Bluefaced Leicester Sheep

The Bluefaced Leicester, or BFL for short, belongs to the English Longwool family of sheep.  The term Blue-faced is actually just an illusion as there are no blue hairs involved, just short white hair over black skin and used to be a rare trait.  The breed is a descendent of the original native (or landrace) breeds of the Leicestershire area which were improved by a carefully monitored breeding program introduced by Robert Bakewell after he took over his fathers farm in 1755.  

Gone were the days of keeping all the sheep together in a field and in came the days of keeping rams and ewes away from each other and only allowing selected rams with specific desirable traits to breed with the ewes.  The breed he developed was known as the "New Leicesters" or the "Dishley Leicesters" after the farms name of Dishley Grange.  

Robert Bakewell is also responsible for the concept of the Breed Society or Association with a set of rules to follow or abide by in order to keep breeds pure.  He died in 1795 at the age of 70 and his Dishley Leicesters died out soon after his death but the Leicester Longwool traces its lineage back to the Dishley Leicesters and Bakewell's flock. So, how do we go from Leicester Longwool to Bluefaced Leicester?  In the early 20th century breeders in Northumberland started selective breeding specifically for the Bluefaced trait and cross breed with the Teeswater breed and a new breed was born (literally!).  According to the British Wool Marketing Board the breed was established in the UK during the 18th century.

The Bluefaced Leicester sheep, at the time of writing, is in the "Other UK Native Breeds" category, according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.  This means that there are over 3000 sheep of this breed registered with the relevant breed society. They are also used to produce cross breed sheep.  North Country Mules are produced by using a Bluefaced Leicester ram with a ewe suited to the locality of the flock, usually one of the Blackfaced Mountain breeds and the ewes produced are then cross-bred again with rams of larger meat breeds such as Texel or Suffolk.

The Bluefaced Leicester is a medium to large build sheep with a distinctive Roman nose and the short hair is white over blue-black skin. The head, neck and legs are free of wool.  Neither sexes grow horns.

They produce a medium size fleece of between 1 and 3kg that is demi-lustrous but fine and soft. The fleece is usually white but there is a recessive gene that shows up to produce black and grey fleeces. The staple length is between 3 and 6 inches long (7.5-15 cm long) and is one of the most predictable fleeces in many aspects including micron count and fibre length.

This fleece can be challenging because the locks are so slippery, slim and springy. Unless you get a short fleece then you don't want to card this, it is best prepared by picking, combing or flicking.  This fleece dyes beautifully and clearly.  It is durable enough to wear well but fine enough to not be scratchy and there is just enough lustre to make dyes produce shimmering clear colours.  It blends well with other fibres such as silk or mohair and is often blended with other wools too

Yarns spun from Bluefaced Leicester fleece are soft enough to be worn next to skin but can take hard wear too and is good for socks, mittens, hats and jumpers as well as luxury items such as shawls and scarves.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds and this one is a coloured variety of the breed and described as the British rival to Merino.  

Spun to Sport weight my yarn is 50g/135m

My finished yarn is of good quality to the touch of the hand and I like the colour, its more brown than grey, the photo is a little deceiving.  My knitted piece for the project only took 25g/68m so I have some left to do whatever with.