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Sheep with stories

Gunvor the Gestrike ewe who was my longitudinal fleece study sheep

Many of the fleeces I buy come from sheep with stories, and it is these fleeces that bring that extra depth to whatever I make from it. Today I share some of those stories.

Pia-Lotta I, II and III

The first fleece I got was at a city farm where I took my very first spinning lesson. I got a box in my lap, filled to the brim with small and crimpy staples. The name Pia-Lotta was written on the side. Pia-lotta was a Swedish finull lamb, just relieved of her wooly fleece and skipping about outside the barn where we sat.

A woman shearing a white sheep.
A woman spinning yarn, silk fibers are folded over her index finger. She is wearing a teal knitted sweater with a wrap front.
On a course in small-scale sheep farming back in 2015 I got to shear Pia-Lotta the Finull sheep. One of the things I made of her fleece was a Shift of focus sweater by Veera Välimäki.

Pia-Lotta wasn’t supposed to live beyond the summer, though. She wasn’t one of the lucky ones that would be allowed to stay at the farm. But just as a large van was coming to take her and her friends to slaughter, the sheep farmer changed her mind. The much loved ram who had fathered her had been bullied to death by some local children, and Pia-Lotta looked so much like him that the sheep farmer couldn’t bear losing her too. From that first fleece and a few more of hers after that I spun yarn for a couple of sweaters, a pair of mittens, an array of hats and a Fair Isle vest. Since then, Finull wool always makes my heart tingle and sprinkle memories from my first years of spinning.

Gunvor, queen of stripes

I asked a sheep farming friend of mine, Claudia, if I could buy fleeces from one of her Gestrike sheep over a few of years to see how the wool changed over time. Claudia picked out Gunvor, a lamb born white with large black spots. I got her first and second shearings. I used them both in the same project – a pair of pants with black and white stripes. The pants have been traditional in the Moroccan High Atlas, and Irene Waggener has adapted the orally transferred description for a western audience in her book Keepers of the Sheep. Women spun the wool on traditional spindles and their husbands, usually shepherds, knit the pants.

Gunvor the Gestrike ewe who was my longitudinal fleece study sheep
Gunvor the Gestrike ewe who was my longitudinal fleece study sheep. The life through her first two shearings shows in the fading stripes of my pants.

I used a Navajo style floor spindle to spin and ply the bulky yarn.The black spots in Gunvor’s fleece had faded some in the second shearing, something that is common with the breed. I placed the black stripes in a gradient with black at the bottom and lighter up the legs.

Unfortunately, Gunvor got two diseases that were painful for her and not advisable to breed on, so she had to be taken away. Her life as well as my project was cut short. But afterwards I realized that I did get a study of the changing of the wool over time after all, in the way I had placed the stripes in the pants. I wear them in the winter when I go down to the lake to take an ice bath, smiling all the way in my warm and wooly stripes.

Härvor full of cuddles

Härvor is also a sheep in Claudia’s flock. I met her a year ago when I first came for a photo shoot for my book and a few days later helped Claudia on shearing day. Härvor has the loveliest, rustic grey fleece, quite typical for the breed with conical staples with airy and warm undercoat and long and strong outercoat.

sheep with horns, black face and light grey wool.
A paper bag full of newly shorn grey fleece.
White and medium grey yarn.
The Gestrike sheep Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. One skein of Härvor’s yarn (here together with yarn from the white Doris in the same flock) is part of a secret project.

Härvor is the cuddliest sheep. She was a bit sceptical at first, but then she kept coming to me, poking me until I placed my arms around her neck. How could I then not smuggle her fleece back home? I have spun one skein as part of a secret project.

Lotta and the red barn door

Last autumn I taught a beginner’s class in suspended spindle spinning in Uppsala, just north of Stockholm. One of the students, Åsa, has a flock of Svärdsjö sheep and on day two of the course she brought a couple of bags of fleece from her girls. Svärdsjö wool is usually white with fine and glittering wool in curly staples that sometimes curl back on themselves like ringlets. One fleece, though, stood out. The Svärdsjö glitter was there, but the staples were open and airy and had quite long outercoat fibers. Lotta was the name of the sheep. On a few places the wool was red since Lotta had a favourite barn door she liked to scratch her side against.

A pile of shiny white wool in front of the fireplace.
A pair of knitted sleeves in natural white yarn and a star pattern made of knits and purls. Two balls of yarn between the sleeves.
The glittering (and occasionally reddish) locks of Lotta’s fleece are becomingyarn for a Danish night sweater with its typical stitch and star pattern.

I bought the 1200 grams of wool and spent several hours picking it while I listened to an audiobook by Valérie Perrin. I spun it into a soft and fine 2-ply yarn for a Danish night sweater. As I approached the middle of the torso I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn. I contacted Åsa and she sent me 300 grams from this year’s shearing of Lotta’s fleece. There were no red stains in this batch. However, Lotta seems to have scratched against the ground instead – I found of dark granules between the fibers. Luckily the fleece is quite open and a lot of the vegetable matter fell out as I picked the fleece while listening to Jane Eyre. The rest will fall out during teasing and carding.

Frida in my arms

I met Frida in April when I helped my friend Lena on shearing day. Lena shears her flock of Dalapäls sheep with hand shears and I was happy to help while my husband Dan took photos for the book. I started with Parisa, two years old and with very long and airy staples. Since it was so late in the spring, the lanolin was thick and waxy and a struggle to shear. On day two I turned to eleven year old Frida, Lena’s oldest sheep, whose fleece was a lot finer and airier and easier to work with.

Hands shearing a sheep.
A woman spinning on a walking wheel. A basket next to the wheel.
A light blue skein of yarn.
From shearing through spinning and dyeing with Frida the 11-year-old Dalapäls sheep.

Dalapäls sheep is a forest breed with a distinctive flock mentality. They pay close attention to potential predators, as they should – this flock lives on wolf territory. I wouldn’t be able to come close to any of Lena’s Dalapäls sheep. But on shearing day Lena drives them into the narrow shearing pen where they have no way to go and I get to lean my body against the sheep I am shearing, feeling her warmth and her sheepiness.

A few months later I met my walking wheel for the first time. In my basket I had fourty-nine glittering rolags of Frida’s wool ready for a dance with the wheel. And we waltzed and twirled until the basket was empty. As a final step I dyed the skein with my homegrown fresh indigo leaves.

Tvaga of the Baltic sea

On yet another photo shoot visit to a sheep farm I met Tvaga the Brännö sheep. Dan and I visited Louise who lives in an archipelago a couple of hours north of Stockholm. Louise picked us up in her boat and took us to three different island where some of her sheep were grazing. On the final island, where Louise lives, I met Tvaga, a lamb. Or, I should perhaps say I saw her, she was too shy to answer my invitations. But I watched her sweet lamb locks in a gradient from white to almost black and knew I wanted to explore it. I asked Louise if she could spare it and before I knew it I got Tvaga’s fleece in the mail.

A white and grey lamb.
Staples of wool in white and different shades of grey. The staples differ in length and crimp too.
The staples from Tvaga the Brännö sheep comes in a range of colours, lengths and crimps.

As I picked the fleece, probably to the Jane Eyre audiobook too, I found not only different shades of grey, but a range of both lenght and crimp. I could have divided the fleece in numerous categories. However, the fleece was only 850 grams and I settled for three colour categories – white, light grey and medium grey. Perhaps there won’t be much difference between the greys and I might settle for only two categories.

Sheep with stories

All these stories add depth and dimensions to the spinning experience. Having met the sheep, walked its pastures or heard the sheep owned tell stories about the character of an individual gives the fleece life and an added value that is, in fact, invaluable. By having the fibers and the stories go through my hands I feel rich. The wool becomes so much more than just a material. It is a partner in craft and a song in my heart.

Happy spinning!

You can find me in seveal social media:

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

During the past year Dan and I have visited sheep owners to take photos of Swedish sheep breeds for my book, Listen to the Wool. Today I invite you into the forest for a photo shoot of a forest breed, Åsen sheep.

Dan and I go to see Milis and her 24 Åsen sheep. The breed used to be bundled with Gestrike, Helsinge, Värmland and Svärdsjö sheep as skogsfår, forest sheep, but since the end of the 20th century they are all considered individual breeds.

Into the forest we go

Milis keeps half of her Åsen flock in the forest a ten minute drive from her house. The forest belongs to Per who wants it grazed. When we get there we are struck by the openness of the forest – the understory and the forest floor are light and airy and the light magical.

