Blue Texel - The Netherlands

Blue Texel sheep are derived from the Texel sheep and named after the island of Texel just off the coast of the Netherlands, where Lincoln and Leicester Longwool sheep were crossbred with the native sheep in the mid-1800's with the goal of achieving a high-quality meat breed.   Blue-woolled lambs were sometimes born in Texel flocks, but no attention was paid to them until the early 1970's when deliberate breeding for the blue colour began, and some all-blue flocks were established.   By 1983 there were 213 blue sheep across 11 flocks.  By 2009, numbers had risen to about 6500, and they were classed as "not at risk", but by 2021 numbers had dropped to about 4000, with 2545 registered breeding ewes, and they have been re-categorised as "endangered/at risk".   

This breed are medium size and the blue can vary from very pale to dark but no part of the fleece is wholly black or white but usually the head, shoulders and rump are darker with the lighter shade over the back.  The rams weigh about 100kg and are about 72cm at the withers and the ewes about 80kg and about 68cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  They are a breed that is raised primarily for meat and the fleece are a secondary crop.

 

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 lovely soft fleece with locks that are springy with a crisp feeling and with a partially organised crimp that is easy to spin and has a lofty quality.  This fleece has come from a prize winning flock in Oxfordshire here in the UK.  This 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 and I wasn't intending to give it another wash but after washing other pre-washed samples and seeing how much lanolin washed out I decided to wash it again as a precaution on 31st May 2022 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.  

I combed this on 18th January 2024 and it gave me 60g of lovely hand combed top that shows lots of variation of colour, although one hand combed nest in particular does stand out from the crowd so I might need to do something with that to blend it in with the others.

I split the fibre into two equal piles, undid all the fibre nests in the first half, and put all the ends together and pre-drafted from all of them at the same time to even out the colours and tones as much as possible. I had to spin it as fine as I could, as it is one of those fibres that bloom after washing to set the twist. I spun over 2nd and 3rd August 2026, achieving 58g/213m of yarn that is not too dissimilar to Jacob wool or any of the "down" breed wools.

I started knitting on 16th August and finished on 24th August, only working on it a little at a time because I was working in the garden again.

Roslagsfår - Sweden

Roslagsfår are a breed of endangered landrace sheep from Sweden that are kept on the islands north of Stockholm.  They were once widely kept for their wool but in 1995 there were only about 40 animals left.  They were rediscovered when Nils Dahlbeck and Lars Englund were travelling around Sweden looking for coloured rya sheep and horned rams.

They used to kept on almost every farm in Roslagen, being kept on summer pastures on the islets in the archipelago. During the 20th century the Roslagsfår were replaced with more productive breeds and they almost became extinct, with the only remaining herd belonging to Maj and Henry Jansson on Raggarön in norther Roslagen.  The sheep on this farm has been mentioned in farming documents since the 18th century.  Maj and Henry saved all of the ram lambs and kept them together with the ewes until winter, when all the ram lambs were slaughtered after mating, so called "group mating".  The Roslags sheep have been preserved in the gene bank of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since 1997.

Roslags are small, slender sheep with slender legs and are Sweden's smallest sheep.  Rams weigh about 50kg and stand about 57cm at the withers and ewes weight about 35kg-40kg and stand about 54cm at the withers.  The ewes can lamb all year round, usually having a single lamb, sometimes twins.  Triplets are extremely rare.  The Roslags exhibit the highest within-population inbreeding due to the low number of the breed and the breeding method once used.  A contemporary estimated number of the population of Roslag sheep by Nordisk GenBank Husdyr is 496 individuals over a number of flocks.

The interests of individuals breeding Roslag sheep are represented by The Swedish Peasant Sheep Association and they are responsible for the breed's conservation. Some owners of Roslag Sheep are members of the Swedish Sheep Breeders' Association and follow the breeding plan for the breed as determined by the Swedish National Boar of  Agriculture and the sheep holders may be entitled to environmental subsidies for the conservation of endangered breeds.

Most of the sheep, about 90% of them, are white or ivory and the rest are either black with larger or smaller white markings or black and white spotted.  Lambs can be born reddish brown or reddish brown spotted but this colour fades to creamy white as the wool grows.  Rams have horns that are usually large and white whilst the ewes are polled.  They are hardy and easily become affectionate and tame.  They are agile and are good grazers on grass.  They are easy to handle and move due to their small size.  The tail and face are not usually covered in wool, although the tails can be covered in wool in some animals.

