Derbyshire Gritstone Sheep

Derbyshire Gritstone sheep have been around since about 1770 and are one of Britain's oldest hill breeds.  It hasn't always been called the Derbyshire Gritstone though.  It was once known as the Dale of Goyt/Dale o'Goyt sheep, named after the area on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District where it first originated.

The Derbyshire Gritstone sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 4: At Risk (900-1500) registered breeding ewes. They are usually found in the Peak District and along the Pennines, so basically the counties of Derbyshire. Cheshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire.  

The Derybshire Gritstone is a large hardy hill sheep with a blackface that has white irregular markings in no defined pattern.  It has no wool on its face or legs and both sexes are polled. The ears are black and white and carried slightly forward.  The front legs are white with black knees and hooves, the back legs have black markings down the back of the leg and black hooves.

They produce a good sized white fleece that is usually 2-3kg in weight with staple lengths of around 6 inches (15cm). It should be free of black fibres and kemp, although some may occur, especially if the fleece is from a sheep that has been raised primarily for meat and not its wool.  It is consistent, dense and has enough crimp to give good loft and resilience.  Typically finer than wool from other Blackfaced Mountain and hill breeds.  The locks are not particularly distinct from one another, often coming away from the main mass of the fleece in strips.

This fleece can be spun from picked teased out locks or combed.  Carding works better on short stapled fleece.  The longer the staple the less twist will be needed to keep it together and helps with the softness.  Often has a very slight bit of lustre which suggests that dyes will take well and produce good clear colours.

Yarns spun from this breed are good workhorse yarns and are very versatile so make sweaters, blankets, hats, scarves and anything else your heart desires.    

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre.  All I could get my hands on at the time was a 100g carded batt and so not my preferred preparation for spinning.  It was quite greasy feeling and had lots of black hairs and bits of vegetation in it.

I did try to comb the fibre from the batt to both clean it up and to get it into my preferred form for spinning but due to the amount of grease/lanolin that was still in it this wasn't any easy process and I was loosing so much fibre that got stuck in the combs that I decided to give up and just pull the roving into strips as best as I could and spin from that.

My finished yarn was sticky and greasy. looked lifeless and was very dirty looking.  When I washed it, like I wash all of the yarns after I spin them, the water turned a cloudy milky colour, this is the lanolin and grease coming out of the yarn.  Now the yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand, has bounce and is whiter than some of the other natural whites. There is 78g/208m of sport weight yarn.  It's amazing what a wash can do sometimes. My knitted piece for the project took 25g/67m so I have some left to do whatever with.