Galway Sheep - Ireland

The Galway sheep is a breed originating in County Galway, in the west of Ireland and at one point in history, Ireland probably had a fair number of native sheep breeds, but today the Galway is the only officially recognised native Irish breed. They were developed from the late 17th century onwards as a result of the importation of English Longwools into Ireland.  It has been written that in the 1776-1779 period English breeds were not in great favour by the Irish and some of these sheep were actually killed for political reasons.   

Then, in the middle of the 18th century, Lord Roscommon imported large quantities of Dishley Leicesters from his friend Robert Bakewell in England to his estate in County Roscommon.  He heavily crossed them with the old native sheep, yielding the Roscommon breed, which strongly resembled its Leicester roots.  The Roscommon got both very high praise and severe criticism depending on the particular time and the critic.  A flock book of Roscommon Long-Wool sheep was established in 1895, surviving until at least the 1920s.

The Roscommon was a large, white faced polled breed.  Although the sheep were classified as Longwool, they did not have the very long staple characteristic of breeds such as the Lincoln and Leicester Longwool.  It bore, as the modern Galway does, an almost uncanny resemblance to surviving prints and paintings of Bakewell's sheep, signifying it was perhaps more closely related to the Dishley breed than any of  the English breeds which were influenced by Bakewell's stock.

By the early 1920's the Roscommon's numbers had fallen significantly, so in 1923 and after the Roscommon Breed Society had vanished, a group of breeders gathered in the neighbouring county of Galway and selected a small handful of the finest animals from over 6,000 ewes and 200 rams of the Roscommon type to register in a new breed book and founded the Galway Sheep Breeders Society.  The older and less-refined Roscommon's became extinct.

Clearly this was taken on shearing day

The Galway are are large, polled, white-faced sheep, having a characteristic bob of wool on the head and legs.  The outer lips are of a dark colour and dark spots on the ears are common.  They mostly have single lambs but can have twins.  Most ewes weigh 80-85kg but there is a wide variation.  They are primarily raised for meat.  In 1999, there were less than 1,000 true to type Galway sheep in 39 pedigree flocks, a dramatic increase from 14 breeders in 1990, practically all of the breeders are west of the Shannon River. 

Following representations to the Department of Agriculture by the Irish Genetic Resources Conservation Trust, the pedigree Galway is now included in the provisions of the Rural Environment Protection Scheme, and breeders in Ireland receive an additional subsidy payment.  There are just a few hundred Galway ewes in the UK.

Because it is referred to as an Irish Longwool, you might think that the Galway might be like the English Longwools - sleek, lustrous, exceptionally long stapled, and with robust fibre diameters.  You would be wrong, they are more crisp than sleek, they are matte not lustrous and they have moderate staple lengths and fibre diameters.  However, the shape of the locks and the wavy crimp pattern that can be seen in the locks do resemble the more familiar English Longwools.  Locks have the length profile of a Longwool although in miniature, with pointed, slightly curled tips.  The crimp pattern is Longwool style and wavy.  All fleece are white.

This wool spins up more smoothly than many mid-range wools, producing yarns that have a pleasant, firm reliable-feeling character.  Keep the spin simple, like a straight forward 2ply yarn, and you will get good stitch definition in textured knitted patterns formed by using combinations of knit and purl stitches.  If you favour spinning novelty yarns, which are spun to have more texture, the designer effects like loops, feathery bits of loose surface fibre, slubs etc will have enough body not to be crushed into oblivion,  

Fleeces are white and generally weigh - 2.5kg-3.6kg and they have a staple length of 11.½cm -19cm (4½ - 7½ inches) with fibre diameters of 26-32 microns.  The obvious choice for preparation is to comb although spinning from loosened locks is an option. It can be carded if the fibre length is in your comfort zone for that technique.  The fibres draft easily into your choice or thick or thin singles.  Some are suitable for next-to-skin wear but some are slightly coarser.  If you are dyeing this fibre, it produces clear colours, with apparent depth due to the crimp profile rather than lustre.  It's not very well known but is a lovely white with more density and heft than more comparable wools.

