In Depth Look at the Fleece Study Part 2

Today marks the second in a series of posts in which we are going to look at an in depth explanation of all the breeds in the fleece study. Generally I spun rather thin, but I tried to spin how ever the wool felt comfortable.

Today we are looking at the Blackfaced Family and the Down Family.

This sample was labeled as Scottish Blackface, which wasn't a lie, but based on some research I did in my Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius, they look at the family of sheep and show the Scottish Blackface sample and it looks nothing like my sample. However another breed in the same family looks exactly like mine and the is the Rough Fell breed. This wool is not pleasant at all. It has a lot of guard hairs both white and black, it also is fairly stiff. This is a double coated family of sheep where there is a guard hair or kemp and the more traditional wool to it.

The next group is the Southdown Family. The first, on the left being Suffolk, and the right being Baby doll Southdown. Both were spun from roll logs and spun woolen with a long draw. I am more of a fan of the Suffolk. It is soft with nice loft. The down side to it is the amount of VM in it. This may be from not carding it sufficiently. The Baby Doll is a bit stiffer, but is still lofty.

The next post is going to be on the English Longwool Family. This has some of my favorite fleeces in the study it, so stay tuned!