teasing, carding/combing, spinning, knitting and assembling. I called the video Slow fashion – from sheep to sweater.

Slow fashion – from sheep to sweater. Also available in Swedish: Slow fashion – från får till tröja.

The sweater that was the product of the project is one of my favourites. It has a lot of flaws that I have learned from and I know so much more now. But it was at the same time so much better than the first skeins I spun from the very same wool (the white yarn in the sweater comes from Pia-Lotta).

Fileuse by Valérie Miller.

A learning journey

We all learn every second. New experiences come to us all through the course of our lives. We build on that experience and develop our skills. Just as every single one of you I started from the beginning. In fact, I start from the beginning every day.

Pia-Lotta the sheep and mittens from her fleece. Photo by Dan Waltin
Pia-Lotta the sheep and mittens from her fleece. Before I knit them I learned to knit both mittens at the same time to get the same size. Since I knit them I have learned to spin with higher twist for two-end knitting to avoid yarn breaks every time I untwisted the skein. Photo by Dan Waltin

Every time I pick up a spinning project – new or old – I start from the beginning of that particular day. When the day is over I have learned new things that I bring to tomorrow’s beginning. And it goes on. I still make mistakes, only different ones than nine years ago. And I still learn from them and look upon them as a map of what I have learned.

By the way, I write this particular paragraph in the morning. I would never have thought something this clever in the evening. Just saying.

Making videos

Slow fashion became the real boost of my then newborn youtube channel. The video is still one of my most popular ones with over 17000 views. When I look at it my heart tingles. It tingles from how much the video means to me and from all I see that I have learned since then. I have learned about shooting, angles, locations, light, sound, editing and, of course, spinning and wool preparation. But it all started there, with that idea of sharing the process of the wool and what it did for me with the world.

A journey on a train

I started spinning on a supported spindle because my family’s decision to stop flying gave me a long train journey to my father’s family in Austria. I wanted a craft that I could dive in to on those hours gliding through the landscape. So I practiced supported spinning daily from November until we got on the train in July. That moment when I finally placed the spinning bowl in my lap and started spinning was magical. My then ten year old son helped me shoot a short video somewhere in Denmark.

A teaching journey

That train journey became the starting point of teaching for me. Spinners in Sweden were fascinated with the technique and soon someone asked me to teach supported spinning. I can’t resist flattery, so I did it, knowing nothing at all about teaching. Now, several teaching hours later, teaching spinning is one of my favourite things to do in the world. Finding a student’s learning style and watching someone understand, learn and love a technique is pure joy. Through teaching spinning I learn more than through any other means. So thank you all past, present and future students for teaching me how to be a better teacher, student and spinner.

A few courses have been cancelled during the pandemic, but in a couple of weeks I will teach a weekend course again and I can’t wait. There are still spots left in a course in floor supported Navajo style spindle spinning in Stockholm on November 7–8 and of course you can check out my online school. One of my favorite right now is the five day challenge Fleece through the senses. I have learned a lot through all your stories there.

An inner journey

I am still smitten by the journey the fleece makes from fluff to stuff, but today that infatuation has grown into a more mature kind of love.

The most important part of my spinning journey has been the inner journey. Spinning has taught me to appreciate the wool I see before me. I just need to find the superpowers of that particular fleece and make them shine. I have learned to be thankful to the wool I work with and for being able to work with wool.

Wool is an inner journey for me.

Working with wool is my safe space. It is a place where I can relax, find focus and balance. The world is always beautiful when I work with wool. If it is not, the wool will get me to that place of beauty soon enough.

When I spin the doors to creativity open and I see and understand things that have been blurred before. The feeling of the wool in my hands, the rhythm of the wheel or spindle, the repetitive motions of the drafting. It is a place where I find the space between my thoughts and relax in the here and now. And I thank wool for that.

Happy spinning!

/Josefin, spinning student and teacher

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Spinning championships 2020

This past weekend the Swedish spinning championships 2020 were decided. Usually I visit the championships, but due to the pandemic it wasn’t a public event this year. For this reason I have no pictures from the championships to show you. The prize ceremony was live streamed, though.

There were two categories in the spinning championships. All contestants got the same wool to work with and we could choose preparation and spinning method and tools ourselves. The categories were

  • a 2-ply embroidery yarn from Swedish Leicester wool
  • the thinnest 10 gram 2-ply yarn from Swedish Jämtland wool.
  • Swedish Leicester locks for the embroidery category
  • Superfine Jämtland wool for the thinnest yarn category.

