I just love working with English Leicester fleece – it takes dye fabulously, has a luster to dye for and the curls are just so damn gorgeous. And for a bonus, the raw fleece is nowhere near as dirty as my alpacas.

English Leicester needle felts well too, and imparts an oil paint like richness and shine, especially with wool paintings. The featured image with this post – “Sunflowers” – is needle felted EL on hand dyed cotton.