I bought this breed in as a 100g bag of washed fleece back in May 2022 from a lady that I've been buying quite a few of the rarer breeds from.  From the information she gives on her sales page, she states that this was sourced from a member of the Galway Sheep Society but the sheep was raised here in England after they were introduced to Britain in 1990 from top flocks in the West of Ireland and they are considered to be the only native sheep from Ireland.

It felt very greasy and there was no way that I was going to attempt to comb this until I had washed it myself.  I'm glad I did, because the water turned milky white, indicating how much lanolin was still in this fleece.  

This one feels a little special to me as I have recently discovered that I have great-great-great-grandparents that both came from County Galway, although I've not yet discovered the name of the town or towns where they came from, and they would have left Ireland to come to England between 1848 and 1851 at around the time the original Roscommon sheep were being developed using the Dishley Leicesters.

Once it was dry, I combed it, and I got 56g of slightly crisp, hand-combed top ready to spin. 

I spun this over 15th and 16th September 2026. Some small sections of the fibre were quite soft, but for the most part it was fairly coarse wool. It is not for next-to-skin wear. My finished yarn as 55g/243m.

I knitted the majority of the sample piece on 8th October and finished it on 9th October 2026.

 

Pommersches Rauhwollschaf (Pomeranian) - Germany

Pommersches Rauhwollschaf is a breed of sheep that comes from Germany.  They were first called Grauwollschafe, which means "greywool sheep" but this changed to Rauwollschafe by dropping the first letter.  They are also known as the Rough-wooled Pomeranian Landschaf,  the Pomeranian Coarsewool, Pomeranian, Pommernschaf and Rauhwolliges Pommersches Landschaf. 

The first records of similar sheep in Pomerania can be traced to more than 3,000 years ago.  It is a landrace sheep that used to be kept in small flocks along the Baltic Sea in Pommern and Mecklenburg for its wool, meat and milk. The owners ate the meat, the dung fertilized gardens and fields and the wool was made into clothing.  Fishermen especially appreciated the weatherproof wool products.

In the middle of the 19th century, agricultural production was intensified and the existing landrace breeds were modified. The rise of the textile industry meant that there was a high demand for fine wool and the breeders crossbred and kept imported Spanish Merino instead of the landrace sheep and this caused the decline of the Pomeranian.  To give an idea of why so many made the switch from keeping the landrace sheep in favour of the fine-woolled sheep. In 1825 the price of very fine wool paid the shepherd twice as much money as half-fine wool, which in turn paid the shepherd twice as much money as landrace wool so by switching from keeping landrace sheep to keeping very fine wool sheep the shepherd earned 4 times as much money and so the landrace sheep was replaced almost entirely, except for a few small farmers along the Baltic Sea who continued to keep and breed the Pommersches Rauhwollschaf because they loved them so much and thank goodness they did else it may have become extinct.

The Pommersches Rauhwollschaf breed became increasingly rare after the WWII and threatened to fall victim to the trend toward standardisation.  The breed almost completely disappeared.  In 1982, breeders on the island of Ruegen, which was in Communist East Germany at that time, scraped together the remnants of the sheep and created a gene pool with 7 rams and 46 ewes to keep this hardy breed alive.  They had survived because the shepherds appreciated the hardy, easy to keep sheep the grew the perfect hand spinners fleece.  East Germany's Communist regime did not permit the export of ewes into West Germany. The first West Germans to breed Pomeranian sheep had to start with a Pomeranian ram and another landrace - in one case the Rhoenschaf.  Once the East German Communist regime realised that they could make a lot of money with the sale of Pomeranian ewes, they asked for astronomical prices, which nobody paid.  When the Berlin Wall was dismantled in November 1989 and the two Germany's were once again reunited, it was easier to obtain the proper sheep for breeding.  Literally at the last minute, the UN placed this ancient breed on the Red List of endangered domestic animal breeds.  This was achieved in no small part due to the persistent efforts of the displaced Pomeranians, who had found a new home in West Germany.

The Society for the Preservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds (GEH) has classified this breed in Category III (Endangered) of the Red List (as of May 2024).  It has also been appointed a breed supervisor.