I registered for both of the categories, but I only submitted my yarn for the embroidery category. More about that below.

Embroidery yarn

Swedish Leicester wool is long, strong and shiny. Swedish Leicester is, just like Swedish Gotland, bred for the pretty skins and has basically outercoat only. The wool we got came from a farm that has received numerous medals in previous championships.

Hand combed and dizzed Swedish Leicester wool spun worsted on a suspended spindle.

The strength of the Swedish Leicester wool is suitable for embroidery yarn since it won’t break or fuzz despite repeated agitation when threaded through the fabric. The shine gives an extra focus on the yarn in the embroidery.

I combed the wool twice with my medium combs with a combing station. First I combed the locks into tops. When I had finished I placed two or three tops together and combed once more. To get the tops even I dizzed them. I spun the yarn worsted on a suspended spindle. To make the yarn stay rounded in the embroidery I chose to spin with quite a high twist. I plied the yarn on a spinning wheel.

My finished embroidery yarn for the spinning championships 2020 – 34 grams and 79 meters, 2289 m/kg. I started out with 50 grams of unwashed wool.

And the winner is…

I ended up with the gold medal for my embroidery yarn! I was very happy with the result when I submitted it, and even happier now that I won. The motivation was:

“An even and lovely yarn for the purpose with a nice thickness and well plied, which results in perfect loops for sewing.”

Yay me!

A huge and warm thank you from the bottom of my heart to all who have already congratulated me on my Facebook page and on Instagram. I am very proud of this gold medal, and perhaps a little extra proud that the gold medal went to a spindle spun yarn.

Embroidery yarn plans

The yarn and the medal will come to me in the mail one of these days, together with a diploma. My plan is to A: Wear the medal all day with a silly grin on my face, B: Post a picture for you with my medal and my silly grin and C: Do something with my embroidery yarn. I bought a new to me dyeing system this summer (bengala mud dyes) and I may split the yarn in a few smaller skeins and play with different colours. I am positive that the lustre in the Leicester locks will be spectacular when dyed. And then I will embroider my little heart out!

Thinnest yarn

I was hesitant from the start about the thinnest yarn category. I have done it several times for the Bothwell longest thread competition. It does take a lot of work and strain. This time was no exception and after around 5 grams I decided to withdraw. It took too much work, time and pain and it wasn’t worth it. So I withdrew and published an online course instead.

Jämtland wool has some merino in it and has very fine fibers. I have worked with Jämtland wool before and discovered that it is perfect for spinning from the fold, provided that it is long enough. This is what I did this time too – I opened up the individual staples with a flicker and spun from the fold on a supported spindle.

Spinning Jämtland wool from the fold for the thinnest yarn category of the spinning championships 2020 on my Björn Peck supported spindle.

I spent many evenings spinning this yarn and when I decided to withdraw I was happy I made the decision.

The gold medalist of this category ended up with a super impressive 380 meters in her 10 gram skein (about 200 meters more than the silver medalist)!

Wool is in the air

The fleece and spinning championships are one of the wool highlights of the year for me. This is when I bury my hands in seemingly endless rows of high quality fleece. It is also the time when I meet the loveliest spinners, shepherdesses and other wooly people. There are always friendly people to ask and learn from and I cherish every moment. It is an event where I forget time and space and just savour the smell, the abundance, the subtle natural colours and the sparkles from the fresh lanolin. Wool is in the air on the fleece and spinning championships.

No picture of yummy fleece here.

Shepherdesses

When people ask me how I know from whom to buy fleece this is my answer: I find my shepherdesses at the fleece championships. I see who gets the medals, a handful of shepherdesses get numerous medals for their fleeces and some even get medals in both the fleece championships and the spinning championships. Shepherdesses who know what I want as a spinner and who consider the wool quality when they plan the breeding.

No picture of yummy fleece here either.

Buying fleece

I always buy fleece at the auction that always follows the championships. Every year I have cuddled with the fleeces and talked to shepherdesses all day and come the auction I know which fleeces I plan to take home with me. I talk to the shepherdesses to find out more about the sheep – does it have a name, is the fleece a typical fleece for this breed or cross, what does she think is special about it and so on. I make a bond with these talented women and commit to make the yarn from the sheep they have cared for shine.

