So exactly how many pounds of Border Leicester have I spun?  I lost count years ago, but a guesstimate it’s around 500 pounds.  Yes, I love Border Leicester… now.  But it wasn’t always this way. 

In sheep longwool, I started out with Cotswold wool. Then the farm I purchased my wool from sold their flock.  Cotswolds are rare in the US and the fleece is hard to find to start with, and demands a high price per pound.  

So to Ebay I went.  I buy fleeces from Ebay from time to time.  I’ve found some wonderful farms with beautiful wool, and know which sellers to stay away from now because of less than spinning quality wool.  As an aside, Etsy also has some great farm sellers, as does the website Local Harvest.  But anyway, it was because of Ebay that I found the farm in Tennessee that is one of my staple farms I purchase raw wool from.  Of that aforementioned 500 pounds, at least 300 is theirs.  

Border Leicester is an English wool breed resulting from crossing English Leicester rams with Teeswater ewes.  The breed was supposedly brought to America by George Washington who kept a few at Mount Vernon.  Like most longwool sheep, the breed was on the decline during the 20th century until handspinners found the charm and uniqueness of the wool.  It is also a good lamb sheep breed, which also saved it from further decline.

Enough of the history lesson.  Border Leicester wool  is medium to high luster, with wide crimp.  I’ve found fleeces in white, as well as shades of brown.  Staple length of fleeces that have grown for a year range from 5 to 10 inches.  Many farms shear twice a year.  It is low grease which makes washing easy.  Most of the wool I have found is medium to very soft.  Lamb fleeces are very soft, and have a tighter crimp.  One lamb fleece had curly ends.

I love spinning the wool and do minimal preparation to keep the crimpy quality of it.  All I do is sit in front of the TV and fluff wool locks and spin the slightly opened fleece.  I have two wheels, and prefer my Louet S17 for my fleecespun yarns.  The bobbin lead system of this wheel versus the flyer lead system on my Ashford Kiwi pulls the yarn onto the bobbin quicker and leads to less chance of overspinning. 

I would love to say something poetic about the wool at this point but I will let the pictures of my handspun yarn do the talking. 

Let me start off by saying that I pretty much own every issue of Interweave Knits since 2005, so obviously I love the publication- along with all the special issues like Knit.Wear, Interweave Knits Accessories, and the Holiday Knits issues which I do own all copies of. 

When I got the new issue I must say I actually got very excited for the first time in a long time.  My favorite section in this issue is by far “Out by the Woodpile.”  The focus of the section is items with knit and purl pattern combos that create a thermal effect in the fabric. My favorite project was the Bucheron mitts.  I’m mostly a quick project knitter and these are easy and colorful.  I also loved three of the pullover projects- Feathernest Raglan, Winnepeg Pullover, and Nunavut Pullover.  All use in the round construction, which is the only way I have ever made a sweater.  The knitting needle sizes for these three pullovers range from size US5 to US8, so they would be (relatively) quick knits.  They have some texture to them which makes them interesting to look at and the pattern not so monotonous, but they are also easy to remember.

The two other sections are “Below the Mesa” and “Crossing Country.”  The first one highlights projects in “Southwestern” colors- muted reds, browns, with a splash of turquoise.  I though the Ojos de Dios Shawl was beautiful but the rest of the projects were not really inspiring to me.  I found the projects in Crossing Country too fussy for anything I would want to make except for one pattern- the Swivel Pullover.  It features cables that move from the front of the back.  I love this one so much I might actually tackle it this winter.

For lovers of lace like me, there’s an article about the patroness of Orenberg lace- Galina Khmeleva.  It has no patterns, it’s about the woman herself and talks about her quest to chart the history of Orenburg lace in Russia.  Piecework (another Interweave press publication) usually has a Khmeleva pattern in it more than not, so it was nice to learn about her and not just her work. 

There is also a handy, short and to the point interchangeable needle directory of the different brands of these knitting tools. 

Interweave Knits is available from http://www.interweavestore.com directly.  I have also picked it up at Joanns, Barnes and Noble, and Walmart.  

Breed name get your attention?  This name is not out of a comic book, there is a breed of sheep indeed named California Variegated Mutant.  So let's go back to the 1960s when a sheep farmer found among his flock of solid color (probably white) Romeldale sheep a multicolored one.  Over the years, at random times, the multicolored sheep would be born into the flock.  He bred the colored sheep with each other(each of the sheep had different mothers, so they were not inbred with siblings) and bam!- the California Variegated Mutant (CVM for short) breed was born.  The wool, like it's Romeldale parentage, is matte lustrous, fine, and soft.  

It is a rare breed and wool is not readily available, the skein below if only the second time I have ever spun this breed's wool.