Whitefaced Woodland

Occasionally, I find myself pleasantly surprised about a wool. Though Whitefaced Woodland is technically a ‘coarse’ wool, with a micron count of 28-38mn (and containing kemp hair), it had a lot of potential as a sweater/jumper wool. I use the term ‘coarse’ in quotes to emphasise that I’m not entirely committed to the idea of wools being coarse or fine, per se, but rather apt for certain applications. For example, though merino is considered a ‘fine’ wool, with a micron count between 14-23, it won’t hold up as nicely to repetitive wear. Part of the reason why I created my Fiber Talk series was to address what ‘medium’ and ‘coarse’ wools would be good for.

Left (woollen), middle (semi-worsted), right (worsted). Handspun Whitefaced Woodland.

Soft wools like merino seemed to fit in this metaphorical hierarchy at the top of the desirable traits list, with silkiness and poofiness being the other two nodes, containing BFL and rambouillet respectively. BFL is very silky, but not poofy, while rambouillet is the opposite. Merino, however, had equal parts silkiness and poofiness. So, why wasn’t merino used for everything, and why were the opinions of other spinners so varied?

I tend to get really busy with a full time job and running a business, so side projects like typical breed studies, where you might have a process of treating each wool in the same way and documenting the process/experience, I struggle to be so organised. The Fiber Talk episodes I have published on YouTube are meant to educate and inform, not be an assessment of the wool as a whole. In a way, I am free to explore what I think the wool is capable of, not be a ‘how'-to’ guide on what to do with it. Simply because a label has been applied as a shorthand to understand to which category it belongs in terms of touch, is not the same as what it can do. I think this is the case with Whitefaced Woodland.

In the recent Fiber Talk Episode 21, I discuss at length how I was surprised by this wool. Yes, it has a large micron diameter and it is classified as a coarse wool, but there is room for quite a bit of versatility. Because the focus of the breed was on its meat quality, the fleece quality can be variable…in both directions. I suspect my fleece was on the finer side, possibly around 30 microns. Please check out the video where I talk about my thoughts and experiences with this wool, and what I plan to make with it!