Per takes the lead with a bucket full of bribes as we walk along paths the sheep have paved through the vegetation. Silently, as not to scare the sheep who become nearly wild during the summer, we wade through waist high fern and duck under hazel branches.

A man taking photos of grey sheep in the forest.
The Åsen sheep stand patiently while Dan gets some lovely photos of them.

After ten minutes into the forest we come to a hill with a collection of stones, rounder than the ones we have passed on the way and in all shades of grey. Curious black heads rise from between them, and we realize the stones are the sheep themselves. They see Per and know it means treats, but they also see Dan and stay, linger. Dan is used to lingering sheep by now and has his telephoto lens ready. They flaunt their clean and shiny fleeces and Dan gets beautiful shots despite the distance. When he has what he needs Per offers his bribes to the flock and they tumble around the bucket, toss it into the air and empty it in seconds. We walk back in silence, all I can hear is my heart tingling.

For the love of wool

Milis has decades of experience as a spinner and bought her sheep 24 years ago for the sake of their wool. She documents the wool meticulously and uses it all herself, mostly for weaving. That means the fleeces of 24 sheep twice a year. We talk about the treasure that her wool is, about all the work that is put into its quality. Milis and her husband have changed the way they feed the sheep during the winter, to keep the food out of the fleeces. When I look at the wall of baskets full of wool I see no sign of vegetation matter in the flora of greys. All I can see is the treasure her wool is and the love, skill and dedication she has put into it.

Singing the song of wool

Just as the other Swedish heritage breeds, wool from Åsen sheep can be very versatile, between flocks and individuals as well as over the body of the same sheep. The quality also differs between seasons and years. Usually they grow quite a lot of undercoat during the winter to keep the body warm. At the same time, the wool can be of lower quality due to pregnancies, but this year the sheep haven’t been served by the ram and all the nutrients have gone to the sheep themselves. This year’s spring shearing is spectacular with its abundance of airy undercoat, glistening with lanolin.

Raw sampels from four of Milis’ spring shorn Åsen sheep. She says these have a lot more undercoat than the autumn shorn wool.

I get to take samples from four fleeces and I treasure them like diamonds. As I write this piece, the sheepy smell fills the room and my heart with a song that only a spinner can hear.

Tack Milis!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

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

I spend a weekend at Lena’s place, helping her shear her Dalapäls sheep while Dan skips around taking photos for my upcoming book Listen to the wool. I shear Parisa, Orkidé and Frida and learn from the wool producers themselves.

Dan and I drive an hour or so south to Lena, an experienced spinner, and her ten Dalapäls ewes. Usually she shears them a lot earlier, perhaps in early March, a few weeks before lambing. This year, though, the sheep are not in gestation, for the first time since she got them 18 years ago. Therefore there is no rush in getting them shorn.

Shearing prep

Since Lena got the sheep she has most of the time shorn them herself twice a year with hand shears. She has never owned a shearing table. Instead, she has simply placed the sheep in her lap and started shearing where she could and in no particular order. This time, though, she has borrowed two home-made shearing tables and is super excited. We place them facing each other in the middle of the narrow shearing pen. They have a remarkable resemblance to sheep.

A pen with two shearing tables, surrounded by baskets, boxes and bowls with apples.
The shearing tables that look like sheep. We’re all set for bringing out the flock.

We bring out the newly sharpened shears, boxes for spinning wool and garden wool respectively, pens to mark the boxes with the sheep’s names, all sorts of bribes, and fence in the narrow shearing pen. All the while Dan sharpens his lenses, ready to portray the flock.

A to Q

When Lena got the sheep she gave them names beginning with the letter A, and every year the names of the lambs begin with the next letter of the alphabet. Usually visiting children get to name them. Her oldest sheep now is Ester and the youngest Quinoa. Before Lena lets the sheep out from the shed I peak inside and meet Quinoa’s curious-cautious eyes.

Portrait of a white sheep peeking out from a loose board in a sheep shed. There is hay and straw in her fleece.
Quinoa peaks out from the sheep shed before we let them out to the shearing pen.

Lena herds the flock from the shed, through the larger pen and into the narrow pen. After a few minutes of sizzling and bleating, the sheep quieten and all we can hear is soft chewing. Lena shears Ester’s fine fleece while I work on the considerably younger Parisa, only 2 years old. The names come from two of Lena’s grandchildren. Since the sheep have had access to silage in a trough indoors during the winter, there is a lot of hay in their locks and we start by brushing the fleeces to remove some of it. The rhythmic motions seem to have a calming effect on the girls.

I shear

I have tried shearing twice before. The first time on a course in small-scale sheep farming back in 2014 (where it took three people three hours to shear one sheep). The second time was with Lena five years later, with her signature lap technique. I started, but after a while the sheep slithered away from my inexperienced grip. Lena caught her and had no trouble shearing two sheep in her lap.

Now, another five years later I am not sure whether I am any help to Lena or actually a burden. But even if my shearing skills need some sharpening, I know I can assist her where she needs an extra pair of hands.

Close-up of two half-mittened hands shearing a white sheep. Ridges across the body where the fleece is already shorn.
After a while I find a technique that works for me. In the upper right corner you can see how the fleece is denser toward the spine. Photo by Dan Waltin.

Parisa ruminates calmly as I place the shears with a trembling hand across her back. The rest of the sheep huddle together and mind their own business. Quinoa gently nibbles at the pull tab on my my leg pocket zipper.

The beginning is tricky; I need to find a spot along the spine where I can insert the tips of the shears in the dense fleece and open sort of a path from back to front. Once I have that it’s easier to follow and broaden. I fiddle, but after a while I find a method that works. Parisa is warm and and calm under my hands, and helps me find my confidence and work on my skills to make both her and the shorn fleece pretty. The lanolin glistens in the spring sun and my skin enjoys the moisturizing.

In the living room

Here I am, belly to belly with the sheep who has produced this magnificent wool as a shield against the elements, and it is my duty and privilege to free her of it. I won’t get any closer to the wool than this. I am in Parisa’s living room, exploring her habits through what I find – what seeds and plants are common in her pasture, what’s on the menu in her silage and what side she likes to sleep on. It’s all there.

Two sets of wool staples, one with around 8 centimeter rectangular shaped fine and crimpy staples. The other cone shaped, over 20 centimeter and straight with a wide base and narrow tips.
Typical staples from Frida (left) and Parisa (right).

What’s more, I get to experience the wool right on her back. I learn how the wool behaves and what wool quality grows where on her body, while she is breathing and chewing right underneath my hands. I go through every fiber with the shears, transforming them from her shield to a product for me. In return for this invaluable gift I have the responsibility to translate it into a shield for me, into the best yarn I can possibly make from the superpowers of this magnificent wool.

A woman spinning white wool straight from the newly shorn fleece, the sheep standing on the shearing table with the shorn fleece hanging down her sides.
I soak in everything I learn from Parisa’s wool as I shear. Photo by Dan Waltin

As I slowly shear my way through the layers of wool I find and remove larger pieces of vegetation matter, poo and my own second cuts. The wool I place in the bag is wonderfully clean and airy, the wool I remove will serve as fertilizer and soil improvement for my garden beds. For every inch I shear I learn something new. I welcome and cherish what Parisa has to teach me through her wool, right there in her living room.

Follow the curves

I do quite well over the back and down across the sides in sort of a saddle shape. But all of a sudden, the belly curves and I find myself shearing further and further from the skin. The thick fleece does nothing to help me understand the shape of the body and I need to change the angle and rethink my path for every layer I shear. Even further down the belly the skin is looser and the risk of breaking it is higher.

A hand reaching out to a newly shorn white sheep amongst in-shorn sheep.
A newly shorn Parisa.

Shearing truly takes concentration. Concave shapes around the leg insertions make me sweat and I shear smaller and smaller amounts with longer and longer pauses to breathe and assess where to go next. Parisa is approaching the height of her fleece denseness age (which I have leaned is around 3–4 years of age), but it turns out that her fleece gets even more challenging to penetrate; towards the belly the wool suddenly becomes considerably thicker and greasier, and I find it hard to even find a spot to insert the shears. Lena comes to my rescue and does the most difficult parts – belly, crotch, udders and neck.

