Sunday 5 January 2014

Hand spun Shetland fleece: long draw and inch worm technique

I bought a whole Shetland fleece before Christmas. I sorted the fleece and discarded the base of the staple. This is because Shetland sheep have inherited the ability to shed their fleece, however, this has only partially retained by them these days but it means that there is a weakness in the staple. This is why I discarded the base of the staple. I also skirted the fleece for debris and short cuts before I washed it in shampoo. I rinsed the fleece 3 times before I got rid of excess water by putting it in the washing machine for a short spin. The fleece was dried for a few days on nets pegged to a clothes maiden. I hand carded the fleece and spun half of it using long draw and the rest using inch worm technique. I did not count the twists per inch but I plied it using the Navajo technique (3ply). You can see that the skeins on the left are more poofy and were spun using long draw, the skeins on the right were made using inch worm technique. I prefer the look of the ones on the right but I quite like doing the long draw. 


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