British Wool Samples

I fell into temptation with some woolie fibres from Etsy again. This time I've acquired a couple of sample packs of British fibre from a store called The Double Ewe. I have previously played with some Dorset Horn and small amounts of North Ronaldsay, Merino/Shetland and Merino/BFL blends, but mainly merino or merino/silk mix.

My interest in the British breeds stems from my awareness of the conservation efforts to promote breeds aside from merino to help with biodiversity. Since merino has become the main 'cash crop' of the wool world and thus monopolising the wool market, the more historic and traditional breeds have fell to the wayside. This is has not only been the case with sheep, but with other animals and crops - known as the decline in agrobiodiversity. When one breed or food variety is capitalised upon and globalised, the biodiversity of agriculture drops when farmers don't see any point sticking with lesser wanted/known animal breeds or crops as they won't turn a profit. I won't go into why biodiversity and conservation is important because its a no-brainer... but if you don't think its important then I doubt we would get along.

Anyway, on with the wool - with less demand for the wool from traditional breeds, the number in these sheep have dropped and to the point were some are now considered 'rare' and 'at risk'. However, interest in these traditional breeds is growing somewhat, especially since awareness of the issue is growing. Mind you, this does not mean these sheep breeds are out of the woods yet. So naturally, with my interest in history, 'ye old ways' of the ancestors, social issues and social movements, I wanted to check out the other wool breeds out there and that's when I tracked down the British wool sample packs online. Hooray!

So I bought the two British Breed Wool sample packs, each with 15g of 10 samples.

British Breed Wool Sampler pack #1 consists of 15g of 10 natural shades from 4 breeds:

4 x Shetland - white, grey, moorit and black

3 x North Ronaldsay - grey, light brown, dark brown

2 x BFL - oatmeal, brown

1 natural Black Welsh Mountain - obviously black

British Breed Wool Sampler pack #2 consists of 15g of 10 different wool breeds:

Wensleydale - white

Suffolk - white

Herdwick - grey

Manx Loaghtan - brown

BFL - oatmeal

Shetland - white

Masham - brown

Black Welsh Mountain

Jacob - black

Swaledale - grey

Sure, some are double ups but that doesn't matter. At the end of spinning it all up I'll have to come up with a crochet/knitting project to use them up. Considering the Macedon Ranges can be a chilly part of Victoria, a simple scarf showcasing the wool could be nice. Also, I'll need to consider if I want the yarn in singles or plied since there are small amounts of each. Plying would reduce yardage by half. Hmmmm... things to think about. Also, to spin these samples on the spindle (for thinner thread as I am more practised on a spindle than the wheel) or the wheel (my talent on the wheel is still somewhat inconsistent)?

The owner of The Double Ewe, Jo, also threw in a wee sample of her Yorkshire blend which consists of 50% Wensleydale, 33% Baby Alpaca and 17% BFL. Oh my, its so nice! Very lustress and shiny.. I might just have to get some of that blend next (but I must remind myself - one thing at a time!). For those interested in buying the sample packs or buying from this store in general - purchasing was easy, Jo was very easy going and accommodated me wanting to update my order, and super fast shipping (arrived from the UK within the week). I know I will be a returning customer to try her other blends and batts.

As I go through spinning each sample up Ill leave a little write up a description of the fibre, how I went about spinning it, etc. So stay tuned!

Thanks again for reading!

Stay spun!

- Mokosh