Post by @Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden

2026-07-20 05:19 UTC

#TourDeFleece Stage 15 Tonight I spun Exmoor Horn, which according to Fleece & Fiber is "a meat breed, so their wool is an interesting, overlooked by-product. Wool data is scarce." The book's hands-on description comes from a single sample that "felt very crisp, nearly crunchy, with some spring to it." I'm not sure if I'd call the fiber I got crunchy, but it is definitely not as soft as the Lonk I spun last night. The fibers were long (6") and relatively straight, more than I'd expect from the photo in F&F. It was quite easy to spin! (F&F notes this too.) I easily got into a smooth rhythm of semi-woolen long-draw (long, slow drafting, but with lots of little releases of twist along the way). I was able to get even results, thicker than my usual fur singles. Kemp was rare enough that I didn't mind pausing to pick it out as I came across it. However, F&F suggests a worsted spin, so I did a bit of inchworming the last ~25%, which also was nice and smooth, and tended towards finer singles even though I tried to keep it thicker. Sadly, I didn't mark the transition between the two, because now I want to ply the woolen and worsted singles independently to see how they compare. I guess I'll just have to see if I can spot it by eye. #TourDeFleece2026 #HandSpinning

Replies (1)

@Paws2Spindle@sunny.garden 2026-07-21 02:59

#TourDeFleece Rest Day # 2 No spinning, but I did transfer my Tibetan Mastiff / merino blends to skein/hank format for better side-by-side comparison. Making up for my unofficial rest day last Friday. In these photos, top to bottom: - 2:1 TM/Dark Chocolate (purple ties) 3-ply -2:1 TM/Espresso (orange ties) 3-ply large & 2-ply small - 3:1 TM/Espresso (yellow ties) 3-ply I'd already done a 1:1 TM/Espresso blend, and found that it really didn't have the fuzzy halo you get from 100% fur yarn: it was just a brown yarn. So, the bottom 2 blends are to see if I can get more of that halo back with a smaller fraction of wool, while still keeping the benefits of wool's "memory". The fur is much harder to come by, so the more wool I can get away with, the longer I can make the fur last. The 3:1 does indeed look fuzzier than the 2:1, so I'm quite curious now how it'll compare after wash, thwack/snap, and swatch. The Dark Chocolate is a slightly redder brown merino from a different sheep from the same flock. It's still subtle, but you can see the difference from the Espresso a little more here than on the bobbins. It brings out the redder tones in the fur, whereas the Espresso is a better match for the dark browns in the fur. #TourDeFleece2026 #HandSpinning #Chiengora

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