As we finally open the neck holder and Parisa skips down on the ground, her flock sisters curiously sniff the assumed newcomer and start butting her. She is soon followed by Ester and the butting ceases slightly.

Spring and autumn shearing

We have a nourishing soup lunch in the afternoon sun and get back to work with another couple of sheep – Lena shears Nehne (whose autumn fleece I bought a couple of years ago to finish my two-end knitted jacket sleeves) and I Orkidé (Swedish for orchid). Her wool is even longer and a little more tricky to shear than Parisa’s, but I have a better technique now and my confidence is heightened.

Usually spring shorn wool has a lower quality than the autumn shorn wool. This has to do with the cold that results in more lanolin, indoor feeding, which can end up in the fleece, and gestation, where the fetuses can take lots of the nutrients. Since these ladies aren’t in gestation this year, the wool has an even quality over the length of the staples, be it a little greasier and with a little more vegetation matter. Lena reminds herself to buy silage without timothy next winter; we find lots of the miniature cigarrs that, tangled in a fleece, are ticking seed bombs.

Bad time for shearing

Both Parisa and Orkidé have patches of extremely dense wool, especially under the belly and along the spine, that Lena has never experienced before with her sheep. She asks around in social media and understands that April and May are the worst months for shearing sheep – this is peak lanolin time, while June is a month where the greasiest outgrowth has grown past the skin and left less greasy outgrowth underneath, according to some of the replies. Rumour has it that shearing in June works like butter.

A white sheep on a shearing table. She is shorn in a semi-circle shape across her back.
I work faster and more efficient as I shear Orkidé. Still, she has denser fleece and I need Lena’s help towards the belly, crotch and neck.

I give up on Orkidé way sooner than I did with Parisa – the lower side and belly wool is impossible to penetrate and I ask Lena to take over. She is of course way more experienced than I, and I assume the sheep feel safer with her fiddling with scissors at their crotches than a complete stranger and hopeless beginner. This doesn’t mean I can’t help, though – while Lena gives Orkidé a well needed pedicure I drape myself softly over the freshly shorn back like a weighted blanket. She calms down and I can feel her belly rumble against mine.

When Orkidé finally skips down from the table, shorn and trimmed, tiredness hits me in the head with a hammer. I realize I have focused deeply snip by snip for 2 x 2 hours.

Predators

Dalapäls sheep have traditionally grazed in the forest. For this reason they have a strong sense of the flock and are watchful for predators. We are in fact in wolf territory, and since a couple of years Lena brings her flock indoors every night. Her chicken coop next to the sheep pen is empty – all the chickens were taken a couple of years ago by what Lena believes to have been a ferret.

The flock instinct becomes very clear on the second day when we let them out from their shed. The aim is to drive them through the larger pen into the narrower shearing pen. The flock rushes out into the larger pen, but refuses to go into the shearing pen. They circle like a school of fish, constantly huddling fleece to fleece. Lena places me (the assumed preadator) in one corner of the larger pen while she herds them towards the other end and the entrance to the shearing pen.

Mud, grease and manure

After about ten minutes she succeeds and we can close the gate and scooch the next sheep onto the table. We choose Frida, who is old and has quite fine fleece that is considerably easier to shear than the fleeces of the two younger ewes I worked with the day before. We work together from the start this time – Lena with the hardcore spots and I on the breezy back and sides.

Old hands shearing the side of a white sheep with red shears.
A white sheep being shorn on a shearing table. A grey-haired woman stands on the shearing table and bends over the back of the sheep.
Lena’s skilled hands work swiftly across Frida’s body.

I’m tired today, my brain has worked overtime and processed all through the night. The rain makes my lanoliny hands slippery, the photos I take are all blurry through greasy lenses. But Frida’s fine fleece is so much easier to get through, though, and Lena and I have found a way to work together with a mutual understanding of what needs to be done and where. Frida is old and has more concave parts and loose skin. I need to find ways through the hollows and take extra care not to cut through her skin. As Lena does the hoof service with her rose snips, I once again drape myself over the warm sheep back. Lena decides to hold the shearing for the remaining five sheep a few weeks to see if it works better in June.

When Dan and I go back home we have two bags of manure in the trunk, beside a bag of poopy wool and two bags of spinning wool. Not many people would know what a treasure that is. A wave of gratitude rushes through me, for all I have learned from both two- and four-legged friends.

Tack, Lena!

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

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

I visited my shepherdess friend Claudia friend twice recently. The first time for my husband Dan to take pictures for my upcoming book Listen to the wool, the second time to help her on shearing day. Join me in exploring the sweet breath of wool.

If you are a patron (or want to become one) you can see more of Härvor’s fleece in my October 2023 video postcard.

Sunday

We drive out in the countryside, Dan and I. Autumn has started to reveal its favourite colours of yellow and red amongst the green. We pass pastures, fields and forests as the road ahead us gets narrower. When we arrive at our destination we stand before another pasture. A flock of sheep and three horses graze quietly and peacefully in it.

Images

We are here to take pictures of Claudia’s flock of Värmland and Gestrike sheep. Claudia and her partner Roger greet us and welcome us into her flock’s living room. The horses don’t mind our presence. A sub group of the sheep flock, brown in colour, approach us with curious muzzles, others, grey, stay at the back fence, munching apples from the neighbour’s garden.

The curious Värmland sheep are the first to greet us as we arrive at the pasture. The horses join them.

Claudia tells us that the behaviours of the breeds are remarkably different – while the Värmland sheep are instantly curious and up for adventures, the Gestrike ladies are more reserved, at least in the beginning. Both breeds are quite cuddly, though, and after a while I am surrounded by both brown and grey sheep, all nudging me for attention. Another muzzle pokes me gently in the back. It’s one of the Icelandic horses who wants to be part of the party.

Muzzles

As I dig my hands into the thick fleece of Härvor the Gestrike sheep I feel her warmth spread through the fibers into my hands. The lanolin glistens in the October sun, the smell of sheep slows my heart down into a pleasant calm. Härvor’s head is close to mine, I feel her exhale warm against my cheek. We exchange breaths, hers become my inhale and mine become hers. Her fleece encloses my hands, the staples she has grown since the spring shearing. The nutrients in the pasture have fed her through the summer, helping her create a fleece that has protected her against the elements.

Härvor the Gestrike sheep comes a-cuddling.

Another poke in my back from the horse, my arms around three woolly necks, my chest bursting with sheep joy. Meanwhile, Dan skips around in the distance and gets some lovely shots. After over 200 pictures both of us still have a hard time leaving the flock. But we do. Before we go back home,though, we have the loveliest chat with Roger and Claudia in their greenhouse, surrounded by the branches of a mulberry tree, accompanied by tea and apple cake. As we go back home my heart beats in tune with the memory of Härvor’s sheepy and warm exhale so close to mine.

Thursday

I take another ride to the countryside, this time by bus. The morning is a bit nippy and I put on my Värmland wool half mitts. As I arrive at Claudia’s I hear the buzzing of the shearing machine in the barn. A couple of brown and naked sheep trot around the farm yard, half insecurely, half bossily butting each other and bleating in their seemingly new and wool-less flock. The autumn shearing has already started.

Harvest

Roger hands Elin the shearer the next sheep as Claudia gathers the previously shorn sheep’s summer coat off the barn floor. I place my backpack in a sheep safe place and get to work. Claudia hands me the fresh fleece and a paper bag with the sheep’s name written on it. As I receive the wool harvest I feel its warmth as if it were still on the sheep. The bundle moves softly in my arms, breathing, like a being of its own.

Wool wealth

I spread the treasure onto a grid and start picking out whatever vegetation matter, second cuts, felted parts and poo I can find in the short time Elin the shearer shears the next sheep. As soon as the shearing machine stops buzzing I know it’s time to put the fleece in its bag and be ready for the next one from Claudia, together with a bag with another name and the date of the shearing hastily scribbled onto it. Some of the bags have crossed-over names with older dates. For just a couple a minutes I get to survey each fleece and get a glimpse of their characteristics.

Värmland wool mittens and Värmland fleece.

The bag I get together with the next armful of body warm fleece has the name Härvor written on it. My heart tingles as I take in the wool wealth with all my senses, inhaling the moment, feeling all the summer days the wool has protected her.

The fleeces from Härvor and Doris the Gestrike ewes (left and center) and Sylvester the Gestrike ram (right).