None of this happened this year. I got a medal that I am very proud of and I got to see which fleece got which medal. There will even be an online auction of the fleeces. But it still doesn’t come near the real thing and I can’t post juicy pictures of pile upon pile of fleece. Like with most events these days.

If you, like me, miss the real thing you are more than welcome to read the post from last year’s fleece championships (lots of yummy pictures of fleece here!). And I hope I can come to next year’s event.

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Know your fleece

This is it! I have pushed the publish button. Drum rolls and fanfares – My new online course Know your fleece has officially launched! Make sure you enroll in tonight’s free webinar The Hand spinner’s advantage to get access to special course offers!

Buy the course here!

Know your fleece

After a lot of hard work and a long launch period it is finally Launch Day. I wanted to make a course in wool knowledge that takes its starting point in the characteristics of the fleece you have in front of you. A breed can have typical breed characteristics, but it is the fleece you have that you will work with and get to know.

In this course you work with a fleece that you have chosen. With the help of inspirational video material and structured assignments you will explore, analyze, empower, plan and experiment with your fleece to get to know it. You work with your fleece, at your skill level, with the tools you have access to and as extensively as you like. I provide inspiration, my experience, my perspective on wool and a structure to work within.

When you have finished the course you will feel more confident in handling raw fleece and planning the process from fleece to textile. You will know how your fleece feels, behaves and how it wants to be spun.

A glimpse of the course curriculum of the new online course Know your fleece.
A glimpse of the course curriculum of the new online course Know your fleece (the image is a screen shot from the course curriculum page).

Five sheep breeds

Through the course you will get to know five Swedish sheep breeds – Gotland sheep, Gute sheep, Klövsjö sheep, Helsinge sheep and Dalapäls sheep. Three of these breeds are presented as webinars that I have streamed during the past couple of years. You may have seen them, but for the course I have edited them and added pictures, keywords and captions. For the two remaining breeds I have made new videos where I present how I prepare, spin and use them.

In one of the sheep breed videos I present Helsinge sheep and look for the main characteristics of the fleece I got.
In one of the sheep breed videos I present Helsinge sheep and look for the main characteristics of the fleece I got (the image is a screen shot of the video).

Championships tour

I will also take you on a tour of the Swedish fleece championships of 2019 together with my spinning friend Anna Lindemark. We go through the fleeces in the championships, category by category, and look at what is unique to the breeds and to the individual fleeces.

My spinning friend Anna Lindemark and I invite you to a tour of the Swedish fleece championships of 2019 (the images are screenshots from the video).

A visit to a shepherdess

Another friend of mine is shepherdess and spinner Lena Hansjons. She has a flock of Dalapäls sheep and in one of the inspirational videos of the course I visit her while she shears her sheep and talk about the endangered Dalapäls breed.

I visit my spinning friend and shepherdess Lena Hansjons when she shears her Dalapäls sheep (the images are screen shots from the video).

Dalapäls sheep are also presented in one of the breed study webinars that is included in the inspirational material.

Know your fleece: Course outline

The course is organized in five themed modules which include the inspirational videos. Each module also presents an assignment you will work on with your fleece and document. When the course is over you will have produced a wool board with samples and swatches to use as a guide for when you process and spin the rest of the fleece.

When you sign up for the course you will get

  • over 5 hours of video material
    • presentations of five Swedish sheep breeds
    • a tour of the Swedish fleece championships
    • a visit to a shepherdess
  • a pdf ebook of the course
  • checklists for each assignment
  • a list of the tools I use
  • useful links to further reading.

The videos (except the visit to the shepherdess) are in English. All the videos are fully captioned in English.

Requirements and material

To take this course you need to be comfortable spinning yarn and you need basic knowledge of wool preparation. When it comes to material you need

  • a washed fleece*
  • tools for wool processing
  • knitting needles
  • notepad
  • time.

*it is up to you if you want to work with washed or unwashed fleece, but I don’t provide washing instructions in the course

This is not a course in spinning or wool preparation, it is about wool knowledge and with your fleece as a case study. You work with your fleece, at your level and with the tools you have. The work and time you invest in exploring your fleece now will bring you closer to the essence of your fleece and to making it shine.

Should I buy the course?

