Next we look at my favorite group of wools, The English Longwool Family. These breeds have great luster. I loved spinning each of them. The general longer staple length is not something for a novice spinner, but if you keep in mind that your drafting space needs to be bigger, I'm sure that this is going to be a great success.
Samples from left to right: Romney, Bluefaced Leicester, Border Leicester, English Leicester Longwool, Wensleydale, Lincoln Longwool, Teeswater, and Cotswold.
On the far left is Romney. It has a beautiful buttery color. This was spun from top. It drafted very easily. The locks had nice large crimp patterns.
The next is the Bluefaced Leicester. This was a difficult sample to process. The locks had very tight ringlets. I separated as much out as possible and combed it into top on my viking combs. Pulling it from the combs was fairly difficult due to the spring that the individual fibers had. The top was easy to spin and has a nice loft to it. The end result is very pleasurable.
Next is the Border Leicester. This is a longer lock, more closely resembling the Romney in crimp. It had almost a hair like feel to it. The locks were combed and spun worsted. The finished yarn is quite soft with a nice subtle luster.
The Leicester Longwool, or the English Leicester is the most rough of the three Leicesters. The locks had a similar crimp to them as the Border. Again, I spun this from top keeping a worsted sort forward draft as my spinning technique. It's not my favorite of the group, but I would try it again.
Wensleydale was one of the longer wool samples that I had. It was spun woolen in a short backward draw from hand pulled top. It is a nice charcoal grey color.
Lincoln Longwool was not one of my favorites to prep. It was combed and spun worsted. I believe the dislike was due to poor sheering. There were many second cuts in it. The end skein is soft with a good drape.
These Teeswater locks were quite long and difficult to comb. These locks were combed on my friends' English combs. The locks were about 8 inches long. This made the drafting a little difficult because of how long the staple was. The finished skein has great drape and luster; very similar to mohair.
The last in this family is the sample from a Cotswold sheep. This had a fairly long staple length, about 5-6 inches. The locks were combed and spun worsted. This was another one of my favorites from the set.
In the next post we are going to look at the breeds in the Northern European Short-Tailed Family, home to the Shetland and Icelandic breeds among others!
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