Beautiful Border Leicester Wool
Posted By Sandy Wilson on March 7, 2010
Raw Wool - Sheared from White Border Leicester Sheep
We recently had our sheep sheared and we are awaiting the sheep to give birth to most of our lambs, although we have had a few early ones. Above is a picture of the raw wool, not yet washed. You can see the wool has beautiful curls and has such luster even though unwashed at this point. I love these sheep and their wool is a wonderful to spin.
Washed Wool - still damp and drying.
Here is some of the wool washed and being dried. It is absolutely beautiful and so white. It’s going to be a joy when I spin it. I love the long staple wool for spinning and this wool is so soft when processed by hand.
Roving - Border Leicester Wool
Above is some of the roving that was made from this batch of wool. It has such luster and shine and it so soft to touch. I used my 5-pitch combs to align the fibers and then my Diz to pull through some roving. Now it is ready to spin. I can’t wait. I need to wash alot more wool though before I spin, because once I start, I can’t stop. It is very addicting once you get going.
Close up of roving.
The roving is so white and clean. Even if my wool has a little bit of vegetation in it after picking it and combing it, the tiny remaining pieces usually come out beautifully by using my combs and I get a lovely roving that is so clean and lofty looking. I am thinking of possibly adding some German Shepherd hair to the combs next time and add it to my roving to give a really soft touch to the wool. It is really neat that you can add almost any type of hair and do blends into your original sheep wool and get a really beautiful look. Might even have to make a felted ball of wool for my dogs to play with as a toy. I am sure they will enjoy that, especially if it smells like the sheep!