The wool is of the rya type, with long straight or curly outer hairs and undercoat.  The wool is of varying quality and is less suitable for felting as it does not shrink but retains its original structure so felting was not so common in the past.  People used to spin the wool and weave with it or they knitted and needle-stitched with it, making anything from socks, mittens and other clothing and even sailcloth.  The Upplands Museum has had old "Uppland wear" examined and has concluded that they were made of wool, the equivalent of which today is only found in the Roslag breed.

The fleece are double coated and of varying quality that may include lots of kemp and they can be up to 15 inches (38cm) long.

I bought this breed in as 108g 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 a lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden. Her shop has been empty since October 2024, when she was in hospital, and her online shop is still empty. I do hope she is OK, but I fear the worst.  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.  

Raw unwashed fleece

I washed the fleece on 27th May 2002 and the water turned not so much dirty as milky, obviously quite a lot of lanolin/grease, in the undercoat most likely, but hasn't it washed up white!  Once dry it weighed 83g.

Washed fleece

I combed it on 4th July 2022 and I have 58g of lustrous hand combed top to spin that is quite reminiscent of an English Longwool in texture, softness and the amount of lustre.

I spun this on 1st August - 2nd August 2026. I found it to be an interesting spin. It is not soft but it is nice to spin. I tried to pre-draft it prior to spinning but it just kept falling apart. I seemed to have a fair amount of very short fibres in some of my fibre nests.

The finished yarn has a slight sheen to it and is 54g/137m. It is quite prickly and not for next-to-skin. I knit the project piece 15th-16th August 2026.

Helsingefår - Sweden

Helsingefår are one strain of several Swedish breeds referred to as "forest sheep", each of which is geographically and genetically unique and very rare.  They originate from two different groups of sheep with similar geographical origins, characteristics, and appearance.  

In the summer of 1987 a farmer called Gun-Marie Swessar purchased the last sheep from the Olander brothers in Mållångstuga outside Alfta and the sheep were of the type that their mother had always had. 

In the early 1990s these sheep were noticed by Lars Englund, who was travelling around the country looking for coloured rye sheep and Lars contacted Nils Dahlbeck, who was working on the "Horngumse" project searching for original Nordic sheep with horn-bearing rams, as the rams in the flock had "old-fashioned" horns with flattened horn tips.

In 1994, Mats Olsson purchased a group of sheep from Fredrik Lindblom in the village of Borgsjö, Medelpad, that he had kept for 40 years  These sheep had a great variety of colours, were of an older type with short ears and short tails, and some of them had so-called "kläppar-skillings" or "skillingar" on the upper part of the neck, and these skillings are small teat like growths under the chin on the neck and may be a sign of older origins as old texts make reference to sheep in Sweden in the 19th century having skillings.

Later that autumn, a black ram with "stately horns" was taken from Gun-Marie Swessar's farm, with the help of Nils Dahlbeck, to breed with the ewes that Mats Olsson purchased. The following year, some ewes were sold to Gene Fornby outside Örnsköldsvik, and in February 2003 the remaining sheep at Gene Fornby were added to the Helsinge sheep gene bank.

The Helsinge sheep has been preserved in the gene bank of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since  1999 and are a conservation breed with 1060 breeding ewes as of 2021. They used to be the common sheep in the province of Hälsingland in north-east central Sweden.  Helsinge sheep are often very friendly and affectionate towards their owners but can be a little wary of strangers.  They prefer to graze in pastures with trees rather than pastures with just grass

Helsinge sheep vary in type but are often quite robust and older ewes often have large, rough heads.  Ewes weigh about 40-60kg, and Rams weigh about 50-70kg and stand about 74cm at the withers; ewes weigh about 40-60kg and stand about 66cm at the withers. Ewes are good mothers and can lamb year-round.  Young ewes usually have one lamb while older ewes usually have two lambs but triplets occur and rarely even quads.

