4. The Cheviot

I first got to touch Cheviot wool back in 2019 at the Loch Ness Knit fest. Graeme who owns Caithness yarns is farming Cheviots and he loves them as if they were his babies.  The 4th batch I got in the Advent calendar is a real treat, the texture is similar to merino, it has lustre and bounce. I spun it very thin and chain plied it. 

The name of the breed comes from a range of hills of north Northumberland and the Scottish borders where the sheep is very common. It is also bread in Scotland (where Caithness is located), Wales, Ireland and areas of southwest England. The sheep don't usually present horns and their faces and legs are wool free.

This wool has between 30-35 microns and comes from a shop called Flinkhand in Berlin. Unfortunately I didn't find more of it  on their website. I thought there might be a farm of Cheviots close by but again my hopes don't seem to match reality. 

I used my knitting needle gauge as a diz to create a pencil roving.

It's indeed easier to spin a roving pre-drafted through a diz but I find it too time consuming so after doing 3 pieces like this I just decided to spin out of the roving and it went fine. Here is the result: