When applying for this residency, I designed a project working with Icelandic fleece. I wasn’t even sure I would be get my hands on any raw fleece, but I managed to find a source through the friend of a friend and have been playing with the little bits I have. I am looking at how Icelandic works for tapestry yarn and getting a lot of spinning practice in in the process.
I had to work with the fleece I was able to get. A little bit of it is outstanding, lots of it is spinnable but not great, and some of it is not going to make the tapestry cut though I have been considering trying to spin it for knitting.
My tapestry yarn woven test includes these sources. All but the fleece I purchased either at the Handknitters Association of Iceland in Reykjavik or in grocery stores in the rural north. The Plotulopi came from the Kidka Wool Factory Shop in Hvammstangi.
raw fleece
Einband: a lace-weight singles yarn made by Istex that is quite nice for tapestry
Plotulopi: the traditional unspun roving sold in plates
Lettlopi: mostly I’m making a pair of traditional mittens from this, but it actually weaves quite well also. Worsted weight.
Double coated fleece: Icelandic
Icelandic fleece, both coats
A quick primer on double coated fleece. The sheep grow two coats. The outercoat is very long and thicker and the inner coat is shorter and can be quite soft. It is possible to spin the two coats together which is what the Istex processing center does. When hand spinning you can separate the two coats fairly easily. I found when spinning the two coats together by hand, spinning in the grease is easier. There is not a lot of lanolin in Icelandic fleece and spinning before washing is rather nice.
tog: the long outer coat of the Icelandic sheep
thel (þel): the inner shorter coat of the Icelandic sheep
Icelandic Sheep on the Skagi peninsula
Tapestry woven yarn samples
My tapestry yarn woven test include these sources. All but the fleece I purchased either at the Handknitters Association of Iceland in Reykjavik or in grocery stores in the rural north.
raw fleece
Einband: a lace-weight singles yarn made by Istex that is quite nice for tapestry
Plotulopi: the traditional unspun roving sold in plates
Lettlopi: mostly I’m making a pair of traditional mittens from this, but it actually weaves quite well also. Worsted weight.
The image below is my woven yarn sample. I wanted to see what the yarns would look like in tapestry. I thought I would like the Einband the best since it is a pretty even singles yarn, but I think the handspun looks best mostly due to the sheen and the color variations from the undyed fleece. The other yarns are processed by Istex and though they make wonderful yarn and I think it is marvelous for knitting, a lot of the character of the fleece is lost in the processing. I think my second favortite is actually the Plotulopi which I’ve added some twist to. I haven’t tried weaving the roving without twisting it though it is used this way in knitting.
The tag in the image has the yarns upside down. The handspun is on the top, then moving down, the Lettlopi, spun Plotulopi, and Einband at the bottom.
Woven yarn tests of Icelandic yarns
Sod house: Tapestry diary
I also wanted to use my handspun yarn to weave some tapestries about this place. I’ve done this at every artist residency I’ve been to and it has been one of my most valued practices of these times. Early in our trip we saw a replica sod house from the outside and I was struck by the pattern of the stacked sod. Apparently they used many different patterns in stacking the sod, but this diagonal stack seems the most common. Later we were able to visit a ruined town with sod houses from the early 1900s and I saw more of this diagonal stacking.
Sod house replica, Iceland. This was a pattern I wanted to use in a tapestry diary piece.
Sod house ruin at Kalfshamarsvik, town inhabited from about 1900-1930.
I’ve been sometimes frustrated by this fleece and sometimes triumphant. The fleece I have to work with is a wide range in quality. A little bit of it is excellent and a lot of it is lower grade and gives me trouble. The fleece for the sod house was no exception. I used one of my first spinning experiments to weave it and it was so fuzzy it is hard to see the pattern in the wedge weave. I used the tog and thel from the same fleece for the two colors as the tog is darker, stiffer, and more reflective.
The blue and gray portion of the tapestry reflects the colors of the landscape, water, and sky most days in April in Iceland. I used gray natural colored fleece and carded some dyed Icelandic fleece I bought in Reykjavik into it for a slightly blue-gray. The lightest blue is Einband singles. The tapestry was woven with the Fringeless four-selvedge warping method.
Sod house tapestry in progress, detail of the browns
Rebecca Mezoff, Iceland: Sod House, 2.5 x 8 inches, handspun Icelandic wool, wool, cotton
Wool combs in Iceland?
After a search for wool combs, I finally accepted that they don’t use them here. I would definitely use combs on this fleece at home, but I talked to an Icelandic sheep farmer, spinner, and magic-maker at the Textile Center, Johanna Palmadottir, and she gave me a short lesson on how they use handcards here. Once I saw her actually carding the tog, I realized I could diz it from the cards. Johanna had a skilled method of pulling the tog off the cards and making a little nest of it in her hand which she spins from. I knew I would be more successful with a diz as it might take me months to master pulling it off without the assist. I had fortunately stuck a big button in my spinning kit and it worked fine to pull the tog off the combs.
Spinning samples
I have been keeping records of my experiments.
Using a diz to pull Icelandic tog off handcards. The carding was done VERY carefully—using the cards like combs as much as possible.
These are the only wool combs I could find. They’re about 10 inches across and I’m guessing are the exact combs used in Grettis’ saga to kill someone. These are in the Textile Museum in Blonduos. The director of the museum kindly offered to loan me a similar pair but I declined.
My friend loaned me this beautiful little Louet Victoria wheel. It is bobbin led which is different for me, but I have been able to adjust it for various trials and have enjoyed using it. I am able to try many more things than I could if I only had my spindle.
When I got to the upper part of the tapestry I wanted to include some colors of the water and sky. I spun some mixed gray fleece from one sheep and another yarn with some dyed blue Icelandic fleece carded into the same gray. Because the yarns in the lower part of the weaving were so fuzzy, I also incorporated some Einband Icelandic commercially spun yarn which helped keep some of the fuzziness down and allowed the colors to show more.
Handspun used in the sod house tapestry top portion plus Einband
I’m still spinning and have more tapestry ideas. I’ll weave as many as I can before I have to leave this beautiful place.
A huge pile of thanks and gratitude to:
my fleece supplier and the friends who introduced me to him
Jillian Moreno for ALL the Icelandic tips, ideas, book lists, materials tips, and most especially the spinning advice.
Maggie Casey for teaching me that spinning from an unprepped fleece is magical and giving me the confidence to at least try spinning just about anything
Kate Larson for that fantastic class at YarnFest a few years ago where I actually got to separate a dual coated sheep fleece and thus had at least a bit of an idea of what I might be doing here
my housemates in Iceland who have put up with bits of fleece EVERYWHERE