Sheep vary greatly in colour and markings.  Most are black, which often fades over the years, but grey, brown, brindle and almost completely white animals also occur.  Sheep with more than one colour are common. Blaze or panda markings are common, as well as other facial markings such as flour mole, ewe spots and badger markings.  Ewes are polled, and rams are usually beautifully horned but may be polled.  Scurrs or small horns may occur.  The tails are usually short and often free of wool but can also have longer curly wool.  The rams often have coarser mane hair on the neck and shoulders, and this can sometimes occur on ewes.

The fleece is double-coated, made up of medium and long wool types and sometimes finer wool.  The wool is very variable and is excellent for spinning and felting.  It can be similar to fine wool but is usually of the rya type or tapestry.  There can also be different types of wool on the same sheep.  Fibre diameters vary so much that there isn't much point quoting micron counts.

I bought this breed in as 103g 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 a lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden.  I was going to add a link for Anita and her shop but when I looked her last social media post was in October of 2024 stating that she was in hospital and she has not posted anything since and her online shop is empty as of August 2026. I do hope she is OK.  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 29th May 2022, and the water turned quite brown.  Although it has guard hairs, it still feels reasonably soft.  After drying, it weighed 77g.

I combed it on 17th December 2022 and was left with 57g of prepared fibre for spinning.  The longest fibres are black, and the shortest are white, so when I dizzed this off the hand combs, it pulled off like a gradient. I put the two ends together and wound them into nests, and I will have to spin with the two ends held at the same time to mix the fibres back together.

Fast forward to 31st July 2026 and I finally get around to start spinning this fibre. I found it really tricky to spin because when it made a kind of gradient, that was actually the different fibre types separating, and that wasn't really a good thing to have happen. Ensuring both fibre types were spun together wasn't easy, although for the most part I did manage to get it to happen.

I finished spinning it on 1st August 2026, achieving a yarn that was 54g/158m and quite prickly but soft at the same time and definitely not for next-to-skin items. I knit the piece for my project over 10th-14th August, as I had a few things to do in the garden as we are in the process of giving it a huge makeover.

Highlander - New Zealand

The Highlander breed was developed, or designed, by a genetics company in New Zealand in the 1990's.  It is a composite breed of Romney, Texel and Finnish Landrace, but didn't really "take off" in New Zealand, so they tried it here in the UK and it is now an established breed in its own right, which means farmers are breeding Highlander sheep to Highlander sheep and getting purebred Highlander lambs.  Initially, I found plenty of information online about this breed but it was all about technical farm breeding and management, about birth rates, survival, birth weights etc etc and some of these posts go back about 9 or 10 years so its been in the UK for quite a while, but not a thing about the fleece and fibre aspect of this breed such as staple lengths, micron counts and such like.  All I could find was that it is a medium-sized sheep that grows white wool.

Fast forward 5 years, since I purchased the small amount of washed fleece, and there is now a lot more information out there about the wool. 

The breed produces a medium-grade, high-bulk wool that hand-spinners find surprisingly soft, squishy and fun to work with. As it is a mix of NZ Romney, Finnish Landrace and Texel, the fleece balances the long staple durability of the Romney with the fine, crimpy loft of the Finn. 

Micron counts typically are 27 to 32 microns and the staple length is generally 3-5". It has a blocky lock structure with a disorganised, springy crimp, giving the fibre incredible loft, elasticity and a desirable squish factor. It has a natural bounce and a medium length. 

Carding embraces the disorganised crimp and makes a lofty yarn. The yarn will be springy and lofty, no matter how you spin it, so spin finer than you would normally to achieve your desired yarn thickness. The fibres are relatively "grabby" and do not require excessive twist to hold together, although worsted spinning does require more twist than woollen spinning; ensure that it feels firm but doesn't kink. Due to the bounce factor from the Finnish Landrace, the yarn will bloom once washed. Finished yarns are durable, resistant to pilling and ideal for hard-wearing outerwear, sweaters, blankets, socks and housewares. It is naturally a bright, creamy white that absorbs acid dyes beautifully.

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed fleece in July 2021 and I combed it on 28th May 2022, getting 63g of top from it.  It was sold to me as "A new sheep breed developed in New Zealand with flocks here in Britain.  A sheep developed for commercial flocks; these are much overlooked from a fibre perspective.  This is from a local Cotswold flock.  It's a lovely soft fleece, short-stapled 2-3 inches, snowy white with woolly fibres."