Buying a course is an investment. Many students of my free five-day challenge Fleece through the senses have expressed a feeling of transformation in how they look at fleece after having taken on the challenge. I hope this course will do the same for you if you buy it.

I have tried to describe the course as extensively as possible. To help you decide I have made several things available for you:

  • The course page provides information about the course. You can also see the themes and headers of the lectures in the course.
  • The course promo is available on the course page. In the promo I show you glimpses of the video material and talk about the content, purpose and goal of the course.
  • The introductory video of the course is available as a preview before you buy the course.
The introductory video of the course Know your fleece is available as a free preview.
The introductory video of the course Know your fleece is available as a free preview (the image is a screenshot of the video).

Webinar: The hand spinner’s advantage

(the webinar has already taken place)

Another way to help you decide about buying the course or not is tonight’s webinar The Hand spinner’s advantage. I will stream it live today Saturday, September 19th at 5 pm CET (world clock here). In the webinar I will talk about

  • what a fleece can teach us
  • how we as hand spinners can make the superpowers of a fleece shine
  • a mindful approach to working with fleece.

In the webinar I will also talk about the online course Know your fleece. Towards the end of the webinar I have made special course offers for you that you don’t want to miss. The offers are time-limited.

Two yarns in ten different colours. As a hand spinner I have the advantage to make the most of the fleece I work with
Two yarns in ten different colours. As a hand spinner I have the advantage to make the most of the fleece I work with. I will talk about this in the webinar The Hand spinner’s advantage.

The webinar has already taken place

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

New online course and webinar

Last week I told you I would have a big announcement this week, and I do: This Saturday, September 19th I will launch my new online course Know your fleece. It is a course in wool knowledge that is presented in five themed modules. The same day I will host a free live webinar where I talk about the handspinner’s advantage. In the webinar will also talk about the online course and give you a special offer.

Preview of the course promo for the online course Know your fleece. Enrollment opens on September 19th.

Close to 300 of you have taken the five-day challenge Fleece through the senses that I launched two weeks ago (the challenge is evergreen and open for enrollment). Last week I wrote about how participants in the challenge have appreciated the mindful approach to wool that is presented in the challenge. In addition to that, a lot of the students who accepted the challenge say they have gained a new way to look at fleece after the challenge.

The hand spinner’s advantage

As hand spinners we have the opportunity to look for the essence of a fleece and make the most of it. We can choose to divide the fleece on the basis of colour, fiber type or staple type or make one yarn quality from the whole fleece. We can investigate and find the superpowers of the fleece and make it shine.

We have an advantage, a privilege and an opportunity to get to know the fleece. By exploring a fleece we can make choices for preparation and spinning that are based on our knowledge and experience as spinners.

To me, this is a happy place. I want to be with my hands and my mind in the fleece and discover its hidden treasures. The joy of finding the soul, the essence of a fleece is what drives me to create this course. To me, working with a fleece gives me as much joy and peace of mind as spinning. It is not just something I go through to get to the spinning part. The degree to which I get to know the fleece determines how well I can portray it in a way that makes it justice. The sheep has given me the fleece and I want to make it shine. This perspective is what I want to share with you.

New online course: Know your fleece

Know your fleece, a new online course. Enrollment opens on September 19th.
Know your fleece, a new online course. Enrollment opens on September 19th.

In the course Know your fleece you will join me on my journey from fleece to yarn with the help of five Swedish sheep breeds –Gotland sheep, Gute sheep, Klövsjö sheep, Helsinge sheep and Dalapäls sheep. I invite you to investigate a fleece of your choice through five assignments. This means a lot of work for you but at the same time lots of opportunities to learn more and get a deeper understanding of working with fleece in general and your fleece in particular. I invite you to explore, investigate and be curious about the fleece you have in front of you. There is no right or wrong in this. Your fleece is unique, just as your skill level and the wool preparation and spinning tools you have available.

The purpose of this course is for you to feel more confident in handling raw fleece and planning the process from fleece to textile. The goal is to produce a wool board to use as a guide for preparing and spinning your chosen fleece.

The course is organized in five themed modules with assignments where you work with your fleece and document your findings. After the course you will be able to use your wool board as a guide when you process the rest of the fleece. The work and time you invest in exploring the fleece now will bring you closer to the essence of your fleece and to making it shine.