They are a medium sized fine boned sheep and both sexes are polled. Rams weigh around 65kg-70kg and ewes weigh around 50kg-55kg.  They have sturdy long legs and hard hoofs.  They have black wedge-shaped heads which should be consistently dark, although a lighter shade of hair is often present around the muzzle, which is not considered a fault.  The head should be free of wool up to the ears which are generally pert.  The legs are also free of wool and almost jet black. The tongue is also black and they have long woolly tails.  They are very hardy and able to live outside all year, even raising lambs in the snow and are perfectly adapted to the harsh coastal climate. They are highly resistant against parasites, have a low susceptibility to lungworms and suffer from very little heart disease.  They are not fussy eaters, being able to thrive on poor forage and can be kept alone or in flocks. They attach themselves to people and are not demanding.  

Ewes lamb by themselves in the pasture without help and can be bred three times in two years.  Lambs are born black and turn steel-grey, blue-grey, grey brown or light grey.  White, brown and black fleece are not permitted.  Fleece become lighter in colour as the sheep age so a silver-grey lamb will become white and should be culled.  As they age, Rams develop manes on the neck, chest, withers or flanks.  In old rams, the mane sometimes reaches down to the forechest.

The fleece are double-coated with an outer coat of 5½ - 8¾ inches (14-22cm) of long wool and a fine undercoat.  Fleeces weigh between 3kg-7kg.  Average fibre diameters are 30-40 microns.  The undercoat wool is soft to medium, like Romney to Shetland. Hand spinners love the wool with its interesting shades of grey and they turn the yarn into rugged, indestructible weatherproof sweaters and jackets.  The hand spun wool turns out softer than the same fleece spun by machine.  It can be felted but takes a lot more work. 

I brought this breed in as 100g of pre-washed lambs fleece in May 2022 but as I have been discovering "washed" isn't necessary washed to my standards so I have automatically been washing them again to ensure that they are not still full of grease, which clogs up my preparation tools.

After washing and drying it weighed 93g.  I combed this on 18th December 2022 and I got 59g of soft hand combed top from it and I don't recall there being any coarse hairs in this, I certainly haven't made any notes to say that there were coarse hairs in the fleece. It is a lambs fleece, so there is less likely to be any coarse hairs in it until it reaches adulthood and is sheared again.

I started spinning this on 15th September 2026. It was a pleasure to spin, very soft with just a slight prickle factor. There are many shades of grey within the hand-combed nests, and each nest appears dark on one end and light on the other. For the first single I pre-drafted the nests all from the same end, starting with the dark end, ending with the light. For the second single, I pre-drafted the nests from the light end to the dark. With luck, the dark fibres will be plied to light fibres and vice versa, and thus evening out the shades of grey in the yarn, at least to some degree. I achieved a yarn that was 59g/191m. It is soft with just a hint of prickliness.

For the knitted sample, I started on 29th September and finished on 5th October 2026, using most of the yarn and only having 16g/51m left to play with.  Because of the width of the knitted piece, the photos taken to show the lettering are taken in sections along the sample.

Berrichon du Cher - France

Berrichon du Cher is one of two breeds of sheep derived from an older Berrichon from the Berry region of France, which was horned and long-woolled in the 16th century, according to images from the time, but by the 18th century images show them as being polled and having wool of the Merino type.  During the 19th century, the original Berrichon breed was crossed with British breeds including Dishley Leicester, Cotswold, Romney and Southdown and also a French breed, Charmoise, all with the aim of improving the meat quality.  The Berrichon du Cher is the result of these crosses.  

This breed is large, mainly white, with a white face that is free of wool.  The rams weigh about 110kg and are about 73cm at the withers, and the ewes weigh about 70 kg and are about 68 cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  They are a breed that is raised primarily for meat and are hardy to their local climates and the wool is of a very high standard.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed raw fleece back in May 2022 from a lady from whom I bought many of the breed samples for my British Sheep Breed Project.  I have purchased a number of samples from her for this Non-British Breed Project too, although she doesn't stock very many breeds that fit this category.  It was described as a medium fine soft white dense fleece with good crimp and a 4-7 inch staple and this one was sourced from a UK keeper of the breed and this is a really hard to find breed that I haven't seen for available in any of the usual spinning fibre stores here in the UK.