I spun this up over the 4th to 6th of June 2026 and it was really nice to spin up. I spun it as fine as I possibly could to allow for the bounce and the loft, so that I didn't end up with fat yarn that I wouldn't be able to use in the planned project. I achieved a fingering-weight yarn, 63g/317m, and it is really nice.

I had to wait to knit this up for my project, due to the constant high temperatures and heatwaves, but I was able to knit it quite quickly over two days and finishing on 23rd July 2026.

Värmlandsfår - Sweden

Värmlandsfår, also known as Värmland sheep and the Värmland Forest Sheep originate in Sweden.  They began from Bengt Sonesson's large herd in Osebol near Stöllet by the Klarälven river in northern Värmland.  He had taken over the sheep from his parents and he had long been interested in sheep "of the old stock" so he did not buy any rams of modern breeds. Instead, he expanded his small flock in the 1970s with a few animals that he found on various farms around the Klarälvsdalen valley, in Munkebol, Benteby and Branäs, all of which were of the "old stock".

When Bengt was growing up, the sheep of the entire village were kept together in the forest.  The sheep mixed with sheep from other villages, which ensured that there was always new blood in the flocks.  As a rule, no adult rams were kept, but the ram lambs were allowed to graze with the ewes before they were slaughtered in the autumn.  The lambs were then born early in the winter, often around Christmas.  The sheep were usually white, but sometimes there could be black lambs.  Some were grey or "yset" as they were called, and there could be brown sheep in the area.  Bengt remembers in his youth that his parents had a horned ewe.  The rams are horned or polled.  Polled rams were most common, but horned rams also occurred among the original sheep

During the years 1992-1996, two typical rams from Hälsingland and a small flock from Dalarna were also taken into the flock.  Lars Englund and Nils Dahlbeck had come across these during their travels when they were looking for "coloured rye sheep" and when the "horned sheep" project began.  Among other things, one of these rams ended up with Roger Strömborg, a good friend of Bengt Sonesson, who had sheep from  Bengt's herd for a long time.  Another small group of sheep from Anette Back Olsson in Lekvattnet, Värmland was taken into care.

Compared with a modern meat breed, Värmland would be considered small, but it is one of the largest-bodied breeds. It was once known as Skogsfår (Woodland Sheep), and this name is no longer in use, but this breed used to survive in woodland pastures, and they still could, as they enjoy eating the leaves and bark of branches.

Värmland sheep are quite small compared to production sheep but are one of the larger breeds among the common sheep, both in number and in terms of body size.  Rams weigh 50 kg- 90 kg and stand around 72cm at the withers, and ewes weigh 45 kg- 85 kg and stand around 66cm at the withers.  Ewes are good mothers and usually have two lambs at a time, but triplets do occur.  Young ewes usually have one lamb. Värmland sheep can lamb three times in two years.

Värmland sheep have a good sense of flock, and they often become very friendly and tame. They are good grazing animals and like to eat grass.  The sheep are well suited to both small and large herds.

The Värmland sheep has been preserved in the gene bank of the Swedish Rural Sheep Association since 1997.  They are a conservation breed with 1691 registered breeding ewes (2021).

The colour varies greatly and is found in all colours, white, black, brown, beige and motely/speckled.  The motley/speckled colour did not have Bengt's sheep and is therefore not considered an original colour.  Bengt sometimes had sheep with a small white element.  This is an important aspect of the breeding work to preserve the Värmland sheep as they were.  The wool varies in type from rya to tapestry and fine wool, but also so-called vadamal wool is very common.  It is often very fine-fibred, well-suited for crafts and is very easy to spin and felt.

The wool varies within the breed; they are double-coated, and the length and quantity of the outercoat hairs vary, with fine and medium wools being the most common.

I bought this breed in as 118g 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 a lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden.  I was going to add a link for Anita and her shop, but when I looked, her last social media post was in October of 2024, stating that she was in hospital, and she has not posted anything since. Her online shop is still empty as of June 2026. I do hope she is OK.  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.  

Unwashed fleece

Unwashed locks

I washed the fleece on 21st May 2022 and the water turned muddy brown straight away.

