Leiscester Longwool Sheep

Leicester Longwool, also known as English Leiscester, is listed as a critically rare breed by the Livestock Conservancy. This breed was developed by the breeder Robert Bakewell in the 1700's. His breeding program started with the Lincoln Longwool, which has a coarse fleece, is large boned and slow growing. The result was the Leiscester Longwool, a fast growing sheep, with a long staple, lustrous fleece. They are docile and easily handled. Most individuals are white, with an occasional black or silver grey. It has subsequently played a part in founding or improving many other Longwool breeds. This interested George Washington, who purchased a Leiscester Longwool ram to breed with his own flock.

This fleece is easy to spin on a wheel and it can be spun into a very fine, strong yarn on a drop spindle. I have found a drop spindle works better than a support spindle. You need the tension that the weight of the spindle provides. A long draw into a worsted yarn shows off the luster of this wonderful fiber. Leiscester Longwool makes a durable yarn suitable for outerwear and it gives good stitch definition to knitted items.

Roving from the Williamsburg flock is available in my Etsy shop: The Stone Whorl

Mabel

My friend, Ann Salter, who owns a wonderful fibers arts studio on the Isle of Skye, the Dragonfly Studio, in Skinidin, across Loch Dunvegan from the town of Dunvegan, sent me this picture of one of her lambs born in 2015, Mabel. Ann was not familiar with the Navajo-Churro and looked them up after seeing Churro wool for sale on my Etsy site. She noticed a similar facial pattern of the Churro's face to that of Mabel's. We both started thinking about what relationship this might reveal. 

After reading about Shetland genetics and colored wool and rereading about Churro sheep in M.L. Ryder's, Sheep and Man, here are some connections: they are both primitive breeds, unimproved by not having been bred with Merinos. They are small, hardy, and efficient grazers. They are both multi-colored breeds. These are generally traits shared by primitive breeds. The Churro were chosen by the Spanish to be left around their North and South American colonies because of these traits. They were food and fiber survival kits for subsequent explorers. Not only are they a similar phenotype, similar in how they look to the observer, the expression of these color patterns are due to their genotype, the Agouti gene in particular. The Agouti gene determines where color will be expressed and in what symmetrical pattern. In this case it is the Ab allele of that gene that produces the Badgerface. A Badgerface coloration pattern is the reverse of the natural wild coloration, which is light underneath and dark on the top of the body. 

Please be kind, I'm not a geneticist, if I've made a mistake in my explanation I'd appreciate input. 

I have been studying characteristics of the fleeces of primitive breed sheep for texture and finess as it influences how to spin it into yarn. This is my first foray into genetics and color patterns.

New Spindle

Out of the last kiln batch the most successful whorls were of the medieval type. The glaze colors are rustic and the feel is satiny, not glossy. They are held by friction to a shaft that has a belly, which prevents the cop from sliding on the shaft. To be on the safe side I use a tiny, clear hair elastic to make sure the whorl doesn't come off the shaft. I had linen / wool roving on hand that I had tried unsuccessfully to spin in the past.  Even after adjusting a wheel for minimal draw in and high twist, it was very frustrating, it just wouldn't hold together. The medieval support spindle is providing high twist and no weight on the yarn. It is working beautifully. The wool is merino and a little slippery, so I am spinning it from the fold. The result is a soft, but strong, lustrous yarn. 

The Right Spindle for the Job

One of the unexpected decisions I had to make, while exploring the various fleeces, was choosing the right spindle for a specific type of fleece. Originally, I was thinking that for comparison purposes the same tool should be used for all of them. It quickly became apparent that to successfully spin each into something pleasing and useable, different tools would be needed for the different qualities of each fleece. I took a Shetland fleece, one that was a middle of the road type for crimp, softness, and staple length, in addition to being something I was very familiar with and spun it on three different tools; high whorl drop spindle, low whorl drop spindle and a support spindle.  The results were noticeable but not surprising. The finest was from the support spindle, all were soft. From this point on I would sample each fleece, spinning small amounts on different tools and then deciding what worked best, which would be totally subjective. My overall goal was to explore clothing quality yarns spun from primitive breed sheep. I was looking for soft and touchable.