Requirements

To take the course you need to feel comfortable in spinning yarn and you need basic knowledge in wool preparation. This is not a spinning course and not a course in wool preparation. It is a course in wool knowledge.

Material

You need:

  • a washed* fleece to work with during the course
  • Tools for wool processing – hand cards, combs, flick cards etc. You don’t need all of the tools and not from the start. Perhaps you can borrow some from a spinning friend or from a nearby guild or buy along the way.
  • Knitting needles
  • An area to work by where you have room for your fleece.
  • Time! Invest time in this course to work with your fleece.

*You can by all means choose to work with an unwashed fleece. However, the course doesn’t cover fleece washing.

What you will get

When you enroll in the course you will get

  • videos with five Swedish sheep breeds
  • a video tour of the Swedish fleece championships
  • a video where I visit a shepherdess
  • five assignments
  • an ebook version of the course
  • downloadable assignment checklists
  • useful links to further reading.

The total playing time of the videos is over 5 hours. The videos are fully captioned in English.

Launch webinar

Two yarn types in ten colours from one single fleece. The hand spinner has the advantage to find the superpowers in a fleece and make it shine. Register for The hand spinner’s advantage – a live webinar about what a fleece can teach us.

(the webinar has already taken place)

The course launches on September 19th, which also happens to be World wide spin in public Day! To celebrate the launch and the special day I will host a live webinar for you! The theme is The hand spinner’s advantage. In the webinar I will talk about

  • what a fleece can teach us
  • how we as hand spinners can make the superpowers of a fleece shine
  • a mindful approach to working with fleece.

I will also talk about the online course Know your fleece. There will be a special course offer in the webinar. The offer is time-limited and you might want to stick around until the end of the webinar to get access to the offer. But regardless of whether you buy the course or not I hope you will enjoy the theme of the webinar!

The webinar streams live on September 19th at 5 pm CET.

The webinar has already taken place

So, to sum up– here are ways to help you decide whether you want to buy the course or not:

I hope to see you on the webinar!

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Challenge accepted

The wool is my teacher. Through trusting my hands to investigate the wool I will learn how it behaves and wants to be spun.

Last week I launched a free five-day challenge I call the Fleece through the senses challenge. Every day for five days the students get a text lesson where I reflect over an aspect of working with fleece, some examples and a task to fulfill with their own fleece as a case study. The lesson and the task takes around 15–30 minutes a day to finish. In the challenge I inspire the students to take notes of what they find when doing the tasks.

Challenge accepted

Over 200 people have enrolled in the challenge and I get new students every day. This is mind-blowing in itself – I am so thrilled that so many people are taking this opportunity to spend time with their fleeces. But in this case there was something more going on than an accepted challenge.

Comments

What I wasn’t prepared for was the response in the comments. So many students have shared their thoughts and experiences with the rest of the class. They read and get inspired by each other’s comments and I learn so much about what people are struggling with and what background they have with fleece. The classroom is packed with knowledge and experience!

It seems like students have been inspired by the previous comments to write more than they thought they would. My impression is that many students have taken the tasks seriously and spent time and energy to do the tasks thoroughly and mindfully.

A Swedish Åsen fleece, ready to be explored.
A Swedish Åsen fleece, ready to be explored.

The teacher in the classroom

When I teach in-person classes I love being the teacher. Discovering each student’s learning style and watching them develop and blossom fuels my teacher’s engine. As a course creator, though, I spend a lot of time creating the course, but once I launch it the students are to a large extent alone in the classroom. However, from the comments in this challenge I have been able to take part of the students’ individual journeys through the challenge. I get to be with them as they discover their fleeces and I get to be the teacher in the classroom! So thank you for letting me in!

Confidence to start

Many students in the challenge say that they haven’t felt they have had the confidence to start working with a fleece. This is something I have seen on a larger scale too. Some say that a fleece has felt overwhelming. Others say they have spun from fleece but have seen the pre-spinning part as something they want to skip to get to the spinning part.

I think that this feeling is quite common, especially if you have learned to spin with commercially prepared fiber. But spinning from fleece is a wonderful way to get to know the fiber, regardless of your spinning skill level. When I started spinning eight years ago I didn’t know anything about spinning. I certainly didn’t know a thing like commercially prepared fiber even existed. I got a box of newly shorn wool in my lap, a spindle and a pair of hand cards. Now, getting to know the fleece is to me an integral part of spinning that I love just as much as shaping the fibers into yarn. I can’t have one without the other.

