Gotlandsfår, more commonly known as Gotland, is a breed of sheep from Sweden that was developed in the 20th century from the more primitive Gutefår (also known as Gute or Gotland Outdoor sheep) by breeding them with Karakuls (from central Asia) and Romanovs (from Russia) in the 1920's and 1930's. There is a geographical coincidence to the breeds origins on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
They are fine boned and medium sized sheep. Both sexes are polled. They have black heads and legs, which are free of wool, although white markings may appear on the top of the head or around the nose and mouth. The tail is short with a hair covered tip. Rams weigh around 75-85kg and ewes weigh around 55-70kg. They are docile and friendly, although older rams can become quite aggressive.
They are bred mainly for their sheepskins and meat and because the focus has been on producing good sheepskin the double coat has been replaced by a fleece made up of purely guard hairs. They are the only Swedish sheep breed that is it not in a conservation program due to the high numbers of them, 15,817 breeding ewes as of 2021. Whilst their sheepskins are popular in Europe, elsewhere their fleece is prized by handspinners.
The wool of the Gotland is quite unusual. It closely resembles a fine mohair or an English lustre longwool more than it does it other Northern European Short Tail breeds to which it belongs. Lambs are quite often born black and the fleece will lighten with age and continue to lighten throughout their lives. The predominant colours are a range of grey that starts with a very pale silver grey right through to charcoal grey that is very close to black. Black, brown and white fleece can be found but are quite rare. Different strains of Gotlands have different fleece characteristics but they all have great length, lustre and a well-developed wavy crimp.
Commercially processed top is known to often be more matte and coarser than when it is hand combed from fleece when it seems to be shinier and softer and two can feel like completely different breeds. I have personally experienced this difference.
It can be spun into smooth or heavily textured yarns and the beautiful clean unspun locks often decorate other textiles. It can be felted and it is more comfortable in next-to-skin items that would be expected of other fibres in the same micron range. Fabric can be lightweight, durable and drape well whilst also possessing a subtle gleam
There is a strain of Gotlands in New Zealand that has been bred for increased fineness and their wool was used to make the Elven cloaks worn by the main characters in all three of the Lord of the Rings movies.
Fleece weights are usually 2.5kg-5kg and the staple length can be variable but usually 7.5cm-18cm (3-7 inches) but sometimes they are sheared twice a year to produce staples that are 7.5-10cm (3-4 inches). In terms of fibre diameters, lambs can be as fine as 18 microns to low mid-20s and adults range from 27-35 microns. The locks are relatively long, high lustre, really wavy and sometimes curly and they feel silky. The tips of the locks often turn brown. The natural grey colour is beautiful as it is but can be dyed, with the natural grey influencing the shade and tone of resulting colour.
The fine fibres can be a bit flyaway, especially in dry climates but the locks can be spun directly from the locks, flicked, combed or, if you have shorter fibres, you can card. Gotland lends itself to be spun into fine yarns far easier than being spun into bulkier yarns. Prepared fibre for spinning appears quite fluffy but when it is spun the yarn will have a heavier feeling to it and will have a lot of drape. Its quite slippery too. It can be spun woollen style from batts or rolags, which will give texture or you can spin worsted style from top for fine shiny drapey yarns.
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I bought this breed in as 105g of unwashed raw fleece that was part of a sample pack that featured 8 different Swedish breeds that I purchased back in early May 2022 from a lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden. I was going to add a link for Anita and her shop but when I looked her last social media post was in October of 2024 stating that she was in hospital and she has not posted anything since and her online shop is empty as of April 2025. I do hope she is OK. However, I can provide a link to Swedish Fibre, a small business run by Sandy Zetterlund who has a passion for knitting, wool, spinning and now a passion for bringing these beautiful fleece from these rare conservation sheep kept by small farmers into the limelight and put them in front of similarly passionate hand spinners like myself who care about ensuring the future and continuation of these rare and unique breeds. The demand for and sale of the fleece from these rare breeds really do help the survival of the breed.
There doesn't appear to be much different between the dirty fleece above the washed fleece below in terms of colour but when I was sorting the fleece out prior to washing, 11g of second cuts was removed reducing the amount straight down to 94g and once it was washed and dried this became 84g.
When I combed this in May 2022 I got 55g of hand combed top from it. I thought it might be enough but then I decided to add 50g of some commercially prepared Gotland that was in my stash. The colours are quite different with a slight brownish cast to the commercial prep.
To even this out I split lots into two equal amounts and then used my blending hackle to physically blend and combine the different colours together to give a more even colour. I lost an amount of the shortest fibres from both types of prep in the blending hackle prongs but the colour is now more even and I have a nice 91g to spin.
As this wool leans more towards a Longwool type than anything else, the yarn produced will be a heavier, more dense type of wool and will have good drape. I spun this over 3 days, 5th, 6th and plied on the 7th July 2025.
It has spun up as a 16wpi yarn, although it does feel a lot heavier in the hand than some other yarns, that would be down to the denseness of this type of wool. It is 89g/249m and it is not as soft as other Gotland that I spun in the past. I knit the panel for my project over a couple of days 21st-23rd July 2025, due to the hot, sticky, humid weather. This and the small sample for my scrapbook used up 25g/70m of yarn.
I had to pin this one to keep it open, even after blocking, as it just wants to roll the edges up. I hope that it is readable.
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