Leicester longwool

I bought a gorgeous fleece (two actually!) from a local Leicestershire shepherd about three years ago. I’ve gotten down to the last bits of the fleece which I am trying to dye in advance of the Melton fiber show that is happening September 10-11. What I love about dyeing this wool is its lustre. In many ways it’s like mohair, but much stronger due to it being slightly coarser. However, ‘coarser’ isn’t really what I’d want to emphasize here.

I’ll be adding a few new dye batches of the Leicester long wool to the shop so I thought I’d say a few words about it now since I haven’t made a Fiber Talk video about it yet. My first experience with this wool was in the form of combed top that I dyed and spun into a loose single. I’ve lost that sample in storage (it’s somewhere, I just couldn’t tell you which continent it is on!), but I remember being totally unimpressed with it.

Now that I am in the UK and in Leicester, home of the breed, I have a few more things to say about it. First, it is way softer than you would think. Well, it can be softer than you might find commercially. Being able to buy the fleece in person is a huge boon. But there’s on other factor that I think makes Leicester long wool fleeces superior: when the animals are raised on grass and kept by a shepherd who is also a spinner, you reap the reward. Being combusted (to remove vegetable matter), completely scoured, and combed into a top removes everything wonderful about this fleece. It is meant to retain its texture.

Why? I believe that, amongst other reasons, this texture has to do with sheep raised in the UK countryside. The rain falls in various capacities. Sometimes it drizzles. Sometimes it sprays. Occasionally, it pours. The curly ringlet structure of these locks keep the dripping wet off the animal so they stay warm and dry underneath. The wetness enhances those curls, bringing the curl into tight definition. And you only have to ask a girl with curly hair to know how true this statement is. I do next to nothing to my hair. I wash it, condition it, then I add tons of moisturizers and let the damp curls hang. I am rewarded with soft, bouncy curls that fall into gorgeous little ringlets.

I’ll talk more about the spinning potential of Leicester long wool when I sit down to make more Fiber Talk videos, but hopefully this has given you a little insight—from a girl with curls—about the wonderful properties of this precious sheep breed.