Back in this post from December 2020, I came up with the idea of doing a sampler featuring the wools of different sheep breeds and I mentioned that I would make two different ones, one for the 57 different pure breed British Breeds (not including standard crosses like Welsh Mule, Masham etc) and one for the other breeds that are non-British (even if there are flocks of some of them now living in the UK).
I am building up quite a collection of small amounts of fleece and ready-to-spin fibre for a lot of these breeds and what I have been doing this past month or so, since 13th January, is that I have been preparing some of the small amounts of washed fleece ready for spinning.
Top half of photo collage
Large picture top left - Norsk Spelsau - Norway
Small picture top middle - Galway - Ireland
Small picture top right - Berrichon du Cher - France
Small picture 2nd row middle - Coloured Beltex - Belgium
Small picture 2nd row right - Blue Texel - The Netherlands
Lower half of photo collage
Small picture top left - Roussin de la Hague - France
Small picture top middle - Tiroler Steinschaf - Austria
Small picture bottom left - Harjedalsfaren - Sweden
Small picture bottom middle - Ouessant - France
Large picture bottom right - Klovsjo - Sweden
These are all different kinds of fleece, there are some very bouncy, almost "Downs-like" fleece, some are more longwool type and some are dual-coated like the Harjedalsfaren. I've not started spinning any of the breeds that I have just yet but I do know that I will need to spin finer yarns than I did for the British Breeds project as I have limited amounts of each of them due to cost and availability but also because when I do the designs I not only need to get the name of the breed in the design but also the country such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Ireland, USA etc etc whilst still keeping the entire project within a manageable physical size.
What I have so far, besides those above are: Rambouillet (France), Eider (Germany), Targhee (USA), Pommersches Landschaf (Germany), Texel (The Netherlands, and considered a different breed from Blue Texel), Swedish Finewool (Sweden), Helsinge (Sweden), Asen (Sweden), Varmland (Sweden), Roslad (Sweden), Gestrike (Sweden), Rya (Sweden), Gotland (Sweden), Finnish (Finland), Onderslands Bonte Schaapo (The Netherlands), Highlander (New Zealand), Coburger Fuchschaf (Bavaria), Swiss Vallais Blacknose (Switzerland), Corriedale (New Zealand), Charollais (France), Polwarth (Australia), Perendale (New Zealand), Icelandic (Iceland), Zwartbles (The Netherlands), Tiroler Bergschaf (Austria), Faroese (Faroe Islands), New Zealand (New Zealand, who'd have guessed), Scandinavian Mountain (Scandinavia), South American (South America), Norwegian (Norway), Punta Arenas (Chile), Beltex (Belgium), Est a Laine (France), Cormo (Tasmania/Australia), Gutefar (Sweden) and Falkland Merino (Falkland Islands).
There are others that I am on the lookout for, as and when I see them, depending on costs and ability to be able to import them or not. Merino is traditionally and historically a Spanish sheep so I will make sure I have some standard Merino in this project too. At some point I will have to make the decision that I have enough samples and get designing and spinning but I'm in no immediate rush to do that as I'm happy to see what this years may bring forth first.
