Homegrown Ryeland Wool Sliver - 200g Colourwork Set

Want to try all three of our Ryeland wool colours?  This is a colourwork set, contains 100g of the pale grey and 50g each of cream and dark grey, giving you a total of 200g of wool fibre.

You'll find a little vegetable matter (VM) in these, as my sheep enjoy their winter hay and the mill washes the fleeces gently so VM isn't always stripped out.  It drops out easily during spinning.  Since the fibre's been gently washed, there's some residual lanoliin in the wool, which results in a smooth spinning experience, the lanolin's easy to wash out after spinning.

This year we sent most of our Ryeland wool to Halifax Mill for processing into sliver for spinning.  They've done a wonderful job on it, the fibre is beautifully carded, nep-free and full of its natural Ryeland bounce.  Ryeland wool will wet felt, but it does take some extra work compared with an easy-felting wool such as Shetland or merino.  Our Ryeland sliver does needle felt beautifully.  

Sliver is made from carded fibre, so this preparation is perfect for longdraw spinning, although it will spin up beautifully from a worsted draw too.  Ryeland wool makes a super bouncy yarn with great elasticity and little tendency to felt.