Clean, dry, washed fleece

Once dry, I was left with 94g of clean fleece ready for combing, and it feels soft but with crispness too. The outer coat in this fleece is not particularly coarse; the fleece is soft and downy with fine hairs, with no thick, horrible hairs in this one. It's not totally soft, but it's not nasty either.  I combed it on 4th July 2023 and this gave me 50g of hand-combed nests ready to spin.

I spun this up on 3rd and 4th June 2026. It was an interesting spin. The fibres were fairly short; some were soft and downy, but the black guard hairs throughout added a coarseness to everything and made the yarn prickly. Definitely not next-to-skin grade as I have spun it. It might be so if all of the guard hairs could be removed. I achieved a yarn that was 48g/130m.

It took me a while to knit the piece for this, due to the heatwaves that we have endured this summer, and I had made a start on it only to have to leave it for a while and then when I picked it back up and started knitting again, reaching the pattern for the lettering, I discovered that I hadn't got the right number of stitches on the needles for my design and so had to undo the entire thing and start from the beginning. Thankfully, it was only about 10 rows. I finally finished knitting this piece on 19th July 2026.

Coburger Fuchsschaf (Red Fox) - Bavaria, Germany

Coburger Fuchsschaf sheep, also known as Red Fox Sheep, Golden Fox Sheep, Eisfelder Fox Sheep, Rousse Tetes, Coburg Fox Sheep amongst other names, originate from Bavaria in Germany and is a hill breed of sheep that is characterised by its reddish brown to golden colour.  Lambs are born reddish born and their fleece becomes lighter in colour at around 6-12 months old whilst the head and legs remain reddish brown.  Another breed that does this is the Portland, maybe there is some ancestral genetic connection dating back hundreds of years.  

In the late 1800's and early 1900's the breed was abundant, making up about 60% of the sheep found in the Coburg area of Germany, but was on the verge of extinction by the end of World War II.  The breed owes its continued existence to Otto Stritzel, a breeder and weaver from Bavaria who publicised the favourable traits of the breed.  The breed was officially recognised in 1996.   

In the early 1980's, there were only two registered breeders in the German state of Bavaria, with about 100 breeding ewes, and a breeder in Baden-Baden with a much larger flock.  By the end of 1993, this had increased to 34 registered breeders in Bavaria with 1,238 breeding ewes and 51 breeding rams, and since then, the breed has spread all across Germany.  Numbers have increased in recent years but it is still on the endangered list.

The rams weigh about 80-100kg and are about 80cm at the withers and the ewes about 60-75kg and about 70cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  The head and legs are either both golden or both red-brown and are free from wool and they have a slight Roman nose profile.  Ewes generally give birth to twins.  Rams produce fleece of 4- 5kg and Ewes fleece are generally 3- 4kg.  The fleece is generally long and golden (white with a red-brown or golden tint) which contains either lots, or very little, of dark kempy hair, which can have an affect on the final colour of the spun yarn, depending on preparation of the fleece.  The micron count is generally 33-36 microns.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed raw fleece back in July 2021 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 "the fleece is surprisingly soft fleece with a slight red tinge giving its name". This fleece has come from a flock in Cumbria here in the UK.  This a really hard to find breed that I haven't seen available in any of the usual spinning fibre stores here in the UK.

So, the sample of fleece that I purchased had some areas that had little kempy hair in and other areas that contained a lot.  The kempy hair was also a mixture of black and reddish-brown.

I didn't note the date that I combed this but most of the kempy hair was removed effortlessly by the combs, leaving just enough in for a little bit of interest and texture but revealing the golden colour of the fleece.  I have 62g of lovely hand combed top to spin up.

I split the amount of fibre into two equal amounts and pre-drafted prior to spinning. I also manually removed as many of the black/dark fibres as I could during that process, spinning, plying and manually checking the finished yarn. There were three fibre nests in each ply. One of the nests was noticeably coarser than the other five, so I pre-drafted that one alongside the other nests to even out the fibre quality along the entire length of one ply.

I spun this yarn up on 2nd and 3rd June 2026 and I achieved 48g/253m and the resulting yarn is a slightly crisp yarn, not soft and luxurious, but I would have no issues wearing it around my neck.

It is not a solid white or cream yarn, the variety of tones within the yarn are very visible once it is knitted. It took me a couple of days to knit the project piece up and I finished on 16th June 2026.