Comparing different wool types for spinning yarn

I work with a lot of different breeds of sheep wool here at the mill. Lately I have been busy washing and carding up different breeds of natural white wools. I kept a sample of their locks for comparison and wanted to share a bit about each of the pictured breeds as they apply to handspinners. 

1. Merino. The most well known of all the sheep breeds. Merino has a wonderful crimp making it a very bouncy yarn. Plus it is one of the finest of wools making it comfortable to wear next to skin. For handspinning I would recommend waiting a bit to spin this merino wool. It can be extra slick to spin (meaning it will slip through your hands quickly) and often has a shorter staple length so is not the easiest breed to learn on. 

2. Gulf Coast Native. This breed is often found in southeast US states among other places and is currently registered as a critically endangered breed by the American Livestocks Breed Conservancy. It is a lovely wool, often overlooked and not always easy to find. The handle is going to vary from next to skin soft to better for outerwear or mittens and hats. The staple length averages a lovely 3-4 inches which is a great length for beginning handspinners. 

3. Shetland. I am a bit biased about Shetland as I have my own small flock. That said this is a wonderful and versatile breed. The wool tends to fluctuate wildly depending on what the breeder is breeding for. There are single coated Shetlands whose wool tends to be on the finer end and often is better for next to skin wear. There are also the traditional double coated Shetlands. They often have very fine parts to their fleece and other more coarse parts. Shetland fiber tends to spin wonderfully making it a nice beginner fiber for handspinners. And it comes in a wide variety of natural colors!

​4. Wool cross breeds. Sheep that are a cross of different breeds of sheep can have some of the most beautiful fiber, especially if they are being bred for wool. Generally these shepherds are taking the best attributes of the different breeds wool types and aiming for the best. An example is the above pictured Blue Faced Leicester/Shetland cross. The BFL puts out a lovely "french fry" crimp and nice soft wool. The Shetland adds its own wonderful qualities as described above helping to curb some of the felting that can happen with BFL and keep the fiber a nice length. Combined the wool from these sheep was easy to wash, card and practically spun itself. While purebred sheep breeds are wonderful to spin and more predictable in fiber type, keep an eye out for interesting cross breeds as well!

Interested in spinning any of these fibers? I process loads of U.S. grown wool through my wool mill. I take my time to be able to produce lovely fibers that make handspinning a dream. To shop Ewethful processed fibers head to my online shop...

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