Although it was sold as pre-washed it felt sticky/greasy to me on arrival so I gave it another wash, how I like to wash fleece in preparation for spinning, hot water with a shot of washing-up liquid, and I'm glad that I did as the water turned quite milky when I put the fleece in which confirmed to me that it was still full of lanolin.  Lanolin is not a bad thing, it's actually good for dry skin, but it's bad when you are trying to comb a fleece as it makes it really hard work and makes your wool combs all sticky and nasty.  My sample actually weighed 109g on arrival and after a wash and dry it reduced to 104g, so 5g of sticky lanolin washed out.  I can't remember if the photos of the fleece below were taken before or after I re-washed.

I did notice that the fleece was quite fuzzy, crimpy and the staples looked short, a lot shorter than I was expecting, until I pulled on one of the locks and it suddenly extended to about twice the length and stayed that length even after I let go of it.  There were lots of little round balls of wool in the fleece that looked like the pilling that can occur on woollen jumpers and the like.

I finally got around to combing this on 16th January 2024; all the little bits came out very easily with the combs and I am left with 54g of soft, bouncy fibre to spin.

As it is so bouncy, it will bloom once spun and washed so I needed to spin this as fine as I could to achieve the thickness I required for the project. I started spinning on 12th September and finished spinning on 14th September 2026. It was an interesting spin, as I added a lot of twist and yet when I plied it back on itself to test how it was spinning up, it didn't look like there was much twist at all and looked like it was almost unspun. I added much more twist to this yarn than I normally would, and of course, I added more twist to the ply to keep it balanced.

I achieved a yarn that was 55g/267m and is really soft. It is suitable for next to skin wear. I started knitting the sample on 22nd September, didn't knit everyday, and finished it on 28th September 2026.

Klövsjöfår - Sweden

Klövsjöfår is a heritage breed of sheep from the Jämtland province in North-west Sweden and is included in a conservation programme. 

Klövsjö sheep were "re-discovered" when a group of sheep were purchased from Maj Oldander in Klövsjö in 1991.  Maj Olander had taken over the sheep from his father who in turn had received them as a wedding gift from his mother.  From Ivar Andreasson's herd, the animals were then spread to Halland and Skåne and in 2003 Johan Widing carried out an inventory of these sheep which resulted in the sheep being considered a separate breed of country sheep. During the autumn of 2004, a few more animals were added to the gene bank and they originate from a few herds in Klövsjö.  In 2010, the last known original herd of Klövsjö sheep was added to the gene bank.  These sheep are still kept in a summer pasture despite repeated problems with bears.

The animals can live to be very old, 15 years for a ewe is not uncommon.  According to Maj Olander, his grandmother used to cook porridge for ewes that had no teeth left so they would survive the winter.

Klövsjö sheep are quite large for a common sheep.  The rams weigh about 60-80kg and stand about 66cm at the withers, the ewes weigh about 45-70kg and stand about 64cm at the withers.  The body is quite low and wide.  The ewes are in heat all year round and can lamb twice a year.  They usually have two or three lambs, but single lambs and quads also occur.  Some ewes lamb standing up.

The Klövsjö sheep have good orientation skills and are easy to move between different pastures.  The ewes are exemplary mothers and lamb well in groups.  The animals are very affectionate and the ram can usually be left with the flock all year round.  He is very protective of the ewes and lambs, both against predators and strangers.

The Klövsjö sheep has been preserved in the gene bank of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since 2003.  In 2019 there were 600 registered breeding ewes in 83 flocks and as of 2021 there were 673 registered breeding ewes.

The sheep are white, or black with white socks and/or white markings on the face but brown and grey sheep and spotted sheep also occur.  Both rams and ewes are usually polled, but horn buttons are present and horns have previously occurred on rams in the original herd.

