Teeswater wool

Yesterday, the postmaster mistress said to me: “Wait, you have a package!”. I almost forgot about it, the only package that I was waiting for was coming from the UK but, apparently there was a delay due to some sort of postal workers strike. She handled to me the package and indeed, it was my teeswater wool!

I have seen this wool on pictures only, so I didn’t know what to expect. As I opened the plastic bag,  I could see the bits and pieces of the wool showing from the holes. When I had all the wool in front of me, I was gleaming with happiness. I didn’t know how long the curls where.

The length of the wool varies from 8 to 12 inches.

I did a little bit of research online about this breed, and I found that this is one of the rarest sheep in the UK. Its origins are from Teesdale in County Durham and to this day they are only 300 pedigree breeding ewes. Many years ago, the farmers used to wash the sheep prior to the sharing, by letting them swim in streams for a few minutes, thus letting the wool float so the water would penetrate the fiber and getting rid of unwanted debris and the excess of the lanolin. Now days, it is illegal to use the natural streams to wash the wool this way, but they still have the practice of washing the wool by letting them swim in man made pools. The wool retains its curl after being washed.

It has a beautiful buttery color, but I’m sure it will go away after washing it. I’m planning to spin the long tail technique. I will post more about my progress.

I tried to find a pic to post here from Wikipedia, but I didn’t find anything.  Here is an image of the sheep that came in the package.

They are so cute!

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me !