In the corner of my eye I watch slim bodies with their true colours revealed poking around in the paper bags. The new fleece they produce will protect them during the winter months, perhaps it will also protect a new life that will grow in their wombs.

Härvor and her fleecless friends. Sylvester the Gestrike ram right behind her.

After the 35 minutes it takes Elin to shear the 14 sheep we have soup and a chat in Claudia’s kitchen. Elin tells us about what breeds she doesn’t enjoy shearing. Apparently Dorpers are a nuisance and the Disney-like Valais black nose bulky and wooly on every inch of their bodies, not to mention a hazard with their unreliable horns. This is a kitchen of warmth, and I don’t mean from the steaming soup only.

Coming home

Two bags come home with me on the bus. The names Härvor and Doris are written on them. I am sure they haven’t taken the bus before, let alone the metro. I giggle as I think about the adventure they are on as we approach Stockholm Central station for the last change of transportation.

Härvor and Doris take the bus with me back home to the city.

I spread Härvor’s fleece onto the balcony floor when I get home. The last rays of sun peak through the thin foliage, casting a golden shimmer onto the locks. I see staples long and conical, short and crimpy, white, gray and anthracite. Claudia calls this kind of fleece a household fleece – its versatility opens up for a wide variety of textiles that a household might need.

When I have finished admiring Härvor’s loose locks I press them all down into a tub of warm water. The soapy suint feels slippery against my skin. A welcome air of wet wool puffs toward my face as I lean over the tub.

A breath of wool

During my evening yoga practice I can feel the familiar smell filling the living room, where I have placed the fleece to dry on a compost grid under the table. My mind sweeps me back to the Sunday pasture, I close my eyes and imagine digging my hands into Härvor’s soft locks, once again feeling her breath sweetly whiffing against my cheek.

It dawns on me that I wouldn’t be a spinner without sheep like her or sheep farmers like Claudia. The fleece Härvor grows and gifts to me and the love, dedication and hard work Claudia puts into her sheep and pastures make me a better spinner. How could I then not spin this wool from my heart? How could I then not create the best yarn Härvor’s fleece can be? How could I then not return the gift by sharing my words with the world? In my mind I lean in and hear Härvor whisper softly: ”Listen to the wool”. And I will. There is my answer, there is my connection, back to the pastures, back to the soft breath and whisper of the wool.

Thank you Claudia for your generosity!

Fleece for sale!

Claudia has fleeces for sale from the shearing. They are remarkably clean and of high quality and I would buy them all if I had the time and the space. Crotch and belly wool has been removed and also any poopy bits and visible vegetable matter that can be found in roughly two minutes. The fleeces come as they are, raw. The lanolin content in the Swedish landrace and heritage breed is quite low and they can be washed in water only.

The sale of the fleeces brings in money to keep the sheep happy and fed during the winter.

If you want to buy a fleece from Claudia’s flock you can email her: info (at) swedishwoolbroker dot com

Happy spinning!

You can find me in several social media:

  • This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
  • My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
  • I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
  • I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
  • On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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Connection

Through learning, sharing and making I often feel a strong connection to the spinning students in my classroom as well as to past and present spinners around me.

Just recently I taught a two-day course in floor spindle spinning. There were seven students in the classroom, with varying degrees of spinning experience. Through wool, wool preparation, spinning and learning we all felt a strong connection to each other as spinners.

Knitting in my hands and teaching on my schedule. The Gandhi quote on my trolley reads “Every revolution of the wheel spins peace, goodwill and love”.

Connection through sheep

My very generous friend Lena was one of the students. She lives near the church school where I taught the class and had brought a soup for us to share at lunch break. She had also brought beautiful raw fleece from her gene bank flock of the Swedish conservation breed dalapäls sheep that we prepared and spun in the course.

Lena’s dalapäls sheep. Screenshot from video shot in 2019.

Lena told us tales about the sheep and the shearing. Usually she shears the sheep herself with hand sheers, which tends to take around an hour for one sheep, but this year she had booked a professional shearer to do the job.

Seed pods with nasty barbs.

Just a few days before the shearing the sheep had walked through a patch of some sort of plant that spread its seed pods with the help of barbs. Suddenly all sheep were covered in nasty little seed pods that had caught the fleece with the barbs. Lena had to brush every sheep for an hour each to get rid of as many seeds as possible. Even if there were still some seeds left, the brushing left the shorn fleeces very clean.

The light room is ready for day two of the spinning course, with Lena’s dalapäls wool in the middle of the circle.

Through Lena’s stories we connected to the wool in the basket in the middle of our spinning circle, as well as to the sheep that had given us their fleeces. We all carded and the same rolags, with the oh, so soft undercoat fluffing up the shape and the shiny outercoat armouring and adding strength.

You can read more about dalapäls wool here.

Reflection

At the end of each day and/or course I always encourage my students to reflect over the day in quietude. We sit there in a silent room while they make notes of what has happened during the day, catching and developing all the thoughts, questions, aha-moments and frustrations that are still vividly floating around in the room. I watch them as they write, stop, think and write again. I can see their minds settling as their thoughts take a written form.

Despite differences in spinning experience we all connected through wool and learning.

When all notebooks have closed and the students sighed in the calming silence I ask if anyone has something they want to share: What have you learned? What was difficult? What are you proud of? The students are generous, sharing personal insights, struggles and successes: “I finally carded an even rolag!”, “The joins were so difficult to get right.” or “When I learned how to open up the twist everything became much easier.”.

Connection through learning

On this course one of the students, a total beginner, said she so enjoyed the connection we shared in the course. Learning together, connecting to each other, back to spinners before us and out to spinners beside us. She was proud of having given herself the time to learn something new.

New experiences are simmering in the room, waiting to be articulated and shared.

I too experience a deep connection in the courses. Just like this student said, to each other, to the spinners before and beside us, but also to the wool, to the sheep, to the making and to our learning process. The students in the classroom all have different spinning backgrounds, skill levels, learning styles and learning pace. Still, we all take part in each other’s joys, frustrations and vulnerabilities with kindness and compassion.

We’re in this together

After all, we are all there, in that same room, with the same wool and the same tools. In that room we take that wool and those tools and make our connected, collective, but still individual journeys. As soon as the first chafing of being in a new context has settled, we find trust and a connection to the group. We are in this together. During the course we are making, learning, frustrating, progressing and exploring together. We may be vulnerable in the new learning context, but by having an open, generous and curious mind we can disclose our fears and struggles, explore together and learn through both our own and each other’s experiences.

In my classroom I want to make the learning a connected experience. As I see or hear struggle or success, I encourage exploration, articulation and reflection of what happened. How can we all learn more from this? There is such a power in learning in and through a warm and safe connection. We give ourselves time to learn.

As the day settles

When we had finished the first day I went home with Lena to her house. We talked for hours over a sweet dinner she had prepared for us while the fire mumbled quietly in the background. I picked up a two-end knitting project with spindle-spun dalapäls yarn. The yarn reminded me of that connection we shared to spinners before, beside and after us.

Raw fleece from Lena’s dalapäls sheep Nehne.

When I went home the following afternoon I had an extra paper bag with me, with the soft and shiny fleece from Lena’s dalapäls sheep Nehne, reminding me of all the connections we shared during the course. The connections will be spun into the yarn, passing the sweet memories on to the touch of my two-end knitted sleeves.

The fleece from the dalapäls sheep Nehne has been washed in water and is drying in front of our fireplace.

The following day I washed Nehne’s fleece that I got from Lena. It has been drying in front of the fireplace, smelling faintly of sheep. She reminds me of the course and the connection we all shared in the classroom. I even enjoy picking out the last remaining seed pods.

Next weekend I will attend a gym instructor course and can’t promise a blog post.

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 missanything!
  • 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 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.
  • You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
  • Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
  • I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
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Gestrike wool

One of the ten Swedish conservation sheep breeds is Gestrike sheep. Today’s blog post and an upcoming breed study webinar are all about Gestrike wool. This is my tenth breed study. Previous breed studies have been about Gotland wool, Gute wool, Dalapäls wool, Värmland wool, Jämtland wool, finull wool, rya wool, Klövsjö wool (blog post only) and Åsen wool.

This Saturday, October 23rd at 5 pm CET I will host a free live breed study webinar on Swedish Gestrike wool! I will share my experiences with the wool from a spinner’s perspective.