The fleece are double coated. The wool is of the rya type with an incredible shine and lustre, but there are also animals that have wool that is woolly.  The wool usually grows so long that it reaches the ground and is excellent for spinning and felting.  The sheep are usually sheared twice a year to avoid the risk of felting and to make it easier for both the shearer and spinner. The face is free of wool and shiny, the tail is short.

I have discovered that when the term "Rya type" is used to described Swedish wool, it is not saying that it is like that of the Rya sheep, a Swedish breed of sheep.  Silly me for thinking that! "Rya type" as a wool type, has a long and shiny outercoat and soft undercoat with almost no crimp.  The outercoat to undercoat ratio is between 60/40 and 50/50 and is a way to describe the staple type and distribution of undercoat and outercoat within that staple.

I bought this breed in as 250g of unwashed raw lambs fleece  in May 2022 from the same lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden that I bought the 8 breed sample pack from.  Her online shop has been empty for some time, although it is still open. However, I can provide a link to Swedish Fibre, a small business run by Sandy Zetterlund who has a passion for knitting, wool, spinning and now a passion for bringing these beautiful fleece from these rare conservation sheep kept by small farmers into the limelight and put them in front of similarly passionate hand spinners like myself who care about ensuring the future and continuation of these rare and unique breeds.  The demand for and sale of the fleece from these rare breeds really do help the survival of the breed.  

So, I was expecting 250g of raw fleece but it was actually over 300g when it arrived.  It was the lambs first shearing at 6 months of age and it was sheared September 2021.  Fibre lengths were 7-14 cm (2¾ inch - 5½ inch)

From the sales page she described the fleece as "The wool is magically soft!  The fibre length varies because there are parts of the wool which seem to be only underwool, and parts that are only guard hairs.  Some tangling, but still fantastic wool!  The wool has both underwool and longer cover hairs of fine diameter, and often with a shine."

I sorted and washed the fleece on 4th June 2022, and once all the second cuts had been removed, and it was dry, I was left with 214g of clean fleece.  As I was busy with other projects, I didn't get around to combing this fleece until 19th February 2024, and there were a lot of tiny short bits of fleece; some of it broke up into little pieces as I pulled on the locks.  I persevered with it, and I managed to get 81g of spinnable fibre from it.  It is very soft; it's lamb's fleece, after all, but it is kind of like really fine hair, like a Longwool type, but finer and shorter.  The fibres are smooth, not crimpy or fuzzy.

I began spinning this fibre on 11th September 2026. It was lovely to spin, very soft, fine, and straight, with very little crimp. I removed several clumps during spinning that the combs had missed. I spun both singles the same day and plied them the next day. I achieved a yarn that was 77g/222m.

I knit the sample piece from 18th to 20th September 2026. The yarn and knitted fabric are soft and could be worn next to skin, but that might be because it is lambswool, which is usually softer than an adult fleece, and also because I prepare the fibres by combing; this removes most of the guard hairs, where they exist.

Svenskt Finullsfår (Swedish Finewool) - Sweden

Svenskt Finullsfår, otherwise known as Swedish Fine Wool Sheep are descended from the Nordic short-tailed sheep.  They are a friendly breed whose individuals are easily tamed.  They are commonly used in production, as the breed has a high fertility, produces good meat carcases, wool and sheepskins.  They have high milk production, good maternal qualities and that the ewes can go into heat all year round.  This makes the Svenskt Finullsfår the sheep breed in Sweden that produces the highest total lamb weight per ewe and year. 

During the 1930s, all landrace sheep were recorded as one and the same breed.  A division into wool types was made in 1935 and from 1936, landrace sheep were recorded in the studbook under three wool types; fur, rya and fine wool.  The fur type was separated into its own breed in 1971 and other landrace sheep were combined into "white landrace".  In 1976, the Sheep Control Authority took over the pedigree registration of sheep.  During the 1930s and 1940s, repeated imports of Finnish Fine Wool were made and the Svenskt Finullsfår were then considered by many to be Finnish.  

From the 1950s, landrace sheep have been used for crossing with meat-breed sheep to increase their productivity.  The number of landrace sheep fell sharply again.  In the 1980s, interest in the Svenskt Finullsfår picked up again.  New imports were made from Finland.  The Swedish Fine Wool Association, which was formed in 1988, was however able to show that the Svenskt Finullsfår had been genetically very little affected by the imports and in 1995 the Swedish Board of Agriculture included the Svenskt Finullsfår as a breed in the list of Swedish livestock breeds and from 1998 the breed was eligible for environmental support.

