Whiteface Dartmoor Sheep

The Whiteface Dartmoor, one of the English Longwool breeds of sheep, was developed and lives on Dartmoor, a National Park in Devon in the Southwest of England.  They are one of two breeds of sheep who live there, the other being the Greyface Dartmoor.  Whilst they are similar in many ways, they are two completely different breeds of sheep.  According to the British Wool Marketing Board the breed was established in the UK during the 17th century.

The Whiteface Dartmoor sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust Category 5: Minority (1500-3000) registered breeding ewes.  They are found mostly in the South West of England.

They are a relatively old breed that lived in a very small segment of Dartmoor, around the village of Widecombe-in-the-Moor. During the time when "breed development" was all the rage and because they were so far off the beaten track and so isolated they did not undergo the improvement by cross-breeding that the Greyface Dartmoor did and so the Whiteface Dartmoor have retained their similarities to the old West Country Moorland sheep that they originated from.  (Considering the fact that the Greyface Dartmoor is supposedly the "improved" of the two, from my perspective and the fleece/fibre that I have, the Greyface is the nastiest fleece I have had the displeasure of spinning and the Whiteface is actually really nice in comparison).

The Whiteface Dartmoor is a small-medium build sheep with a whitehead that is free of wool, black nose and white legs. Only the rams have horns and they are pretty sensational horns!  

They produce a good size fleece that weighs 5.5 to 7kg in weight and can be up to as much as 9.5kg for a large ram.  The staple length can be anything from 6-8 inches inches long (15-20cm). The fleece is long, strong, curly and lustrous but if you're looking for softness, turn around and run a mile because softness does not belong on a sheep that lives in some of the harshest and most extreme weather conditions of the UK. 

This fleece can be picked and flicked or combed but make sure you tease the locks apart and open before you mount them onto the combs and do not overload the combs.  You will need to take very long strokes and keep your hands very far apart due to sheer length of the staples.  The fibres are so long and coarse that if you tug too hard on them you can actually cut your hands on it.  Its very slippery too and will both clump and drift apart if you cling to it.  Takes dye well and because of the lustre you will get shine and depth.  Any yellowing will affect the tone of the dye.

Yarns spun from Whiteface Dartmoor fleece are definitely suited to hardwearing textiles such as blankets, rugs and carpets.  The locks can be used unspun but woven into a rug too to make a fleece style rug.  My Whiteface Dartmoor is much nicer than the Greyface Dartmoor but I still would not use it next-to-skin.

I have bought this breed in as a whole fleece.  I didn't know exactly how big it was going to be because it was sold "by the fleece" and not by weight so I was expecting it to be between 3.5kg and 5kg.  What arrived was a whopping 5.9kg.  OMG, it's huge!  It hadn't been skirted and there were, lets call them "sheep's maltesers", that rolled out of this huge fleece as I unrolled it and tried to make sense of what went where.  Thankfully they were dry and after skirting, washing and drying I have 3,479g of fleece to sort further and comb.

The whole fleece

Close up of the muddy locks and then the drier, curlier locks

Washed and waiting to dry

The process of combing

Hand combed fibre nests ready to be spun

My finished yarn is of medium quality for a longwool, has lustre and softer than some of the longwools that I have already spun but you can feel the prickly hair and definitely not suitable for next to skin.  I have 102g/117m.  My knitted piece for the project took 77g/89m so I have a small amount left to do whatever with, plus a whopping big fleece that still needs to be prepared.