The webinar has already taken place

Gestrike sheep

Like all the other Swedish conservation/heritage breeds, the Gestrike sheep is named after the region where it was (re-)found and established as a unique breed. So, Gestrike sheep were found in just a few flocks in villages in County Gästrikland in the 1990’s. The flocks had been grazing in the area for many generations.

According to the statistics from the Swedish sheep breeders’ association there were 173 breeding ewes in 25 flocks in 2020. The ewes way around 45 kg and the rams 60–70 kg. They can be white, grey, black, brown or spotted. Some lighten with age. The wool is predominantly of rya type – about 50/50 of outercoat and undercoat.

Gestrike sheep on shearing day. The sheep with the blackest face just left of the center is Elsa, described below.

Gestrike sheep are very good at grazing in tight vegetation and therefore perfect for forest grazing. They can get very affectionate and cuddly.

Gestrike wool characteristics

As a heritage/conservation breed, the breeding standards don’t allow crossing with other breeds or breeding for specific characteristics, including the fleece. So, as with the rest of the conservation breeds the fleece from Gestrike sheep is quite heterogenous.

My experience of Gestrike wool is mainly from three individuals – Elin, Elsa and Gunvor from Claudia Dillmann’s flock. Claudia has been a member of the board of the Swedish sheep breeders’ association for some years, with a responsibility for wool and skin.

Gestrike wool can have very soft and airy undercoat and long, strong and shiny outercoat. Some have a little kemp. Some can have. rougher mane fibers. Lamb’s wool is finer than wool from older individuals. This together with the many colours and the possibility of wool lightening with age gives a spinner an enormous spectrum of spinning possibilities – soft knitting yarn, strong warp yarn, fine, bulky and a broad palette of colours.

The characteristics I choose to focus on when I spin Gestrike wool are:

  • Rusticity. Gestrike wool is rustic. Still, not necessarily coarse. I would consider it a medium wool with no fuss. What you see is what you get with Gestrike wool. Triangular or conical shaped staples with outercoat and undercoat fibers. Rustic, straight and straightforward.
  • Lightness. Despite staples of up to 25 centimeters the Gestrike fleeces I have encountered have never felt heavy. On the contrary, they have a lightness to them that is very appealing. The undercoat is very airily distributed around the outercoat fibers and keep the sheep warm and cozy.
  • Versatility. With the different fiber types, a wide spectrum of colour possibilities and different wool qualities in sheep of different ages there are few things you can’t do with Gestrike wool.

Elin

The first time I met Gestrike wool was in the shape of Elin. My friend Claudia Dillmann who has a small flock of Gestrike sheep wanted me to get to know the breed she loved. So on a rainy day I hopped on my bike and collected Elin’s fleece.

Gestrike wool from the sheep Elin.

Elin’s fleece is of mainly rya type wool (50/50 or 40/60 of outerocat to undercoat) but leaning towards vadmal wool (mostly undercoat and a little outercoat). Her undercoat is very fine and outercoat strong and with an overall light feeling. I can see some but not many kemp fibers in this fleece.

Fine undercoat fibers, coarser outercoat fibers and quirky kemp fibers in Gestrike wool.
Fine undercoat fibers, coarser outercoat fibers and quirky kemp fibers in Gestrike wool.

I have demonstrated Elin’s fleece in the free webinar The hand spinner’s advantage and also on the 2021 Kil sheep fest.

Gunvor

One night about six months ago a baby idea woke me up, pinching me to get my attention. The baby idea said to me, with great conviction: “Make a longitudinal study of the fleeces of one single sheep!”. What’s a spinner to do? I contacted Claudia and asked her if I could adopt the shearings of one of her sheep. Claudia thought it was a great idea and offered me Gunvor, a lamb born in May 2020. I happily accepted Gunvor and got her first (October 2020) and later second fleece (April 2021).

Gunvor and her lamb’s fleece.

The undercoat of Gunvor’s lamb’s fleece is almost as soft as on Elin’s fleece. It has some white kemp that falls out quite easily. The wool is very easy to work with. Some of the black staples are very long, around 25 centimeters, and the black wool seems slightly finer than the white wool. The black wool also has less kemp.

  • Gunvor the Gestrike sheep in April 2021, a few weeks before the second shearing.
Gunvor and her second shearing in May 2021.

The second shearing is a bit coarser than the lamb’s fleece and a bit lighter – it seems like Gunvor’s spots are fading with age, which will be interesting to observe.

Elsa

Elsa is my newest Gestrike fleece, shorn in early October this year. She is also a member of Claudia’s flock of Gestrike sheep. She also happens to be Elin’s daughter. Grey in different nuances and all the staple types represented, from mainly outercoat staples to mainly undercoat staples. The main wool type is rya type wool, though, with a 50/50 undercoat to outercoat ratio. The fleece has no kemp.

Elsa’s lovely grey fleece has all the staple types.

To learn about the four wool types in Swedish sheep breeds, read this blog post.

Gestrike wool for sale!

Claudia had her sheep shorn only last week (more about the shearing day in an upcoming post) and she has fleeces for sale! Eight Gestrike fleeces and two Värmland fleeces. They are remarkably clean and of high quality. Crotch and belly wool has been removed and also poopy bits and visible vegetable matter.

The fleeces come as they are, raw. The lanolin content in the Swedish landrace and heritage breed is quite low and they can be washed in water only.

Again, all the four Gestrike fleeces I have come from Claudia’s flock and I have seen all the shorn fleeces she is selling now. I would buy them all if I had the time and the space.

If you want to buy a fleece from Claudia’s flock you can email her: claudia (at) saxensorter dot se

The sale of the fleeces brings in money to keep the sheep happy and fed during the winter.

Preparing in general

With a wool in so many different colours, staple types and hands it is easy to see how Gestrike wool can have a very wide variety of preparation, and spinning techniques. Add to this the age spectrum where fleece from an older individual can be coarser (and stronger) and lighter in colour than a the one from a younger individual. Considering all these aspects there are numerous ways to dissect a Gestrike fleece:

  • fiber type (undercoat or outercoat)
  • staple type (ratio of undercoat to outercoat in the staples)
  • staple length
  • fiber fineness
  • different colours and shades of the same colour.

This makes wool from a breed like Gestrike sheep very versatile. With a flock of Gestrike sheep the sheep farmer has material from coarse rugs to the finest lace shawls in all the natural colours.

The Gestrike wool I have experienced is quite light and open. Preparing it is a true joy. It melts like butter in both combs and cards. My heart sings through processing. The fleeces from Claudia’s sheep has very little vegetable matter.

Preparing in particular

I have plans for all of the Gestrike fleeces in my stash.

  • I have started to card rolags from Gunvor’s lamb’s fleece (after teasing with combs). To take advantage of her spots I have sorted the colours in heaps of white, black and mixed.
  • The second shearing from Gunvor’s fleece will probably also be carded and sorted by colour.
  • I am planning to separate undercoat from outercoat on Elin’s fleece. I will then card the undercoat and comb the outercoat.
  • My plan for Elsa’s fleece is to divide it by staple type. I think I can get enough of each staple type to get four very different qualities. If there is enough I may also sub-sort by fiber fineness and/or staple length. I will probably card the heaps with more undercoat and comb the ones with more outercoat.

So, between the four fleeces I have I have plans to sort them in up to five different ways.

Spinning

As you can imagine, with fleece from a breed with so many options for dissecting and preparing, there are equally many ways to spin. Here are my plans for the fleeces I have.

  • I’m spinning a super bulky 2-ply yarn from Gunvor’s lamb’s fleece in black and white. I have spun bulky woolen singles from hand carded rolags on a floor supported spindle and plied it on a spinning wheel. You can read more about the spinning process for this yarn here.
  • Gunvor’s second shearing will be part of a rya rug project as pile yarn (you can read about a previous rya chair pad project here). A low twist, high ply and lightly fulled 2-ply yarn that will stand the abrasion in a rya rug.
  • With Elin’s fleece I’m planning to spin a worsted spun singles warp yarn and a woolen spun singles weft yarn for weaving and fulling.
  • Elsa’s fleece has so many options and I’m planning to spin lots of different yarns from the preparations of the heaps of different staple types.
  • The Gestrike sheep Gunvor's lamb's fleece is slowly turning into chunky skeins of super bulky yarn.
    The Gestrike sheep Gunvor’s lamb’s fleece is slowly turning into chunky skeins of super bulky yarn.
  • Soft woolen undercoat weft yarn and strong outercoat warp yarn from Elin’s fleece.

