Transcript for
Episode 69: Meet the Multi-coated Breeds
You’re listening to The Sheepspot Podcast, a show for handspinners about making yarn we love.
Hello there, my darling Sheepspotters! Welcome to episode 65 of The Sheepspot Podcast.
I’m Sasha, from sheepspot.com, where we are laser-focused on helping you make yarns you love, with beautiful fibers and top-notch instruction.
Today, we’re talking about the multi-coated sheep and their wools. I’ll cover breeds to look for, washing and prep suggestions, some tips and tricks for spinning these fibers, and some advice about how best to use them.
Let’s dive in!
What makes a wool “multi-coated"?
Multi-coated sheep grow at least two kinds of fiber: wool and hair. Wool is relatively fine and is made more elastic by virtue of growing in a wavy pattern called crimp. Hair fibers, on the other hand, are stronger than wool, but they are also generally more coarse. They are also straight, smooth, and inelastic.
Usually, the wool fibers are shorter and softer than the hairs, which serve to keep the sheep warm and dry by wicking water away from the sheep’s body.
Some sheep also grow a fiber called kemp; kemp is a thick, brittle white fiber that doesn’t take dye.
What breeds of sheep are “multi-coated”?
There are multi-coated sheep all over the world, but several of them are grouped under the larger heading of “Northern European Short-Tailed” sheep. These breeds are sometimes called “primitive.” They’re mostly quite small sheep that large-scale agriculture has overlooked, so most have not been subject to intensive selective breeding efforts to “improve” them.
Boreray*
Icelandic*
Herdwick
American Karakul
North Ronaldsay*
Navajo Churro
Ouessant*
Scottish Blackface
Soay*
Romanov*
(some) Shetland*
(some) Finnsheep (Finnish Landrace)*
Which of these breeds are easy to find in mill-prepped form, and which will I likely have to seek out as fleeces?
Widely available commercially: Shetland
Available: Icelandic, Finnsheep
Unusual: American Karakul, Scottish Blackface, Soay, Romanov
Very unusual: Boreray, North Ronaldsay, Navaho Churro, Ouessant, Soay, Romanov
Note that most commercially-prepared multi-coated wools combine all parts of the fleece. If you can find a fleece and prepare it yourself you’ll have many more choices and much more control over your final yarn.
Washing suggestions
If you’re going to separate the fleece you can do it before or after washing, but it might be easier to separate the coats from each other if the wool is clean. I don’t do anything special with these fleeces when I wash them; I just put them into lingerie bags as usual and soak them in very hot water and Unicorn Power Scour. Generally I do two washes and two rinses unless the fleece is very, very dirty (see episode 18 for more information).
Prep suggestions
With some fleeces you may be able to separate the coats easily by simply pulling the hairs out from the end of the lock. Hold the base of the--the cut end--lock in one hand and pull out the hairs with the other.
You can also separate the coats by loading the locks onto a comb and pulling out the hairs by hand, or using the other comb. If you go the latter route, just be careful to engage just the tips of the long hairs with the comb, working slowly up the lock, and stopping before you reach the shorter, finer fibers. Your goal is to transfer just the hairs from one comb to the other. Then you can decide how you want to work with each part of the coat.
Some multi-coated fleeces, though, are easier to separate than others. In these fleeces the different fibers may be more similar in length, so the tricks I’ve mentioned don’t work as well. And in some fleeces the fibers are just stickier and want to stay together more. When working with this kind of fleece, it’s up to you to decide how much you want to fiddle with it. Remember that spinning is supposed to be fun; sometimes it’s best to let the fleece call the shots.
Spinning suggestions
Again, there’s a lot of variation within and between the breeds in this group, so it’s hard to give very wide ranging advice. And whether you are working with mill-prepped or hand-prepped fiber is also going to make a big difference in how you spin.
If you’re spinning just the shorter, finer undercoat, you’ll likely want to spin it woolen due to the short staple. You can do so either from the “cloud” of fiber that’s left after you’ve removed the guard hairs, or card them into rolags if you have time for an additional step.
On the other hand, if you’re just spinning the guard hairs, I’d use a worsted method (short forward draft) and spin more or less as I would a long wool, keeping the twist pretty low and remembering to keep my hands further apart than usual.
If you’re working with a preparation that mixes all the coats together, you might want to use either a worsted or a woolen method. Again, sampling is your friend.
Project suggestions
I love these fleeces because they can become so many things, and I love to think about the historic function these sheep and their fibers have served for their human communities for millenia. Need a large, soft lace shawl that can fit through a wedding band? Need to make halters for your animals? Need some strong, serviceable twine. If you’ve got a Shetland or Icelandic sheep handy, you’ve got a one-stop shop!
That’s it for me this week. Next week we are going to dive even deeper into the multi-coated breeds with a breed spotlight on one of the breeds in this category, the North Ronaldsay. These sheep have an amazing story; I can’t wait to share it with you.
Also, before I go, I want to remind you that my membership program for inquisitive spinners, The Sheepspotters’ Society, will be open for just four days this month. That’s from Monday, January 20 at 9 am Eastern time through Thursday, January 23 at 5 p.m. The price will be $29 USD/month or $309 for the full year. If you’re interested in getting an affordable, comprehensive, and convenient spinning education, The Sheepspotters’ Society is the way to do it, and I’d love to have you join us. You can get a reminder when doors open by heading over to sheepspot.com/tss.
Thank you so much for joining me! I’ll talk to you again next week. Until then, go spin something!