Gotland

I have just started dealing with some washed Gotland from Treenway Silks. This is the second fleece from them - the first one wasn't nice at all so they gave me a good price for a replacement. It's a very pretty color with a dark gray undercoat and shades of silver top coat.

This picture is a bird's-eye-view of my little storage box. At the top are some of the shorter, darker fibers that I assume are undercoat. I flicked them and they are nice and soft and fluffy. At the bottom are little nests of combed and dizzed fiber from the long locks of the outer coat.

I'm not sure how I feel about this fiber. It is very clean without much vegetable matter but there is a bit of scurf in the locks. The long hairs remind me of mohair and I think would make a lovely shawl with pretty lustre. The undercoat is nice but not as soft as my preferred fine wools like Merino, Polwarth, Rambouillet, etc.

Any fleece would be hard pressed to top the elite Polwarth fleece that I got from Rovings. It is incredibly beautiful and well worth the extra cost to get the best quality. I can think of so many things to knit with it with its next-to-the-skin softness. I suppose that what I find comfortable to wear influences my preference for the fine wools.

I spent a fair bit of time spinning on the Lendrum today. It is a fast wheel with a lot of momentum and it doesn't take much treadling to bring out its giddy-up! I naturally treadle quickly and the wheel was flying with me using the regular flyer. I also bought the fast flyer and I would imagine I will be able to spin cotton easily with that one.

Now I will wait until tomorrow to see if my knees are happy with this wheel. If so, I will probably be selling the Majacraft Pioneer. It's great little wheel but I think I like more momentum than it can produce. The Pioneer's lack of momentum does give very good control of the wheel so makes it perfect for beginners and most of the Majacraft accessories fit on the Pioneer too so it has a lot of versatility. And, of course, it doesn't have to be the plain sister of the Majacraft family if you have some of my sister's talent.