Balwen Welsh Mountain Sheep

The Balwen Welsh Mountain Sheep, usually just referred to as "Balwen" is not a particularly old breed and yet I can find no mention of exactly what breeds were used to create this newer breed.  All sources of information that I have looked at say that it was developed by the small group of enthusiastic breeders in the Upper Tywi Valley in Dyfed, Wales in the 19th century but no year is noted anywhere and all sources also say that the breed was wiped out during the severe winter of 1947 all but for one single ram that survived and this ram was used to re-establish the breed.  With that in mind you would think that it would be common knowledge as to what breeds they used to re-establish this breed, but no, not an ounce of information to be found about that but my educated guess would be that it was re-developed using Black Welsh Mountain and maybe the Badgerface Welsh Mountain - Torwen because RBST information states that like the black and the badger face varieties it is more docile than the normal Welsh mountain sheep.

Top: Balwen Ewe
Bottom: Balwen Ram

The Balwen Welsh Mountain sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 4: At Risk (900-1500), so there are less than 1500 registered breeding ewes.  They were historically found only in a very small valley in mid Wales but, although they are relatively small in number, they are now more widespread and are kept by smallholders who are more likely to keep them as pure breeds whilst commercial farmers are more likely to cross breed them using terminal sires.

They are a small, compact hardy sheep and are usually black, dark grey or dark brown with a broad white stripe running from the top of its head to the top of its nose and it has four white feet and a half white tail, dark on the top third to half and white lower down.  Rams have horns and the ewes are polled.  

The fleece is 1.25-1.75kg and the staple length is 2-3.5 inches (5-10cm).  The staples are blocky with curly tips, often sun-bleached.  The fleece can be flicked, carded or combed.  Due to the coarseness in relation to the shortness this wool requires a delicate balance between grist and twist, you need just the right amount of twist to hold the yarn together but not so much that it becomes wiry.  It really isn't worth trying to dye this fleece as it is usually too dark to notice.

Yarns spun from Balwen fleece are probably best suited to outerwear, bags and items that take a lot of abuse, unless you can find a particularly soft fleece.

I have bought this breed in as 105g of pre-washed fleece and there is a number of white hairs which I feel that I have to remove and after I finished combing it I was left with 45g of hand combed top that feels quite a lot like a slightly coarser version of Jacob.

I sat and removed the white hairs using a pair of tweezers

I did actually sit and remove as many of the white hairs that I could using a pair of tweezers as I felt that it is naturally black fleece and the white hairs were really annoying me and I wanted it as clean as possible.  I also removed any remaining ones during the spinning process.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and is quite nice.  It is 42g/95m and I'd be happy to use it to make hats, mittens and maybe a scarf.  It's much nice than my books suggest.  My knitted piece for the project took 15g/34m so I have some left to do whatever with.