Name that fleece

In message , Vintage Purls writes

The merino that I have bought has staples of only about 3 inch. Shirley

It looks like a ladies hair. then if not it could be goat.

Stella

Luster longwool for sure, that's never merino!

L>Hi all,

Not merino. One of the braid breeds such as Leicester, or Cotswold.

Thank you all for you input.

I washed a staple last night and oh, it's so beautiful. The cleaning really brought out the sheen (which only adds to fuel to my hunch that it's Leicester).

I haven't heard back from the seller yet but I don't think I'll want to return the fleece, I'm quite taken with it now (not that I'm going to tell them that - they sold something under a false description).

VP

Okay, either I'm going crazy and I've pushed the "discard" button instead of "send" twice this morning or the system is playing up today (I suspect it may be the former - I'm not at my finest this very moment).

I washed a staple of the fleece last night and it's so beautiful. The clean really brought out the luster so I'm pretty confident in calling this Leicester I think.

I haven't heard back from the seller yet but I'm pretty sure I'm not returning the fleece - it isn't what I thought I was buying but it's still a good bargin ($5 for over a kilo). Not that I intend to tell them how pleased I am with it - they sold something under an inaccurate description.

Thanks for all you advice.

VP

Off list someone suggested this may be mohair (as in Angora goat). The washed staple is incredibly soft and it certainly is fine. The woman i bought it off got it to make doll wigs which leads me to believe she may have misherd mohair as merino.

I've never seen an angora goat let alone felt it's fleece. Can anyone give me an idea of how I might tell if this is mohair?

VP

well, it's def. not merino, as you said. Not only too looong stapled (unless it's your own Shrek the sheep LOL) but merino has a much crimpier nature, almost frizzy. The mohair I have seen is honestly like angel hair, that lock looks like a leicester to me too.

Taueret

Looks to me like the seller didn't know the difference between merino and mohair. How does it feel?

Very soft and smooth. It's the smoothness that makes me wonder if it isn't sheep. This stuff is very smooth, almost like silk smoothness.

(Having now written "smooth" a number of times I've noticed how odd a word it is. One of those ones you start to wonder if you've spelt right when you see it repeatedly.)

VP

I think it looks like Cotswold, also known as, "Poor man's mohair" because it does look like mohair. Also, the Cotswold is one of the smoothest and most lustrous of the wools.

See

Thanks Aaron. Those samples seem to have more crimp than mine (though I realise none of those pictures are straight Cotswold). But you are right, a strong contender.

Hmm, maybe I should give up trying to find a deifinitive identification and just roll with "nice fleece". Now I must ask myself what should I make with said "nice fleece"? And then work out what type of yarn I shall spin from it.

VP

I'm not a spinner, but I have heard/read that some wools are very odd, they don't shrink, they don't felt, etc - maybe you want to spin a small swatch and test the yarn for shrinkage, bloom, etc,

=Tamar