The Svenskt Finullsfår is classified as an endangered livestock breed and is eligible for support from the Swedish Board of Agriculture.  Conservation is primarily carried out "in situ" i.e. by keeping as many live animals as possible in different herds.  The Swedish Fine Wool Sheep Association is a breed association and works to support conservation work by establishing breeding plans, holding courses and spreading knowledge about the Svenskt Finullsfår.  

The head and legs of the Svenskt Finullsfår are wool-free and shiny.  The tail is short with a broad base and a narrow, wool-free tip.  The ears are small and thin, the bridge of the nose is straight or slightly convex.  both sexes are polled.  The animals are curious, social and affectionate with a lively temperament.  They are good foragers and have the ability to, outside the gestation and lactation periods, feed on leaner pastures and are therefore well suited to landscape management.

The fleece is characterised by its soft, shiny, silky and fine-fibred wool, and is available in white, black and brown and more rarely, speckled.  The wool is similar over the entire body, which means that entire fleece can be used for the same purpose.  Fibres are crimpy and lustrous, with good elasticity.  Conservation breeding efforts since the 1930s have emphasised the wool quality, aiming for fibre diameters in the range of 15 to 25 microns with fibre lengths between 1¾ and 2½ inches (4.5cm - 6.5cm).

In 2017, there were 3,473 ewes and 254 rams.  Of these, 2,214 ewes and 224 rams were kept in purebred breeding, distributed over 104 herds.  The Svenskt Finullsfår are found throughout Sweden, but are most common in the southern and central parts. Between 2004 and 2009, the Fine Wool population in Sweden increased and at its peak was just under 5,000 individuals in purebred breeding.

At the beginning of 2018, a closed studbook was introduced for the breed, which means that there is no risk of crossbreeding with other breeds in the purebred population.  Pedigree registration and record keeping are handled by Elitlamm, which is linked to the Swedish Sheep Breeding Association.

I bought this breed in as 113g of unwashed raw fleece that was part of a sample pack that featured 8 different Swedish breeds that I purchased back in early May 2022 from Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden.  Her online shop has been empty for a long time now, since she announced she was in hospital, so I don't know if she survived whatever she was in hospital for.  However, I can provide a link to Swedish Fibre, a small business run by Sandy Zetterlund who has a passion for knitting, wool, spinning and now a passion for bringing these beautiful fleece from these rare conservation sheep kept by small farmers into the limelight and put them in front of similarly passionate hand spinners like myself who care about ensuring the future and continuation of these rare and unique breeds.  The demand for and sale of the fleece from these rare breeds really do help the survival of the breed.  

I washed this on 25th May 2022, and the water turned quite brown and milky too, so it was both dirty and greasy. I honestly thought that I had somehow managed to felt it during the washing stage, but once it was dry it all just poofed up, and it wasn't felted. Phew!  

I had 92g of clean, washed fleece ready for preparing.  I tried combing this, but the fibre lengths were too short, and I couldn't open the locks up very well, so it has sat in a bag waiting for me to figure out how I was going to process it until I bit the bullet and got on with it on 14th May 2025.  I've never gotten to grips with carding, but I managed to at least open up the locks using a pair of carders, and then I added the short fluff straight onto my combs from the carders, and I managed to comb it a little bit to remove the rubbish and then dizzed it off my combs.  From the pile of rubbish that was building up, it looked like I was throwing away at least 50%, but from my 92g of washed fleece I now have 61g of fluff ready to spin.

I started spinning this on 6th August. It was tricky because the fibres are so short, and I had to add more twist than normal to keep it together. Plying was easier, although in some places it looked overplied and in other places it looked underplied. I didn't finish spinning until 8th August, and I achieved a yarn that was 58g/197m and very soft.

I knit the sample piece from 1st to 3rd September, and the knitted fabric is soft with a slight fuzziness.

