Icelandic - Iceland

The Icelandic sheep belongs to the Northern European Short-Tailed group of sheep and, as the name suggests, come from Iceland.  Introduced by the Vikings between 870 and 930CE when they made settlements in Iceland, with some more added a few years later.  Since then, it has been illegal to import more sheep into Iceland and so this breed has developed in almost total isolation, without any genetic input from any other sheep breeds, making the Icelandic breed one of the world's purest livestock  populations.  They are grown primarily for meat in Iceland and the breed is best known elsewhere for its fleece and there are established successful and distinctive markets for their wool. These sheep provide 25% of the island nation's agricultural revenue. 

The Icelandic is larger than most other breeds in the Northern European Short-Tailed group but it is generally short-legged and stocky, slender and light-boned, and usually horned, although polled and polycerate (many horned) animals can occur.  The face and legs are free of wool. The ewes are highly prolific with the chance of twins being very high and there is a gene that is carried by some ewes called the þoka (Thoka) that can result in the birth of multiple lambs at a time.

Within the breed there is a strain that is called Leadersheep, which carries a hereditary ability or predisposition to be especially intelligent and these sheep play important roles in the flock and can lead other sheep safely over dangerous ground and alert others to hazards like predators and storms.  These sheep are specially identified and bred.  In 2000, the Leadersheep Society of Iceland was founded to conserve them.

Until the 1940s it was the predominant milk producing animal in Iceland.  In the 21st century it is reared principally for meat, which accounts for more than 80% of the total income derived from sheep farming.  In 1978 there were approximately 891,000, or about four sheep for every inhabitant of Iceland.  By 2007, the total number had fallen to about 450,000.  In 2018 numbers fell again to around 432,000.

Icelandic sheep can be found in a whole range of colours, white, tan, brown, grey, black and mixed colours too.  Colour inheritance is similar to that of other sheep but these display more variety and pattern than other breeds and some of the variations are unique to the Icelandic.

Icelandic sheep grow double-coated fleece. The finer undercoat is called þel, in English spelt as thel (the initial letter is a character known as thorn, pronounced with a th sound) and this insulates the animal against the cold.  The outercoat is called tog and this gives protection from windy, wet and cold weather and is not as coarse as other outercoats in similar breeds, in fact, it can be a bit more like mohair and sometimes more of a silky quality.  They have the ability to naturally shed their fleece but most often they are sheared.

Fleece weights are generally 1.8kg-3.2kg and aren't very greasy and have yields in a wide range from 50%-90%, with the highest figure being where both types of fibre have been used. The outer coat can be 28-40 microns and 4-18 inches in length (10cm-45.7cm).The inner coat has a diameter of 19-22 microns and 2-4 inches in length (5c-10cm).  The two types may be used separately or spun into a single yarn.  The coats are easiest to separate after they have been washed by catching the sheared end of the lock on a carder or comb and just tug on the long outercoat fibres. If you want to spin both coats together it may be easier to card the fibres, rather than comb them which will separate the fibre types, and be really careful when drafting to ensure both coats are taken up at the same rate.  Maybe the outercoat could be spun worsted and the undercoat spun woollen and then ply them together?  There are no hard fast rules in spinning, just make sure the singles are spun in the same direction though.

Commercially prepared Icelandic spinning fibre will usually contain both coats, as will commercially spun yarn.  The undercoat is an obvious choice for knitting and crocheting, while the outercoat lends itself easily to weaving, needle point and other stitchery or maybe making a knitted or crochet tote bag.

If you plan to dye the wool, whites will produce clear colours, overdyeing natural colours results in interestingly subtle shades. 

I bought this breed in as part of a breed exploration box featuring four "Viking breeds" in February 2020.  50g of commercially prepared fibre for spinning.

I spun both singles and plied them together on 29th May 2025 and made a 16wpi yarn, light fingering weight, that was 53g/183m.  This one is softer than I expected too with a very slight crispness to it.

I test knit this up using the design that I had originally created that was initial capitals and lowercase but I couldn't read the lettering so I ended up undoing it and re-knitting it after I changed all of the designs to just uppercase letters, like I did for the British Sheep Breeds Project. I also knit a sample square for my scrapbook and I will be doing that for all of the breeds.

Hopefully you can see that it says Icelandic with Iceland underneath