Fat Cats Corner

  Photo Credit The Lincoln is one of the four English longwool breeds: Cotswold, Leicester Longwool, Lincoln and Wensleydale. The Lincoln has had a globally significant genetic impact on sheep breeding but today, like most other longwool breeds, the Lincoln is globally rare and facing an uncertain future.  The Lincoln became globally rare during the 1900's.  By 1980 there were fewer than 1,000 purebred Lincoln ewes remaining in Britain.  Since then, numbers in the breed have increased due to a revival of interest in the breed's wool. The wool can grow between 8 and 15 inches per year, which means that Lincolns are often sheared twice a year to keep the staple a manageable 5 inches or so for spinning. With a micron count between 36 - 40, Lincoln wool is a heavier wool that tends to be best suited for outerwear, rugs and pillows. It is very long, sleek, shiny and has very low crimp. The long staple made it very easy to spin and the high micron count makes it great for a tough

Photo rights  bib.ge Just look at those long  Teeswater  locks!! Here is an introduction from The Fleece and Fiber Sourcebook (Robson, Ekarius, 2011) "It is named for the River Tees, the river meanders about 85 miles from Cross Fell (the highest   summit in the Pennines) to the North Sea. "Long, lustrous, shiny wool: That's what its all about with the Teeswater. The locks hang individually   and don't clump together. There is no Kemp or dark fibres, and the wool is uniform throughout the fleece. Because of the length (6-15 inches) yarns with a low twist work out well. It is a reluctant felting wool, at best."  Page 116. The wool has a micron count of 30-35. I keep mentioning micron count but I don't think I ever explained it. (Not that anyone interested couldn't have just Googled it.)  Microns are a measure of fiber diameter. The smaller the micron count a particular wool has, the softer it is to the touch. The larger the micron count, the more hair

  " Herdwick   are a breed of domestic sheep native to the Lake District in North West England. (I'd love to visit there.) Though low in lambing capacity and perceived wool quality when compared to more common commercial breeds, Herdwicks are prized for their robust health, their ability to live solely on forage, and their tendency to be territorial and not stray over the difficult upland terrain of the Lake District. They are a dual purpose breed, producing strongly flavored lamb (meat from a sheep younger than a year) and mutton (meat from a sheep older than one year, up to three  years) and a coarse, grey wool not easily dyed and is best suited for carpet wool."    Weavers use Herdwick for warp and weft. At first appearance Herdwick looks more hair-like than wool. It is a very coarse , hard wearing wool, between 30 and 40 microns and a staple length of 3 to 3.5 inches. I love the natural color variations but found the kemp  hairs annoying.  Could very well just be t