{"id":11349,"date":"2024-10-26T07:42:58","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T05:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=11349"},"modified":"2024-10-26T07:42:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-26T05:42:59","slug":"sheep-with-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/sheep-with-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheep with stories"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pia-Lotta I, II and III<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n
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 V\u00e4lim\u00e4ki.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pia-Lotta wasn\u2019t supposed to live beyond the summer, though. She wasn\u2019t 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\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gunvor, queen of stripes <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 a pair of pants with black and white stripes. The pants have been traditional in the Moroccan High Atlas, and Irene Waggener<\/a> has adapted the orally transferred description for a western audience in her book Keepers of the Sheep<\/a><\/em>. Women spun the wool on traditional spindles and their husbands, usually shepherds, knit the pants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Gunvor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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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.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I used a Navajo style floor spindle to spin and ply the bulky yarn.The black spots in Gunvor\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

H\u00e4rvor full of cuddles<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

H\u00e4rvor is also a sheep in Claudia\u2019s 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<\/a>. H\u00e4rvor has the loveliest, rustic grey fleece, quite typical for the breed with conical staples with airy and warm undercoat and long and strong outercoat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"White<\/figure>\n
The Gestrike sheep H\u00e4rvor is the cuddliest sheep. One skein of H\u00e4rvor’s yarn (here together with yarn from the white Doris in the same flock) is part of a secret project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

H\u00e4rvor 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lotta and the red barn door<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last autumn I taught a beginner\u2019s class in suspended spindle spinning in Uppsala, just north of Stockholm. One of the students, \u00c5sa, has a flock of Sv\u00e4rdsj\u00f6 sheep and on day two of the course she brought a couple of bags of fleece from her girls. Sv\u00e4rdsj\u00f6 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 Sv\u00e4rdsj\u00f6 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n
The glittering (and occasionally reddish) locks of Lotta\u2019s fleece are becomingyarn for a Danish night sweater with its typical stitch and star pattern.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I bought the 1200 grams of wool and spent several hours picking it while I listened to an audiobook by Val\u00e9rie 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\u2019t have enough yarn. I contacted \u00c5sa and she sent me 300 grams from this year\u2019s shearing of Lotta\u2019s fleece. There were no red stains in this batch. However, Lotta seems to have scratched against the ground instead \u2013 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<\/a> the fleece while listening to Jane Eyre. The rest will fall out during teasing<\/a> and carding<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frida in my arms<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I met Frida in April when I helped my friend Lena on shearing day<\/a>. Lena shears her flock of Dalap\u00e4ls 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\u2019s oldest sheep, whose fleece was a lot finer and airier and easier to work with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Hands<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/figure>\n
From shearing through spinning and dyeing with Frida the 11-year-old Dalap\u00e4ls sheep.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dalap\u00e4ls sheep is a forest breed with a distinctive flock mentality. They pay close attention to potential predators, as they should \u2013 this flock lives on wolf territory. I wouldn\u2019t be able to come close to any of Lena\u2019s Dalap\u00e4ls 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few months later I met my walking wheel<\/a> for the first time. In my basket I had fourty-nine glittering rolags of Frida\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tvaga of the Baltic sea<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On yet another photo shoot visit to a sheep farm I met Tvaga the Br\u00e4nn\u00f6 sheep. Dan and I visited Louise who lives in an archipelago<\/a> 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\u2019s fleece in the mail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Staples<\/figure>\n
The staples from Tvaga the Br\u00e4nn\u00f6 sheep comes in a range of colours, lengths and crimps.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 white, light grey and medium grey. Perhaps there won\u2019t be much difference between the greys and I might settle for only two categories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheep with stories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find me in seveal social media:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n