During my spinning career I have made lots of mistakes. But I wouldn’t have learned if I hadn’t made those mistakes. Doing something that looks good tells me that it looks good. But by making a mistake I can learn why the mistake happened and how I can avoid it in the future. I have said it before and I say it again: Your mistakes are a map of what you have learned.

Sweet Rya lamb's locks waiting to be discovered.
Sweet Rya lamb’s locks waiting to be discovered.

Respect your learning process

It is easy to get frustrated by a perceived lack of knowledge. But there is knowledge! All the students in the challenge are spinners at some level. They know how to spin and how to work with the wool. Working with fleece is an opportunity to get to know the wool from the very start. And when you do take the time to get to know it, it will teach you how it wants to be spun. Or, as a student wrote, “To jump in where you are and begin learning Is the best place to start.  This means right now today”.

Teaching intermediate students means dealing with the frustration many students can express when they think they should know one aspect of a field just because they are experienced in another. But I think it is important to respect your own learning process – you can’t know all about a field from the start. You can build on what you know but you can’t take your knowledge for granted over the whole field.

Read your mind

Many of the students in the challenge have been fascinated by what they read when they take notes of what they discover in their fleeces. This happens to me every time I write a blog post. By making notes of my thoughts I need to articulate them. The thoughts become more clear in writing and when I read what I have written I make more realizations. This seems to have been the case for the students too. They have been very clear in their descriptions of how they experience their fleece and by that they have been able to make conclusions or explore further aspects.

Shades from white to dark grey and staples from crimpy to wavy in one single Värmland fleece.
Shades from white to dark grey and staples from crimpy to wavy in one single Värmland fleece.

Transformation

During the course of the five-day challenge many students seem fascinated by the transformation of the fleece from a mass of locks to something that can actually teach them something. By listening to the wool they discover the potential in the fleece and learn to understand it.

In this there also seems to be something of a personal transformation. A lot of the students say they have a new way of looking at fleece after the challenge. They see the potential of the fleece. Or, rather the potential of a potential that they will discover if they take the time to explore it. This new perspective will have a significant influence on how they look at fleece in the future. Students say they will continue to take the time to listen to and get to know the fleece and let it lead the way.

I hold this transformation particularly close to my heart. The seed to this course is the love of fleece and what it can teach us. If the challenge has helped only one person to this transformation I am over the moon.

Elin the Gestrike fleece is full of potential.
Elin the Gestrike fleece is full of potential.

Confidence to continue

While many students have expressed a lack of confidence to take on a fleece in the first lesson of the challenge, they also say they have a new confidence in the fifth and final lesson. I feel they have gained a new respect for themselves as learning beings. With open minds they show a curiousity about what their fleeces can tell them. They know that every new fleece is a journey of learning that they now are more than happy to make. And that truly warms my woolly heart.

My friend Sara wrote a blog post about her participation in the challenge together with her Gute lamb Elvis. You can read the post here.

Are you tempted to join the challenge? Find a fleece and come to the Fleece through the senses classroom!

This it what you will see when you come to the course page of the five-day challenge Fleece through the senses. This is a screenshot.

Next week I plan to make a big announcement!

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

Five-day challenge

Listen to the wool. It has a lot to teach us.

Lately I have been working a lot with course creation. I have a number of things in the pipeline, but first up is a free five-day challenge! I call it the Fleece through the senses challenge.

The challenge of a fleece

I love working with fleece. It gives me the opportunity to discover its characteristics layer by layer. From the questions people ask me I get the sense that many spinners are afraid of doing things the wrong way when it comes to working from a raw fleece. My usual answer to questions about how to do this or that is to try, compare and see what happens. Experiment and analyze, let your hands explore and see what information they can get from listening to the wool.

I know that there is so much to learn from really digging deep into a fleece. Every time I meet a new fleece I learn something new that helps me understand how wool works in general and the fleece that I work with in particular. I want to share the joy of working from raw fleece all the way to a spun yarn. At the same time, I realize that the thought of approaching a fleece can seem a bit daunting if you haven’t done it before. To offer some support and structure I have created this five-day challenge where you work with your own fleece (or part of a fleece) as a case study.