Ouessant - France

Ouessant sheep, (pronounced weh-SAHN), are named for the small rocky French island in the English Channel known as Ushant or Ouessant, where the breed was developed.  They are also known as Mouton d'Ouessant and Breton Island Dwarf. They are a primitive, heritage breed of sheep that belong to the Northern European Short-Tailed family of sheep. They are reputed to be the smallest sheep in the world with rams standing just 49cm at the withers and ewes standing at 45cm at the withers.  The island's shepherds traditionally selected for smaller sheep that could produce a bit of meat and fibre on limited feed, they also strongly selected for black sheep.  Although the breed can throw an occasional white animal, most are solid black or moorit brown.  

Rams have two relatively large horns, ewes are polled.  Black and brown rams grow dark horns whilst the white rams grow lighter coloured horns. Ewes are single-lambing, and the breed is primarily used for wool production.  They are strong and very hardy and extremely sensitive to threats and danger and will flock together to protect themselves and their lambs from predators.  They are able to survive on meagre pasture and are also capable of producing a good amount of high-quality wool.  In Paris, the city government recently began using a small herd of Ouessant sheep to graze public lands.  They are also used to graze vineyards and orchards.

The Ouessant existed exclusively on its home island until the beginning of the 20th century, when they almost went extinct and were only saved by a few aristocrats allowing the few remaining sheep to graze and breed on the land surrounding their chateaux.  Though no longer found there, they are widespread throughout Europe, with Ouessant breed societies in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK.  The breed is also gaining in popularity in the US and NZ.

As they are one of the Northern European Short-Tailed breeds they have retained the tendency to shed their fleece. The fleece is of a primitive type, double-coated, well packed.  Rams develop manes of longer coarser hair and kemp on the nape of their necks and throats which may be darker.

The fleece generally weighs 1kg - 1.6kg for a ewe or 1.1kg - 1.8kg for a ram.  Average staple lengths are 3¼-4 inches (8-10cm) long but can be shorter or longer than this average.  The undercoat can be quite fine, with micron counts in the mid to lower 20s.  The outercoat can be quite a bit coarser, in the mid 30s.  The average is 25-28 microns. Typical of double coated fleeces, the staples are triangular, with wide bases consisting of the fine undercoat and very pointed tips formed by the coarse guard hairs.  

It will be pointless trying to dye a dark fleece but a white or grey fleece can be dyed, taking into account the base colour and the fact that different fibre types in the fleece will take dye differently.

The different coats can be separated or spun together.  Combing and flicking will separate the different fibres but you can also just hold the lock and pull the longer hairs out by hand.  You can card the fibres if they aren't too long but it will be difficult to keep everything together and mixed.  If you are separating the fibres you will have to judge when to stop removing any shorter guard fibres in the knowledge that the yarn will only ever be as soft as the coarsest fibres.  Guard hairs are most co-operative if spun worsted style.  The undercoat can be spun worsted if its long enough, or woollen.

If you make a yarn that contains both coats it will have texture but will always be scratchy.  Outercoat yarns make fabulous warp yarns in weaving, although can be knitted or crocheted for something requiring strength and texture, such as a crochet storage basket.  The undercoat on its own can be soft enough for socks, mitten or other garments.

I brought this breed in as 100g of washed fleece in May 2022, but it was so dirty with dust and soil that I washed it myself before I combed it.  

I didn't actually comb it until February 2024, leaving me with 50g of lovely spinning fibre that is soft and bouncy.  The reason for so much loss was that the fleece was full of VM and scrappy little bits of short fibres/second cuts about 1cm long.  Interestingly though, I did not realise that this breed was a double-coated breed at the time of preparing the fibre. I certainly didn't notice it in the fleece that I prepared, and I can't really see it in any of the photos either.

I started spinning this on 4th August, finished on 5th August 2026 and it was a pleasant, easy and straightforward spin, very much like spinning Jacob or any of the "downs" breeds. It is relatively soft and very bouncy. I achieved a yarn that was 46g/176m.

I knit the piece for the project on 29th August. It is a proper black, black rather than the often brown-black of so many dark-coloured fleeces.