Åsenfår - Sweden

Åsenfår or Åsen sheep are a forest type of sheep and one of 10 Swedish Heritage breeds. They belong to the group of Northern European Short Tailed sheep and show the same characteristics as many other breeds in this group for being smaller and hardy. Most are dual-coated due to the colder northerly climates, adaptability to their specific location and availability of food, with many in this group happy to eat non-grass vegetation such as leaves, bark, shrubs and seaweed, with each breed in this group also being unique in their own right.  Most breeds in this group are also on the verge of extinction or have been on the verge of extinction and are in conservation programmes to preserve genetics and increase numbers as they are not desirable to large industry due to small meat carcass and non-uniformity of fleece in both length and softness. However, they are extremely desirable to small-scale farmers and hand spinners

In the 1990's they were re-discovered on just 3 farms in the village of Åsarna, in county Dalarna in west central Sweden and had been kept with no interference from other breeds for many years by farmers striving to hold onto the kind of sheep that had always been on the farm for many generations of farmers.  Their genetics have been preserved in the "Gene Bank" of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since 1997 and farmers who are members of that Association are not allowed to breed for specific traits or characteristics or try to improve the sheep in order to keep the breed true.  This is very much a conservation breed and by 2020 the numbers had grown to 465 registered breeding ewes across 55 farms and in 2021 this number grew again to 489 registered breeding ewes.   

They are usually smaller than the average sheep.  The rams weigh about 45-55kg and are about 63cm at the withers and the ewes about 40-50kg and about 61cm at the withers.  These are hardy animals bred to live on forest pasture in the summer and poor feed during the winter. The tail is short and often bald. They can become very affectionate if time is spent with them.

Rams are typically horned, and ewes are usually polled but might have scurs, which are small loose growths that resemble incomplete horns.  The rams' horns can vary in size but can be very large.  There is no specific lambing season, and lambs can be born at different times of the year as the ewes come into season depending on the availability of food rather than temperature and daylight, although they tend not to come into season during the summer to ensure lambs are not born during the coldest and bleakest times of winter.  First-time mothers usually have one lamb, and as they mature, will often have twins.  Triplets can be born from time to time.

They come in a range of colours, including white, brown, grey, and black, and can be coloured with white patches.  The lambs are usually born black or fawn, sometimes with white markings, but can lighten with age, and some lambs can be black and white. Colours within one flock will vary greatly due to varying ages of individuals. 

The fleece are not consistent, and not only do they vary from individual to individual but there are different types of wool on each individual.  They can produce coarse and fine wool, and anything in between, within an individual fleece.  Some individuals have kemp in their fleece. There are 4 types of fleece within this breed: Pälsull type: mostly outercoat with a little undercoat; Rya type: usually 50/50 outercoat and undercoat; Vadmal type: mostly undercoat with a small amount of outercoat; and Finull type: almost all undercoat. It is easy to work with and can be spun or felted.  It is possible to separate the undercoat and the outercoat fibres, or you can spin them together for warmth, strength and stability. Due to the variety of wool types in this breed, it could be used to make a whole variety of garments or even as weft yarn for weaving.  The softest undercoat fibres from a lamb's fleece could be used for next-to-skin garments.

 

I bought this breed in as 101g 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 Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden who added an announcement to her shop in October of 2024 stating that she was in hospital and she has not posted anything since. Her online shop is empty as of August 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 the fleece from these rare breeds really do help the survival of the breed.  

The sheep this fleece came from had been raised on a small family farm.  I had no idea as to exactly what colour this was going to be until I washed the sample of fleece on Friday 27th May 2022.  

Raw fleece, waiting to be washed

Washed fleece

As you can see, the colour has changed somewhat. What I thought were dirty tips were actually dark hairs, although some of the dark hairs were longer and dispersed throughout the locks; the majority were shorter and seemed to be congregated in the tips.  After washing, my sample weighed 73g.  

After combing this small amount of fleece I have 46g of top to spin.  It is not a pure white fibre, more of a creamy white to pale fawn kind of colour.  Most of the dark hairs were removed during combing, but some, the longer ones, remain and add to the colour, texture and interest of this fibre.

It's been a while since I combed this fleece, but I have finally spun it now, and it was an interesting and lovely spin. It is part longwool type and part shorter soft wool, but it didn't feel like I was spinning a double-coated fleece at all. The colour looks slightly off-white-cream-beige when I am spinning it, but when I stop, it is easy to see that it is different-coloured fibres, especially really fine black fibres, that are affecting the colour.

The finished yarn is relatively soft with just a tiny little bit of prickliness and is 44g/180m. I spun it over 3rd and 4th August, and when I washed the skein, the water turned quite milky, which means that a lot of grease washed out. 

I knit the piece for my project over 27th and 28th August 2026 and I really like the pale mottled colour of the knitted fabric.