Coburger Fuchsschaf (Red Fox) - Bavaria, Germany

Coburger Fuchsschaf sheep, also known as Red Fox Sheep, Golden Fox Sheep, Eisfelder Fox Sheep, Rousse Tetes, Coburg Fox Sheep amongst other names, originate from Bavaria in Germany and is a hill breed of sheep that is characterised by its reddish brown to golden colour.  Lambs are born reddish born and their fleece becomes lighter in colour at around 6-12 months old whilst the head and legs remain reddish brown.  Another breed that does this is the Portland, maybe there is some ancestral genetic connection dating back hundreds of years.  

In the late 1800's and early 1900's the breed was abundant, making up about 60% of the sheep found in the Coburg area of Germany, but was on the verge of extinction by the end of World War II.  The breed owes its continued existence to Otto Stritzel, a breeder and weaver from Bavaria who publicised the favourable traits of the breed.  The breed was officially recognised in 1996.   

In the early 1980's, there were only two registered breeders in the German state of Bavaria, with about 100 breeding ewes, and a breeder in Baden-Baden with a much larger flock.  By the end of 1993, this had increased to 34 registered breeders in Bavaria with 1,238 breeding ewes and 51 breeding rams, and since then, the breed has spread all across Germany.  Numbers have increased in recent years but it is still on the endangered list.

The rams weigh about 80-100kg and are about 80cm at the withers and the ewes about 60-75kg and about 70cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  The head and legs are either both golden or both red-brown and are free from wool and they have a slight Roman nose profile.  Ewes generally give birth to twins.  Rams produce fleece of 4- 5kg and Ewes fleece are generally 3- 4kg.  The fleece is generally long and golden (white with a red-brown or golden tint) which contains either lots, or very little, of dark kempy hair, which can have an affect on the final colour of the spun yarn, depending on preparation of the fleece.  The micron count is generally 33-36 microns.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed raw fleece back in July 2021 from a lady from whom I bought many of the breed samples for my British Sheep Breed Project.  I have purchased a number of samples from her for this Non-British Breed Project too, although she doesn't stock very many breeds that fit this category.  It was described as "the fleece is surprisingly soft fleece with a slight red tinge giving its name". This fleece has come from a flock in Cumbria here in the UK.  This a really hard to find breed that I haven't seen available in any of the usual spinning fibre stores here in the UK.

So, the sample of fleece that I purchased had some areas that had little kempy hair in and other areas that contained a lot.  The kempy hair was also a mixture of black and reddish-brown.

I didn't note the date that I combed this but most of the kempy hair was removed effortlessly by the combs, leaving just enough in for a little bit of interest and texture but revealing the golden colour of the fleece.  I have 62g of lovely hand combed top to spin up.

I split the amount of fibre into two equal amounts and pre-drafted prior to spinning. I also manually removed as many of the black/dark fibres as I could during that process, spinning, plying and manually checking the finished yarn. There were three fibre nests in each ply. One of the nests was noticeably coarser than the other five, so I pre-drafted that one alongside the other nests to even out the fibre quality along the entire length of one ply.

I spun this yarn up on 2nd and 3rd June 2026 and I achieved 48g/253m and the resulting yarn is a slightly crisp yarn, not soft and luxurious, but I would have no issues wearing it around my neck.

It is not a solid white or cream yarn, the variety of tones within the yarn are very visible once it is knitted. It took me a couple of days to knit the project piece up and I finished on 16th June 2026.

Gestrikefår - Sweden

Gestrikefår are one strain of several Swedish breeds referred to as "forest sheep", each of which is geographically and genetically unique and very rare.  This breed of sheep originates from the village of Mörtebo in Gästrikland (Gestrike) province in east central Sweden and were once very common.  They were "rediscovered" in 1994 after seemingly been kept in small numbers in closed herds on a handful of farms. They are an endangered conservation breed with just 216 breeding ewes registered as of 2021.  Gestrike have been in the gene bank of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since 2000.  

They are known for being unusually tame and affectionate.  They are quite small with rams weighing around 60-70kg and standing 69cm at the withers and ewes weighing around 45kg and standing 65cm at the withers. They have short tails, which often go bald as the sheep ages.  The ewes usually have twin lambs but can also have single lambs, triplets, or quads. Both rams and ewes can have horns, but they are usually polled. When horns are present, the Rams will have large horns, whilst the ewes will have small horns.  They come in a whole range of colours: white, grey, brown, black and all colours in between, spotted and parti-coloured. Some lambs are born white and some black or brownish and the fleece can lighten in colour with age. They have double-coated fleece, which varies from very fine wool to long wool type.  The undercoat is often dense.  The wool has tapestry wool or rya-type wool.  I've not been able to find any information about the fibre diameters or microns, but as this is a conservation breed and not in huge numbers, and the fact that the fleece is double-coated and can vary, then I am not surprised that the information is not available.

I bought this breed in as 113g 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 June 2026. 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 fleece from these rare breeds really do help the survival of the breed.  

I washed this just a few days after it arrived and the water turned really brown.  All of the beige-brown fibres became white and after it had been washed and dried I was left with 103g, a drop of just 10g.

I combed the fleece about a month later on 19th June 2022 and it gave me 77g of lovely interesting top ready to spin.

I split the fibre into equal amounts to spin a 2ply yarn and pre-drafted it, trying to ensure that the black guard hairs were evenly distributed throughout. It was quite nice to spin, spinning it over a couple of days and finishing on 2nd June 2026. The wool itself was a mix of white and pale grey, which made for an interesting yarn.

The yarn is sturdy, crisp, a little prickly, definitely not next-to-skin. I measure it to be about a sport weight and 73g/229m.

I finished the knitted piece on 10th June 2026.

I think the lettering is fairly easy to read and I love the pooling of colour within the knitting.