Using

With the wide variety of staple types available in Gestrike wool it is easy to understand that you can use the yarn for a wide variety of projects – warp and weft for woven fabric, rugs, socks, mittens, sweaters, shawls and more. The undercoat fibers from a soft lamb’s fleece would definitely be a candidate for next to skin garments.

  • The Sirwal pants in super bulky Gunvor Gestrike lamb’s wool are coming along slowly.
  • I’m experimenting with Elin’s outercoat warp yarn and undercoat weft yarn for weaving.

I am slowly knitting up the legs of my Moroccan snow shoveling pants. I run out of yarn quite quickly since it’s so bulky and the 5.5 mm needles aren’t really silky smooth knitting, but the fabric is just wonderful in my hands. Bulky, warm and safe with a soft smell of lanolin.

Live webinar!

This Saturday, October 23rd at 5 pm CET (world clock here) I will host a live breed study webinar about Swedish Gestrike 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 Gestrike wool. I will use Gestrike wool during the webinar and show you glimpses of how I prepare and spin the wool.

The webinar has already taken place.

Even if you think you will never come across Gestrike wool in particular 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.

You can register even if you can’t make it to the live event. I will send the replay link to everyone who registers for the webinar. Remember, the only way to get access to the webinar (live or replay) is to register.

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.
  • You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.Follow me on Instagram.  I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
  • Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden! by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
  • 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

Sheep festival

This past weekend I attended the sheep festival in Kil in Värmland, Sweden. It is an annual event that attracts thousands of visitors. This was the 14th festival. The aim of the festival is to spread knowledge, inspire and facilitate networking with the four legs of the sheep as a foundation – wool, skin, meat and the sheep as a landscape manager.

The sheep organization

The first festival was held in the local industry building in Kil in 2006, but after a few years it had to move to a larger venue. It has since then been held at a local school when the children had their annual sports holiday in the end of February. The festival has grown from just a few hundred visitors the first year to somewhere around 10000 from all over Sweden in 2020. The town of Kil has 12000 inhabitants.

Everyone in Kil is involved in the festival and the preparations run through the whole year. The most significant symbol of the festival is the “tussris” – a bundle of twigs with wads of coloured wool. Every sports team in town is assembling wad twig bundles to decorate the town and the festival. The Red Cross is in charge of the wardrobe, other organizations are handling the entry fee, other volunteers are helping out as hostesses, serving coffee, cooking, serving, building, promoting, housing and literally breathing the festival. In addition to all the volunteers, several families opened their homes to traveling visitors. I stayed with a lovely family who moved out of their bedrooms to accommodate me and three other festival visitors for three nights.

Here is a short clip from the Swedish news from the sheep festival. You can see me and my embroidered backpack around 13 seconds into the clip.

The Golden Ram award

Every year The Golden Ram is awarded someone who is active in some aspect of the sheep. This year the prize was awarded to Fia Söderberg who is the founder of the Swedish wool agency – a digital marketplace where you can buy and sell Swedish wool. She is also the founder and host of the Swedish wool podcast (in Swedish).

Two women standing on a stage. They are holding up a certificate and a cheque. A sheep on a screen behind them.
Fia Söderberg receiving the Golden Ram award and 10000 Swedish Kronor ($1106/970 €).

While spinning, I listened to Fia’s acceptance speech about how the Swedish wool agency came about. From a frustration over wasted Swedish wool to a flourishing wool market where crafters and sheep owners meet in the name of wool in just a few years. That is quite an achievement and the festival organization couldn’t have picked a more worthy person to receive the award.

Activities on the festival

Around 150 vendors come for the festival, selling yarn, wool, meat, skins, tools for crafting, hand made items and much, much more. Visitors can also take classes, workshops, watch shows and demos and listen to talks about different aspects of sheep and products from sheep.

Braids of coloured wool yarn in a scale from green to pink.
Wool embroidery yarn in every colour.

I didn’t take many photos, but if I had, they still wouldn’t have made the festival justice. But if you wish, you can imagine pictures of yarn, wool, sheep, skins and textiles here.

A knit wizard

I came to the festival with Sara Wolf, who also goes by the alias A knit Wizard, and her husband. Sara is a writer who is working on a book called Knit (spin) Sweden and I assist her with some of the spinning parts. They flew from Boston, landed in Stockholm, rented a car and picked me up on the way. It was lovely to finally meet her. We have had so many conversations about Swedish wool via email and now we could continue that conversation in person. You can read Sara’s blog post about the sheep festival here.

Sara gave me a present that took my breath away. A Turkish spindle. A real Turkish spindle she bought from an antique dealer when she lived in Turkey. It was made around the end of the 19th century.

An antique Turkish spindle with crossing wings. One wing slides into the other through a rectangular hole. The spindle is ornamented with carved patterns.
My new old Turkish spindle is a beauty.

When I look at the Turkey page in the spindle typology it looks very much like the spindles called Kirman – crossed wings with a short shaft. I need to make myself a shaft for this pearl. It looks just like my modern Jenkins spindles, only a wee bit heavier – this one weighs 93 grams!

An antique Turkish spindle with crossing wings. One wing slides into the other through a rectangular hole. The spindle is ornamented with carved patterns.
I wonder how many people have spun on this spindle.

Sara had a talk at the festival where she discussed her findings and conclusions about the history of knitting in Sweden. She also described how and why she was looking for Swedish wool. It was a very interesting speech and I became even more proud of being a part of her book.

People

Eventhough there is a lot of wool to fondle and a beautiful focus on all the aspects of how sheep are so useful to us and to nature, one of the most rewarding things about these kinds of events is meeting people. Don’t get me wrong, I am very much an introvert who takes care not to go to fairs and events with lots of people, but meeting and talking to people one on one gives me so much.

The first person I ran into was the shepherdess Birgitta. Her Härjedal/Åsen crossbred gave me the multicoloured fleece I am currently working on. I had brought a couple of skeins to show her what I had done. After all, I had got Birgitta’s trust to buy the fleece because I would be able to make the fleece justice in a way that no spinning mill would. She was truly happy to see the skeins and cuddle with them.

I met Kari, another lovely shepherdess who is a crafter herself. She won eight medals in the 2019 fleece championships for her Rya, Gotland, Finull, Leicester and landrace crossbred fleeces. She pays close attention to the fleece quality when she decides which animals to pair up for breeding and she obviously gets successful results. I always try to connect with shepherdesses whose fleece buy at the championships auction. For me it is important to show them how I continue with spinning what they have started with the care of their sheep.

A person who has been very important to me when learning about wool is Kia. She has worked for many years as a wool classifier in Norway and she is the one I turn to with wool questions. Every now and then I text her with a wool conundrum and she can always give me a good reply and teach me new things. We haven’t met many times, but we made up for it in Kil as we sat for three hours just talking and having a lovely time in the quiet vendor’s lounge. I bought a loupe from her and I will write more about that in an upcoming post.

A microscope image of wool fibers
Swedish Svärdsjö wool under the microscope.

I also met lots of other friends of wool. Some who I had met before on other wool events and some who introduced themselves to me and told me how they appreciated my work. Encounters like these always warm my heart. It gives me a feeling of connection and context in this very small world of wool and spinning and lots of inspiration and empowerment to continue my work.

Fleece market

The last day of our visit was the day of the fleece market, and naturally I wanted to grab a good fleece or two. I ended up with four. Fortunately I had brought some vacuum bags for easier transport.

Sara had talked about how she was amazed by Rya wool. I got inspired by that so two half fleeces came home with me, one white and one in grey tones. I bought them from Kari as I knew she would provide really high quality fleeces.

A pile of shiny wool in white, grey and black.
Washed rya locks in all the greys.

I also found a shepherdess who had the loveliest traditional style Värmland fleeces. After all, we were in the county of Värmland so it would only natural to buy a Värmland fleece. I got two extremely soft fleeces – one in shades of grey and one in rosy brown tones. The ewes were four and six years old and I couldn’t believe how soft they were.

A row of shiny locks in different staple types from white to dark grey.
Unwashed staples from the Värmland ewe Rutan, born in 2014. She has all shades of grey and many different staple types.

My last fleece was a lovely Åsen fleece in a very light grey with some black tips. Soft, airy and shiny. I had bought fleece from this shepherdess before and I knew I would get good quality from her.

Staples of white wool with black tips.
Unwashed locks from Åsen lamb with fluffy white undercoat and black outercoat.

