Wool, Fleece, Soft Gold

At shearing time in March, one of the spinners who helped us handle all 21 sheep bought – on the spot – the fleece from Schuyler, our all white pure Cormo wether – male, no nads – who wore a jacket the entire season to keep the fleece clean and hay free. That night Kay emailed me to rave about how wonderful it was to spin.

At the time I was so overwhelmed with all the bags of fleece, I just smiled and went to work packing the truck for the next day’s trip to the fiber mill. We left early and drove about ninety minutes to Hampton Fiber Mill where Michael Hampton greeted us sporting his customary shorts and giant smile. We spent almost two hours pouring through the bags of fleece determining what should get mixed with what, the type of yarn he’d recommend, the weight of each skein. When we came to the bag marked “Levi” we all paused. Michael looked over his glasses, rubbed some sample fibers between his fingers, oo’ed and ah’ed.

Levi is Schuyler’s twin brother and his fleece is just as fabulous. Suddenly I decided I shouldn’t have this processed. I had been so focused on getting the fleece to Michael as quickly as possible that I hadn’t stopped to think what I personally might like. Why wouldn’t I want to keep a fleece to clean and handspin? Especially one that people seem to think is special. Each fiber of this fleece is thin with tight uniform waves from top to bottom called crimp and for handspinners supposed to be a dream to spin. I pulled the bag and put it back in the truck.

Kay continued to send me glowing emails of spinning joy and unbeknownst to me, she had given a few pounds of the fleece to Ann, another member of our spinning group. When I arrived at our next Spin & Knit gathering, Ann grinned and waved me over. She pulled from her giant knitting satchel a plastic bag that contained a small white knitted cap and sweater. “For your first grandchild,” she said in jest. She knows we are vendors at the local farmer’s market and thought the set would show off the wool well. And it shows off her fine hand spinning and knitting skills!

Now I had two fans of this fine wool and hadn’t done a thing with the fleece I had hung on to. Time to dive in. I am an average hand spinner. And I have never spun wool that hasn’t been washed and carded. That was about to change. Seated beside Kay at a recent gathering, she showed me how she used a dog’s comb to open the tips of the locks and how she spun the locks using the long draw, a way of pulling back the lose clump of fleece to let the twist run up a small portion of fiber.

I got my own comb and went to work. The yellow coloring in the raw fleece is the natural oil the sheep produces, known as lanolin. Can you recall the smell of a wool blanket or a heavy sweater that became rain soaked? It’s a sweet earthy smell like no other and I love it. I always have. As I spun each lock, my fingers enjoyed the smooth moisturizing effect of the oil, but the yarn I spun was pretty poor. The skein of wool was inconsistent – fat and thick sections followed by skinny threads.

I hit the “by George, I think she’s got it” moment on my third skein. I had figured out that I needed to loosen up the locks of fleece more, relax and trust the drawing motion, and, keep at it. The addiction has set in. I think I have about four more pounds to spin.

Meanwhile, Kay has spun all her fleece. She sent me a photo of a recent washing that included twelve giant skeins of Schuyler’s fleece!