Listen to the wool. It has a lot to teach us.
Listen to the wool. It has a lot to teach us.

Fleece through the senses

I call the challenge the Fleece through the senses challenge. I do believe in experiencing a fleece through looking, feeling and especially listening to the wool and all it can tell me if I just let it. This challenge is intended for both spinners who are curious about working with a fleece and spinners who do work with fleece and want to try a new approach.

Five-day challenge

In the challenge you will get five text lessons over five days. Each lessons has a theme where I write about an aspect of working with a fleece through the senses. In each lesson you will also get a task to work with. My recommendation is that you work 15–30 minutes with the task, but nothing stops you from working longer than that of course.

The course page of the Fleece through the senses challenge.
This is what you will see when you get to the course page (this is a screen shot).

Each day of the challenge the lesson will be available at the challenge page at midnight UTC. If you enroll in the challenge after that you will get access to the lesson the next day. 15 hours after the lesson has become available to you you will get an email about it.

You need a fleece or part of a fleece (washed or unwashed) to go through the challenge and around 15–30 minutes a day to work with it. You also need pen and paper to take notes of your findings.

The purpose of the challenge is for you to learn more about the knowledge you can get access to if you give yourself time to discover a fleece with your senses. The goal is to peel the layers of a fleece of your own and write down what you have found. My hope is that after you have finished the challenge you will get a sense of what working with a fleece can be like or, even better, you want to continue approaching fleece the way I have come to love.

Enroll in the five-day challenge here!

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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Posted on

A fleece meditation

“I have a fleece from my young ewe Elin that I think you should have”, said Claudia, a shepherdess of Swedish Gestrike sheep. This happens every now and then. One of the advantages of being known in the spinning world is that shepherdesses trust me with their fleeces and they are curious of what I make of them. In this post I dive deep into the fibers in a fleece meditation.

The ladies and the elements

Claudia and I have met a few times since then but life has happened and the fleece stayed with Claudia. A global crisis came in the way. Eventually and with a little (or a lot) help from a friend Claudia managed to get the fleece to me. Claudia’s friend Kristina – also a spinner – was going to Stockholm where she studies and Claudia asked me if I could meet Kristina outside her school. Of course, I said. The bike ride would do me good.

So, we settled on a Tuesday in the end of April. I imagined a lovely bike ride through town, crisp birch leaves and cherry blossom edging the bike path and the fresh spring air welcoming my face in its midst. As it turned out, it was one of the most dramatic days of spring, weather wise – grinning rain, hail and icy winds had Stockholm in a firm grip, playing with its tousled inhabitants. The birches and the cherry trees were still there of course, but not in the atmosphere I had imagined. Still, a fleece was waiting for me and there wasn’t much I could do.

Embracing the hail as good as I could muster I hopped on the bike and pedaled my way in to town in sheer determination. I met Kristina, chatted for a while and went home with the fleece in the bike bag. An hour and 17 kilometers after I had left home I was back again. A bit cold, a bit wet, but richer in fleece and fresh air.

A raw fleece in dirty black and white.
The raw fleece from the Gestrike ewe Elin forms the beginning of a fleece meditation.

A bath

The fleece of the Gestrike sheep Elin is now in our house, filling the house with the soft smell of sheep and the promise of hours of gentle touch, creative work and new experiences.

Before I put Elin in the washtub I balanced her on the scales. 1,7 kilos, quite a large fleece for a Swedish heritage breed. I assumed some of the weight would wash out with the soaking water.

Soak

I filled the washtub with warm water in the bathroom – it is still a bit too cold to soak wool outdoors. As I gently pressed the sticky fleece down into the tub the water streamed up from underneath, found its path between the fibers, pressing the abruptly awoken dirt out of the staples and into the gushing water, creating reddish brown whirls which slowly shaped echoes of the locks.

A girl should have her privacy in the bath, so I left her in the tub for around fifteen minutes. When I came back I could hardly see her anymore. Gone was the clear water and the brown whirls. All that was left was a luke warm sea the colour of yesterday’s coffee with a few floating islands of wet wool lurking by the surface like frogs waiting for juicy flies. Between the islands were accumulations of soapy foam created by the union of the salty suint and the warm water.

Rinse

I gently squeezed the water out of the heavy water-saturated wool mass and filled the tub with fresh water. I repeated the process three more times, brown whirls fading slightly for each new soak. By the third rinse the water was clear and the wet locks distinctly visible in the tub, black and white staples shining like herrings in a school.

