There’s nothing I like more than handspinning a good pile of carded fluff or a rope of combed fibres, preferably with a whiff of hillside and lanolin. It soothes me when I’m homesick for hills. The act of sorting and washing raw fleece, drying and carding and drafting and spinning yarn, is a sensory experience which gives a special liveliness to the finished yarn. When I prepare raw wool for handspinning and then knitting, I feel an appreciation for the process, a direct connection to that sheep grazing somewhere.
I am currently knitting towards the finish of a cardigan. I started to spin the yarn for it 2 years ago. It is a top-down raglan, aran weight, the Felix cardigan by Amy Christoffers. You can find the pattern here (Ravelry link). It’s soft, dense and heavyish, and a dark chocolatey brown. I will hopefully be adding the mosaic buttons i know I have somewhere.
The wool fibre I’m using is from the Icelandic Leader sheep. These sheep are a related breed to Icelandic sheep and they have an important role in the flock as protectors and all-round ovine danger sensors. These sheep have a 6th sense, and can therefore predict bad weather, among their other talents.
The wool of the leadersheep is soft and strong, so it is a delight to spin. I bought the fibre from Daníel Hansen’s Forystufé stand at Pakhusstrik, the wonderful annual North Atlantic focused knitting festival at Nordatlantansbrygge in Copenhagen.
I have spun the yarn chain ply, a 3-ply technique that creates a super strong, rounded yarn. As a result, it literally cannot be broken with my hands, it’s that strong! However, it’s soft with a fluffy halo and I’m really looking forward to wearing it this winter.