Welsh Mountain (Pedigree) Sheep

The Welsh Mountain (Pedigree) sheep has been in the Welsh Hills since the 13th century.  Not to be confused with the South Wales Mountain sheep, which whilst similar, is larger and has a different type of fleece.

The Welsh Mountain (Pedigree) sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 3: Vulnerable (500-900) registered breeding ewes. They are are usually found in the South and West regions of Wales.

The Welsh Mountain (Pedigree) is a medium build sheep with ewes weighing 45kg-55kg and rams weighing 75kg-90kg.  They are hardy, thrifty, versatile and docile and can thrive on area with poor grazing and heavy rainfall.  They have a broad forehead, white or slightly tanned face and legs, but a black muzzle/nose and black hooves. Head and legs are free of wool.  Rams grow curly horns whilst the ewes are polled.

They produce a medium size fleece of 1.25-2kg that is dense with blocky staples with short tapering tips and contains little/no kemp and it is fine so weavers and spinners love it.  The fleece may contain some coarser coloured fibres, red kemp and black fibres and these are undesirable in the fleece.  The staple length is 2-6 inches (5-15cm) and the average micron count is 35+. Any kemp that is in the fleece won't take the dye very well but the wool will take colour well.

This fleece can be spun from teased locks, it can be carded or combed.  Its quite fine and is almost kemp free.

Yarns spun from Welsh Mountain (Pedigree) fleece are good for next-to-skin garments, sweaters, hats. gloves and anything else you care to knit.  

This was another one that was hard to track down to specifics because of some confusion over the name and also the fact that some consider this breed and the South Wales Mountain sheep to be one and the same breed but they're not, the fleeces are so very different.  I also encountered a lack of response from breed societies, possibly caused by Covid-19 and with people losing their lives to this virus.  I started trying to make contact on 8th April 2021 and never got a response and then I discovered a second breed society for this breed with different contacts and so I e-mailed them on 30th May 2021 and I got a positive reply about a week later.  After determining that as I thought, there were no society members near me, I was informed by the contact person that her sister keeps the breed and that shearing was about to take place.  By mid-June the fleece was on its way to me and I had made payment.  I don't know what farm this is from but thank you Mona Williams for sending me some of your beautiful fleece.

So, as you can guess, I bought this breed in as 500g of raw fleece that had been sheared during the second week of June 2021. There is very, very little kemp, its gorgeous!

500g of unwashed fleece

After washing it weighs 421g

I have 236g of hand combed top

Work in progress

My finished yarn is of good quality to the touch of the hand and is soft and squishy.  I have 214g/397m.  My knitted piece for the project only took 29g/54m so I have some left to do whatever with.