Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Off the Spindle: Handspun Blue Faced Leicester



Blue Faced Leicester is a long wool breed of sheep.  It has a nice long staple length usually 3 to 6 inches long.

I recently purchased some beautiful hand dyed BFL roving in a colorway of brown, blue and grey.  I spun and plied it completely by hand using one of my tibetan style hand spindles. This particular fiber had a stable length of a little over 4 inches and a micron count of 25 - 28 microns but to me it felt softer than what the micron count would indicate.

From the 4.2 ounces of fiber I ended up with approximately 340 or so yards of two ply yarn.  So I should have enough yardage for a pair of fingerless gloves, a hat or a scarf. 

If you are interested in learning to spin, I think that BFL would make a nice fiber for the beginner spinner.  But it is certainly not just a beginner fiber.  It is a beautiful fiber with lovely drape and this particular fiber was quite soft too!  BFL makes for some lovely handspun yarn

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