Deborah Robson explores fibre from 38 rare and endangered breeds of sheep from Great Britain and North America.|In Handspinning Rare Wools, Deborah Robson explores fibre from 38 rare and endangered breeds of sheep from Great Britain and North America. Her knowledge of their history and characteristics is deep, her stories are intriguing, and her passion for saving and savoring the basic materials of our craft is palpable.
In Handspinning Rare Wools, Robson covers the most interesting and vulnerable of:
Northern European short-tailed sheep (plus an intriguing mystery breed)
Old Brit'sh breeds introduced in Roman times
Rare English longwools
Classic English Down breeds
Welsh and Border breeds
American originals
American feral and semi-ferals.
You'll learn that washing, carding, combing, spinning, and finishing these fibres is a never-ending experiment filled with surprises. You'll see the unexpected variety ? from wool that feels like jute to wool that stretches and bounces back like tiny bungees. You'll hear stories about specific sheep breeders who have made a difference ? a hundred or three hundred years ago. You'll have your ideas of fineness and softness and staple length turned on end.
