Transcript for
Episode 117: Five Great Wools for New Spinners
Hello there, my darling Sheepspotters! Welcome to episode 76 of The Sheepspot Podcast.
Today we are going to talk about my five favorite wools for newer spinners.
Let’s start with a little story, shall we? When I was just learning to spin, I didn’t really understand, as most new spinners don’t, just how different different breeds of wool are. I don’t remember, if I ever knew, what I spun in my earliest spinning lessons. What I do remember—it’s pretty indelible in the hippocampus—is what happened when I got my wheel and I bought fiber for the first time. I actually have a couple of podcasts (episode 56 and 57) in which I tell this story at greater length, but it bears repeating: I. Did. Not. Know. What. I. Was. Doing. I didn’t even know enough to know that I should be thinking about the kinds of wool I was buying. I just bought what I could find. And what I could find (at Webs) was Merino. And all of a sudden, when I tried to spin this Merino, I could not make a continuous thread to save my life. The Merino was short, and slippery, and unmanageable, and it just made me sad.
So if you’re a new spinner, here are five beginner-friendly wools to look for that are pretty widely available in processed form. In alphabetical order, they are:
Bluefaced Leicester
Cheviot
Corriedale
Icelandic
Polwarth
Let’s talk about each of these.
It was Bluefaced Leicester that saved me from that Merino and really made me a spinner. I didn’t know much about wool at that point, so I just found something that I could spin and then I bought it in as many different colors as I could find. I think I spun BFL exclusively every day for about six months before I tried Merino again, and this time I found it much easier.
(I still don’t recommend Merino for new spinners, though. But never fear: there is another squishy-soft fine wool on this list.)
Bluefaced Leicester is considered a long wool, so it has a nice long staple that’s easy for new spinners to manage. Most of it is very soft, and it’s also quite strong, so it’s a great choice for lots of different situations, from sweaters to mittens. It has a really lovely shine to it. And there’s lots of it out there. It takes dye really well, so dyers love it, which means you can easily find it in lots of colors and color combinations.
BFL is also quite a forgiving wool that can be spun in a variety of different ways, so it’s a great wool to experiment with. I really can’t recommend it enough.
Cheviot is available both in combed and carded preparations (BFL is most often found as combed top). It’s a bit less beloved of dyers, but it’s still pretty easy to find (we carry it, for example). It’s got a decent staple length, and the fibers really like to grab onto each other and hang out together, which makes it very beginner friendly. Cheviot has a unique spiral crimp that makes yarns made from this wool highly elastic, and it’s also quite a tough wool, so it will stand up to wear quite well. It’s a great wool for socks, though not everyone will want to wear it next to sensitive skin. It is happy to be spun woolen or worsted. I recommend keeping some Cheviot around for practicing new spinning techniques; it’s the wool I instinctively grab in the studio when I’m making demo videos, because it’s just a good citizen: cooperative and easy to deal with. I also love Cheviot because its a great gateway drug to the Down breeds (see episode 44).
Next up is Corriedale. This is another very solid citizen, very widely available in both combed and carded preparations, and you can get it in All. The. Colors. Seriously. Ashford sells a mill-dyed version that’s sold in lots of the larger spinning stores, so you don’t even need to search out indie dyers, and if you like to play with colors and experiment with color blending you can buy packs with lots of different colors. Corriedale can vary quite widely in terms of micron count; most of it falls in what I call the “medium wool” category, between 24 and 29 microns, with a regular even crimp that makes nice stretchy yarns. Corriedale is a real all-around work-horse wool, suitable for lots of different kinds of projects and lots of different spinning methods. Like Cheviot, I often recommend that my students keep some Corriedale around as a good practice fiber.
So far, we’ve talked about a longwool, a Down-type wool, and a medium wool. Now I want to talk about a multicoated breed: Icelandic. Mill-prepped Icelandic is definitely available, but you might have to hunt a bit more for it than the other breeds I’ve talked about; if you’re having trouble finding it, Shetland would be a good substitute. Icelandic sheep are quite a popular choice for shepherds keeping small or “hobby” flocks, so you may also be able to find Icelandic fleeces from local flocks or fiber festivals, and Icelandic fleeces are good “starter” fleeces because they’re quite small and manageable. If you’re working with a fleece, you can decide whether you want to separate the longer, hairier fibers from the softer undercoat, so they are great for experimenting with different prep methods, and also different spinning methods. If you opt for prepared fiber, you’ll likely be working with the shorter and longer fibers blended together.
If you’ve never worked with multicoated fiber before, you may find the spinning a bit challenging due to the different fiber lengths, but that’s great practice for working with other fiber blends, and in my experience Icelandic is quite grippy and easy to work with once you’ve got a little experience under your belt.
Last, but certainly not least is Polwarth, my favorite fine-wool breed for newer spinners. Lots of dyers love to work with Polwarth, so there’s a good variety of colors available, and Polwarth tends to be less over-processed than Merino tends to be, and thus less slippery, and it has a nice length of staple. Lots of it comes from small farms on the Falkland Islands, where the sheep and the land are treated with care.
Polwarth is next-to-skin soft for many people, but it’s sturdier than Merino and will hold up better under abrasion. It’s quite crimpy, so it makes yarns with good memory, and it’s great for all sorts of projects.
So, we’ve been talking about my five favorite wools for newer spinners: Bluefaced Leicester, Cheviot, Corriedale, Icelandic, and Polwarth. If any of these breeds are new to you, I encourage you to give them a try. And if you do, please let us know how you do over in The Flock, our free online community for inquisitive handspinners.
That’s it for me this week. Next time we’re starting a series that I’m really excited about; I’m going to interview some Sheepspotters about their spinning journeys, and I’ve got to say that I can’t wait.
Thank you so much for listening, darling, and I’ll see you next time right here on The Sheepspot Podcast!