Description
Firstly, apologies for the sub-par photos, these hand dyed Leicester Longwool locks bundles were created for a yarn show vending and are therefore already in their (compostable, non-plastic) bags. I didn’t want to remove them from their containers and damage the packaging.
If you love hand dyed curly wool locks, you’re in the right place – these 50g bundles are the perfect size for experimenting with, be it felting or spinning. There’s different colours for your to choose from, simply use the drop down menu above and the correct bundle photo will show as the main one.
Leicester Longwool sheep are a rare breed. These locks were sourced from a farm in England, where they are kept as pets and their fibre sold to help keep them well fed and taken care of.
This fleece came from a lovely sheep named Muriel, who is as cute as her sister Tasha shown in the last photo. She was kind enough to grow around 10-13cm long curly locks for us.
I scoured, hand washed these rare breed wool locks using a gentle, wool-specific detergent and lovingly hand dyed them.
Please be aware that a little bit of vegetable matter might still be present in these locks.
What are these curly wool locks good for?
Long wools with such well defined lock structure are fantastic for various crafts:
- Spinning – use them to spin art yarns and keep their natural curl formation. Or, comb the fibre and spin thin!
- Wet felting – adding locks to a felted work can yield some lovely textured results.
- Needle felting – these locks would make great curls for a funky sheep sculpture, or a colourful gnome’s beard. The choices are endless.
A little about the Leicester Longwool breed
The Leicester Longwool, also known as Bakewell Leicester, Improved Leicester and New Leicester, was originally developed by the breeding innovator Robert Bakewell in the 18th century.
They are among the world’s largest sheep breed. Their fleeces have beautiful and distinct locks with well-defined crimp, which can grow up to 36cm or 14″ long. Leicester Longwool sheep’s wool diameter ranges from 32 to 46 microns, making it a very soft, yet sturdy, fibre.
This breed is classified as “endangered” by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, with fewer than 500 registered breeding females remaining in the UK. In North America, the Leicester Longwool is preserved by the efforts of private breeders. *
Disclaimer on colours
I’ve done my very best to make sure colours run true in the photos, but please note that your monitor settings may differ from mine.
Tasha the sheep photo courtesy of Lee Hawkins of Cowarne Mill.
* – information gathered from Wikipedia and The Field Guide to Fleece (by Deborah Robson and Carol Ekarius).
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