Gotland

Gotland wool is gray, shiny

and rather coarse.

Once I'd seen some lovely things, mainly wonderful vessels,

that someone made, in a little studio in Rotterdam.

We needed some coarse wools for Fiona's SDO class, 

so I ordered some Gotland 

along with the other Merino colours

that I normally use.

The big ball of gray (top left) is the non-felting wool Heideschnucke

and right below that in the plastic bag, is the Gotland.

300 gramms ... 

just as much as the big ball of white Merino below it !!!

Gotland has 30 + microns !

(the shiny white is silk)

I wanted to make a big vessel of the Gotland

and do some more craters as well.

(because Fiona thought I used coarse wool in the bag flap with craters 

that I posted on the class-blog, but that was all Merino)

I laid out my usual two layers of merino on both sides of the big resist,

then I put down the silk and cotton-viscose mix fabrics 

and covered that with two layers of Gotland ...

added some Gotland curls on the top edge and started felting.

When it came to cutting into the wool to open the craters

I couldn't find them on the outside ,

so I was glad I could locate them on the inside !!!

Grrrrr ... the silk came loose : probably to densely woven 

The last part of felting and fulling the Gotland was tough work :

the wool was not smooth but really coarse by then,

my hands weren't "happy" at all !!!

You see, a good deal of shrinkage, 

but the crater edges were rather fuzzy and not crisp and firm 

like on the merino bag flap!

And you know what :

the Gotland "ate up" all the red Merino of the inside !!!!!

Only a haze of red colour was left

(some lessons learned)