All fleeces have now been washed. It is too cold outside for a fermented suint bath, so I have just washed them in warm water with three rinses, no chemicals added.

All in all it was a wonderful weekend with lots of new inspiration and ideas buzzing in my head. It did take a lot of energy, though, and this past week I have been very tired. When you read this post I have shut out the world and gone to a mini yoga retreat. Over and out.

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.
    If you like what I do, please tell all your fiber friends and share these links!
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Sisters in craft

Changing trains with a castle view in Örebro.

Last weekend the 2019 wool journey with the wool traveling club took place. Four sisters in craft went to a sheep farm and hired a well renowned Swedish spinning teacher for two days.

The wool traveling club

The wool traveling club started in 2014. I felt a need to meet with other spinners and learn new things. I invited two friends to join me and they in turn invited one friend each. The first wool journey went to Shetland wool week in 2015. It was a wonderful adventure, packed with stories of Shetland’s textile heritage.

Since then we try to go somewhere where we don’t need to go by air.

The wool journey starts on the train.
The wool journey starts on the train.

2016 we visited a spinning mill. 2017 we went to Åsebol sheep farm and hired the talented wool classifier and teacher Kia Gabrielsson who had a one-day workshop in wool knowledge and Māori knitting/Uruahipi. Hiring a spinning teacher just for us is one of the superpowers of the club. We can get a course that is adapted to our skill level and get the best out of the course.

The 2019 wool journey

This year we chose to come back to Åsebol cabin at the sheep farm. It is the same cabin I have rented with my family every year since 2014 and one of my favourite places on Earth. It has everything – sheep, creek and silence.

Knitting by the creek.
Knitting by the creek.

You may recognize the scenery – it plays a part in several of my spinning videos.

A sweet lamb by the creek.
A sweet lamb by the creek.

Blending wool for a specific use

We hired Lena Köster, a well renowned Swedish spinning teacher, master spinner and professional weaver. She teaches at both beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. Lena held an advanced course for us in how to blend different wools for a specific use.

Boel is deciding on fiber blends.
Boel is deciding on fiber blends.

Lena talked about how to blend wools to achieve a special quality yarn for a specific purpose. Do I want a strong yarn or a warm yarn? What characteristics do I want in my yarn? Do I want to blend for an aesthetic effect or just function? What do fiber type, length, crimp, or shine do for the finished yarn? What percentage of different fibers will give me the yarn qualitiy I’m looking for?

Lena and Ellinor talk about how to best spin for a twined knitting yarn.
Lena and Ellinor talk about how to best spin for a twined knitting yarn.

This is quite the opposite of what I usually do – I find a wool and want to take advantage of its main characteristics to show them off in a garment or design. Lena’s take starts at the opposite end – she wants to make something and needs to adapt the yarn to the purpose. This is really an interesting perspective that I haven’t worked from before and one that I will learn a lot from.

Boel is spinning warp yarn for tablet weaving from her own Gotland sheep.
Boel is spinning warp yarn for tablet weaving from her own Gotland sheep, brows frowned to accomplish enough twist.

Sock yarn assignment

Lena had made different assignments and we were able to choose one that we wanted to make.

At first I wasn’t sure about what I wanted to do, but when Lena said that she had some mohair and Anna wanted to make a sock yarn I decided that I wanted to make sock yarn too. I’m not a big sock knitter. Ironically I usually think it takes way too much time. I have always been of the opinion that I need to buy a sock yarn since a handspun wound break. The problem with store bought sock yarn is that it usually contains plastic. But (adult) mohair is the perfect sock yarn strengthener!

Angora (left) and rya (right) make the perfect sock yarn partners!
Mohair (left) and rya (right) make the perfect sock yarn partners!

Mohair and rya

I blended the mohair with rya wool. Rya has a long and strong outer coat and a soft and warm under coat, the perfect partner for mohair. I blended 60 % rya with 40 % mohair.

I'm spinning sock yarn on my Björn Peck supported spindle.
I’m spinning sock yarn on my Björn Peck supported spindle.

I combed the fibers together, spun with short draw on a supported spindle and 3-plied. Both the mohair and the outer coat of the rya have beautiful shine and the blend will dye beautifully.

Anna blended her mohair with some Dalapäls wool and rya. She spun her yarn on a suspended spindle.

Anna is a master suspended spindler.
Anna is a master suspended spindler.

I spun the yarn a little too thin, I think it is a light fingering yarn. I managed to spin it remarkably even, perhaps due to thorough combing and dizzing.

My very own 3-ply sock yarn in a rya/Angora blend.
My very own 3-ply sock yarn in a rya/mohair blend.

Too strong or too soft?

I was concerned that the yarn might be too dense. But, then again, most sock yarns I have come across usually have a large amount of very soft fibers like Merino or BFL, which aren’t very strong. If my yarn was a little thicker it may also become a little softer.

A sock yarn swatch.
A sock yarn swatch.

I knit a tiny swatch and tried to imagine it as socks. When I asked my wooly friends if they would wear my socks they all agreed they would. I wasn’t convinced, so I tried the same blend, only spun with long draw from hand-carded rolags.

Rolags on a rainy day.
Rolags on a rainy day.

Stripes!

The new version was definitely softer and I was concerned that it may not be strong enough. My solution, though, was to spin both the softer and the stronger version, dye them in different colours and knit striped socks. Heels and toes would be knitted in the stronger yarn. Sock yarn prototype mission accomplished!

Boel shows Lena her finished tablet warp.
Boel proudly shows Lena her finished tablet warp.

We were all happy with our yarn prototypes. I was actually quite exhausted after two whole days of trial, error and analysis. I think I will need a lot of time to process everything I have learned.

Sisters in craft

Changing trains with a castle view in Örebro.
Changing trains with a castle view in Örebro.

Getting away like this for an extended weekend is such a treat. I treasure the memories of our wool journeys for months afterwards. After a while I start longing for our next wooly adventure together.

Walking and crafting in the spring landscape.
Sisters in craft walking and crafting in the Swedish spring landscape.

The power of collected skills

It is such a bliss to be able to get down to the nitty gritty of crafting – we discuss techniques, fiber, tools and projects at our level. Spinning is a rare craft these days and being able to spend a few days with so talented crafters and friends is truly rewarding. Boel with her never-ending curiosity and humility to any craft. Anna with her thoroughness and knowledge about basically everything. And Ellinor with her How hard can it be?-attitude that can move mountains in a breeze. The rush I get from the members’ collected skills and knowledge is truly empowering.

The power of friendship

The course or main event is just a small part of the greatness of our wool journeys. We make time to talk about the big and small things in life, breathing fresh air. We don’t know each other’s friends and neighbours, we don’t share each other’s daily lives and we can focus on each other with an unbiased perspective. All the while we craft, which, in itself, helps in finding a focus and clarity of mind.

Being in the here and now are vital parts of our time together. We take walks, cook, craft, talk and laugh. For the few days we are together we take a break from our daily lives and find focus in the present. We listen to and support each other in a refreshing way.

For a few days we truly are sisters in craft.

Sisters in craft
Sisters in craft – Josefin, Boel, Ellinor and Anna (the fifth sister Kristin couldn’t make it this time)

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.
    If you like what I do, please tell all your fiber friends and share these links!
Posted on

Överjärva farm

A red farm building.

The farm

One of my favourite sheep hang-outs is Överjärva farm just outside Stockholm. There has been a farm at Överjärva for centuries. In the beginning of the 20th century it was the biggest farm in the parish. Today it’s a city farm with sheep, horses, chickens and organic farming.

A red wooden house with black doors. A sign post in the front.
Businesses around Överjärva farm

Kulturlandskaparna is the organization that looks after the sheep and works to maintain the farm and the biodiversity in the area. This is where I first learned how to spin, where I bought my first fleece (and a few more after that) and I took a course in small-scale sheep farming.

The shepherdess

The Patron and head sheeprdess of Överjärva is Ulla. She knows all the sheep by name. If you present a fleece to her she can name the sheep just by smelling it. She is passionate about the sheep and the landscape management. She passes on the knowledge about the importance of sheep by teaching young and old as much as she can about sheep and why we need them.

Ewes and lambs
Ewes and new lambs hanging out at the farm. Photo by Anna Herting.