Spin-dry

After another squeeze I moved the shapeless wad into the washing machine to spin-dry it. Fifteen minutes later I opened the drum and was presented a bursting cloud of wool all the way up to the edge. Gone was the pile of sticky staples. Instead I saw before me an airy muchness of creative prospectives, inviting me to explore them.

A clean fleece in black and white.
Elin’s fleece is now clean an a lot lighter.

When I weighed the fleece again I was shocked of the number the pointer stayed at – 1,2 kilos. Gone were 500 grams of lanolin, sweat salts and short bits of fiber. My fleece was freed of half a kilo of gunk that I happily donated to the garden beds as fertilizer. My heart sings of the prospect of a flax harvest invigourated by dirty wool soak.

The fibers

Most of the staples had proud, gently waved outercoat, collected like the straws in a paint brush and air-filled hoopskirt undercoat, ready to embrace anyone who needed their warmth.

Black and white wool staples.
A few members of the Elin dance company.

Outercoat

The fibers are bundled up together to bring protection to the sheep. Some of the strands are long, proud and glistening, aspiring for length to protect the sheep from rain. I close my eyes and imagine the clusters of outercoat almost taking aim at the falling drops, competing about being the team to lead the wet intruder away from the body they have been set to protect.

Separated wool staples.
Dissected staples of Elin’s fleece – a whole staple, outercoat and undercoat.

Undercoat

Other fibers are fine, winding their way through the fiber collective, changing directions unpredictably, forming a billowing multitude of soft warmth to keep the wind and cold at bay. Together with air they fulfill their task with gentle determination.

Kemp

A third kind of fiber can be seen occasionally. Black, brittle and sprawly. This is the kemp, the oddball in the family. The kemp works with the other fibers, keeping the staple upright for additional protection against the elements and allowing more air to enter their fibery togetherness.

A microscope picture of wool fibers.
Strong and straight outercoat, fine and winding undercoat and coarse and brittle kemp, all working together to create the best conditions possible for the sheep.

The fibers look and work differently, yet in cooperation to protect the sheep they once grew on.

A fleece meditation: If I were a sheep

If I think of myself as the sheep the fibers are assigned to protect, how would I arrange them to do the same for me? How would I take advantage of their respective characteristics to create a garment that is for me what the fleece was to the sheep?

A staple of wool.
A fleece meditation.

Look at this picture for a moment. Long and strong outercoat, soft and warm undercoat. That means something. These fibers can be prepared, spun and arranged to their advantage and to give me the best protection. Soft, winding undercoat carefully carded into a pillowy rolag, kemp occasionally peaking out. Long and strong outercoat combed parallel into a bird’s nest.

A combed top and a rolag.
The beginning of the journey to a new textile. Outercoat and undercoat separated and processed.

When I close my eyes and feel a staple of Elin’s carefully selected wool in my hands I sense the different characteristics of the fibers. I envision a woven textile. In my mind I see the strong outercoat fibers as warp and the soft undercoat as weft.

Two shuttles with yarn. One light and airy, one dark and sleek.
Warp and weft. Separated but still together.

A dream of twill

I see twill. Fine singles, winding their way across the fabric. On one side the outercoat dominates – three over, one under – protecting me from the falling rain. The other side soft from the undercoat, keeping me warm and safe, kemp making sure there is room for air. Perhaps the fabric is slightly fulled to protect me even further. The two sides have different superpowers and different colours.

A woven twill sample.
A baby swatch, full of possibilities, waiting to grow into a mature fabric.

Claudia tells me that one of her ewes has a lot less outercoat than the rest of the flock. This sheep prefers to stay protected under a spruce when it rains while the downpour doesn’t bother her sisters. I want to be able to stand in the rain like the sheep, protected from the elements by an ingenious design that has worked for millennia.

A white wool staple with tips pointing in different directions.
The processing of Elin’s fleece could go in many different directions.

Eventhough the fibers in my textile would be disassembled and put together again in just one of many fashions, they would still work together. Their novel composition for a two-legged creature would still serve the same purpose: To keep me protected.

Meanwhile, Elin is generously growing a new fleece that shields her and that can be harvested again.

Stay safe and happy spinning!

You can follow 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.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other 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.
  • 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.