At the farm, Ulla teaches kids to be helper shepherds and shepherdesses. For the moment there are only helper shepherdesses, and around 10–15 years old. They learn how to take care of the sheep and are a big help at the farm. It is also evident that the helper shepherdesses grow when they learn about how to take responsibility for the sheep.

With the sheep in the pasture

People come to the farm all year round to see the sheep. They are very used to humans and most of them love to be cuddled. During the lambing period in the spring they get privacy, though, but in the end of April it was the first day visitors were allowed to go in to the pasture and cuddle with ewes and lambs. Of course I was there.

Lambs and sheep
The lambs are curious about the two-legged sheep with funny-looking fleeces.

The big sheep walk

Moving the sheep

When the lambs are big enough and the grass has grown a bit after the winter, it is time to move the sheep and their lambs to their summer pastures. This is done on the great sheep walk in late May. Visitors are invited to take part in the move and walk all the sheep families through the neighbourhood to the fresh grass in the new pasture. Of course I was there to take part in the big sheep move.

Organizing the walk

The sheep walk is a whole machinery. The sheep families are moved from the farm pasture one at a time and assigned to a human family, and they all stay around the farm until every sheep is out. Anna, her family and I were in charge of the Swedish finewool sheep Anemone (you have seen her before, in this video) and her lambs Tim, Linus and Vilda.

Josefin Waltin walking with a black and white sheep in a leash.
Walking with Anemone and her lambs. Anemone is a Swedish finewool sheep and very friendly. Photo by Anna Herting

The sheep are a bit wild and difficult to handle at the beginning of the walk, but after a while they settle down. Since the walk goes through traffic, the sheep need to be led in in leashes. One human family family taking the responsibility for one sheep family. The sheep family must be held together with the ewe just in front of her lambs and you are not allowed to pass another sheep family. There can’t be a gap in the long row of sheep families. The herd strives to be together, and if there is a gap they will start to run to cover the gap. This can have chaotic consequences in a traffic environment.

One of the most difficult tasks on the sheep walk is to keep the sheep in the middle of the lane. If they go too far to either side, they will get close to the grass and all the work with keeping the sheep orderly is wasted.

Ulla, the head shepherdess, doesn’t walk with the sheep. She goes ahead in the car and organizes things at the pasture. Instead, the helper shepherdesses are in charge of the walk. And the y do it with great skill and pride. They watch all the families along the lines and make sure everything is in order, that the ewes is just in front of her lambs, that there is no gap in the lane and are always ready to give a hand when needed. The smaller children are in charge of stopping the traffic. When a car comes on the same road or when the caravan crosses a street, the kids stand broad-legged with their arms out to the sides to stop the cars and protect the caravan. They take their task very seriously.

Dancing in the streets

It is almost like a choreographed dance to keep all the sheep in the right place in relation to their families, other families and the road. But it is a dance I am happy to entertain the audience with. And there is an audience – all along the walk are happy citizens watching with their cameras ready. For some people watching the event is something they are looking forward to all spring. It certainly is for me as a participant.

Snack time

Half-way through the walk the whole caravan stops at a big castle park for a mid-walk snack. This is vital if the sheep are going to arrive to the new pasture without sheep chaos. The walk is about 5 km, mostly on asphalt and straining for them. With a grazing break they will get enough energy to walk the last bit without trying to escape to the grass every chance they get.

Summer pastures

After about 5 km and perhaps an hour’s walk, we are finally at the summer pastures. From this moment, everything goes very fast. When all the sheep are in the pasture, they go wild. At the same time, they have to be freed from their leash collars. When that is done, the whole event is over. But for the sheep, a whole summer of grazing awaits.

Video

I made a video of the visitors in the pasture and the great sheep walk. In the photo above you can see how I have attached my phone camera with a gorilla pod wrung around my bag strap.

I published the video and blog post yesterday, but I had to unpost it due to copyright violations. I had chosen an old folk tune for the video, Hårgalåten, performed by a well known Swedish key harpist Åsa Jinder. Due to the copyright violation the video wouldn’t be able to be viewed in some countries, one of them being the U.S. So I removed the video and replaced the tune with a song by Josh Woodward, from the free music archive.

Enjoy!

Posted on

Flicking tips

A ball of wool

After a discussion in a Facebook spinning group about solidified grease in the tips of a fleece, I decided to do a mini study of different ways to prepare a fleece for spinning. I have a fleece of my own that is wonderfully clean but has tips with solidified grease.

The fleece

On the last wool journey with my wool traveling club, I bought a beautiful NKS fleece. NKS stands for Norsk kvit sau: Norwegian white sheep. This is basically what crossbreds are called in Norway. The fleece I chose had a full year’s growth.

In Sweden most sheep are shorn twice a year, which naturally makes the fleece shorter. This means that the fleece shorn in the early spring is of worse quality (since all the nutrients go straight to the lamb) and usually has more vegetable matter (because the sheep have spent much of the winter indoors). The fleece shorn in the autumn has better quality (since the sheep has no lamb to nourish) and less vegetable matter (since the sheep are out grazing). So: Twice a year gives a better but shorter autumn fleece. Once a year gives a longer fleece but can be more mixed in quality.

Lanoliny tips

The fleece was wonderfully clean and shiny with staples of around 12 cm. The tips, though, were greasy. I think that the Norwegian rain had pushed all the lanolin out into the tips. I washed the fleece straight away by soaking it in rain water. It wasn’t until recently (one year after I bought the fleece) that I started processing, and by then the greasy tips had solidified.

Experiment: Flicked vs unflicked tips

I wanted to make an experiment and compare different preparation methods. First, I prepared the way I usually do with a fleece I want to comb: Loading the combs with the cut ends on the tines and combing three passes, then pulling the wool off the comb in one long top.

Combing this way was a struggle. It took a lot of muscle power to get the combs through the wool. And after three passes it was not nearly in a condition I could approve (I always do an uneven number of passes so that I pull the wool off the combs from the cut ends). So, I did five passes. Pulling the wool off the comb was also difficult, the wool was still uneven with bits of solidified gunk left. I picked as much of it out, but there was still stuff left when I spun the top, which of course interrupted my spinning flow.

When you play the videos, a captions symbol appears to the left of the settings symbol. Click or unclick the captions, depending on your preferences.

This was not a pleasant combing experience. So, I tried a different way. I flicked the solidified grease ends before combing. Combing the staples with the tip ends flick carded was a whole different experience.

A lot of gunk was left in the flicker and the floor was sprayed with gunk powder.

A floor dirty with wool waste.
Powdered gunk and gunky flicker waste.

The combing was easy and pleasant after flick carding the tips and I was perfectly happy after my usual three passes. Pulling the wool off the combs was also nice and smooth and the spinning was uninterrupted and yummy.

A skein of white handspun yarn.
A finished skein of fingering weight 2-ply NKS wool, spun with short draw from hand combed tops on a spinning wheel. 194 m, 70 g, 2766 m/kg.

I spun the skein above with both of the preparation techniques. Mostly the flicked version, though, since I only combed a couple of bird’s nests with the tips unflicked. I also knitted a swatch with the finished yarn.

A knitted swatch
A knitted swatch, 25 stitches and 39 rows in 10×10 cm

Other ways to use a flick card

This was one example where flick carding the tips made a big difference for the preparation and spinning experience. I also use my flick card for several other purposes:

  • To remove brittle tips. If I have a fleece with fine fibers and brittle tips I can use the flick card on the tip ends. The brittle tips will end up in the card instead of the yarn (as nepps).
  • To flick both ends of a staple. Sometimes I want to spin from the lock. A flick card is a good tool to separate the fibers in individual staples and spin staple by staple.
  • To tease staples before carding. This might take time, but will give a good result. Fibers that are too short, brittle or dirty will stay in the flick card and the good stuff will go to carding.

Do you use your flick card for other purposes?

Tech stuff

In these videos I have played with both narration and captions. As you may know, I want to shoot my videos outside if possible. But the area around our house is quite noisy. In the background on the other side of the lake you can see the most intense motorway in Sweden, and it makes a lot of noise. Also, we live close to a city airport and the planes fly just above our house, it’s almost like we can tickle the planes on the bellies if we stretch enough. This is why I wanted to try to narrate the clips. And I think it worked out.

In a previous video where I tested my makeshift studio, I added equally makeshift captions. Since then, my editing software has upgraded with a function for closed captioning. Yay! I think they work too.

Please let me know if there is anything of the technical stuff I can improve.