Corriedale - New Zealand

The Corriedale sheep was first developed by James Little, the manager of a ranch called "Corriedale" on the south island of New Zealand by crossing British Lincoln Longwools, which preferred lush lowland grazing, with Merino's that preferred dry sparse grazing, in the early 1880's to breed a sheep that would be more suited to the intermediate grasslands of the ranches location.  Similar breeding work was undertaken by a number of ranch managers across New Zealand and Australia with the addition of Romney and Border Leicester and the breed eventually became stabilised and it was officially recognised in 1911.   

Corriedale have been exported all over the world since then and have become the origins of many other breeds by cross breeding with the local sheep and creating new names breeds or being selectively bred for particular traits and these forming new "strains" of Corriedale, which have their own names, Bond being one such strain.

The Corriedale is a medium-large sheep with rams weighing 85-105kg and ewes weighing 65-75kg.  Both sexes are polled.  They are not prolific with most ewes giving birth to one single lamb.  The chance of twins is 5-25%.  They are a dual-purpose sheep, being raised for both meat and fleece.  Some shepherds who raise this breed use jackets on their sheep to keep the wool as clean as possible.  They are usually white but in smaller flocks, like those mostly kept to sell their fleece to hand spinners, you will often find pale grey through to black and beige through to moorit in the brown range. A small amount of sheep are spotted.

Corriedale fleeces generally range from 4.5-9 kg but most are around 5.4kg.  Staple length is 7.5 - 15cm (3½ - 6 inches).  They come in a wide range of micron counts ranging from the low 20's for lambs and hoggets up to 33 microns for adult but most fall in the middle of this range at about 25-31 microns which is soft enough to be used next-to-skin for most people.  Despite the fact the micron range varies from individual to individual the quality of any particular fleece tends to be consistent in length, crimp and fineness.  The locks are rectangular and dense although soft with flat tips.  The crimp is clearly defined along the full length of the fibre.  

The bright white fleeces take dye well and the coloured fleece can also be overdyed.  You can prepare this fibre anyway you like and you can cut the long fibres in half for carding.  Weathered tips may break off and cause noils.  When spinning ensure to spin finer than you think you need as this fibre will bloom.

Many sheep that are raised in the Falkland Islands and South America are Corriedales.  Wool that is shipped through the Chilean port of Punta Arenas is likely to be Corriedale.  There is currently, in 2025, fibre that is marketed as "Falkland", "South American", "New Zealand" and "Punta Arenas" and yet there are no actual breeds of sheep that are called that and instead, with research, I have discovered that these are actually blends of a variety of sheep from farmers in those areas who have pooled their fleeces together collectively for processing and marketing and generally contain fibre from 4 or 5 different breeds that are available to purchase individually elsewhere.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of commercially prepared fibre that is stated as being 25-30 microns with a staple of 8-12cm and I bought it in 3 colours, white, grey and brown.  For this project I have chosen to use the brown one.

Unusual for my fibre source, I found that this particular fibre contained quite a lot of kemp, white hairs, bits of vegetable matter and also slubby bits of rubbish fibres.  I removed a lot whilst pre-drafting and some more when I was actually spinning.  I started the spinning on 7th August and plied it on 10th August.  As this breed also bounces up after spinning and washing I did my best to spin as fine as I could but, again, only managed a 14wpi yarn and my finished yarn is 91g/375m, which means that I lost around 9g just in the rubbish bits of the fibre that I removed.

I knit my project piece on 15th and 16th August and used just 15g of yarn.

Perendale - New Zealand

The Perendale was developed in the 1950s as a dual-purpose meat and fibre breed for use in steep hill situations by Geoffrey Peren at Massey University in New Zealand.  Peren crossed Cheviot rams on Romney ewes to produce this breed.  Although Perendales were first imported into the USA in 1977, they are still rare in North America.  They are a medium-sized longwool sheep that does well in cold and wet climates.  Both sexes are polled.

The number of this breed has increased since the 1980s because hill-farming has increased and these sheep are perfectly adapted to that kind of terrain.  Rams generally weigh 100kg-118kg and ewes weigh substantially less at 54kg-68kg.  These are very much a commercial breed of sheep that were bred to replace the pure breed Romneys that had deviated from its original type over the years and were no longer doing so great in the hilly areas of the north island of New Zealand, despite the fact that they had been on the land since 1853.  Perendale's are bred for their meat and wool and it is hard to find any really good concise information about them as they are not really the kind of sheep that people take to shows. 

Perendale is a bouncy wool, which will spin up with a spring to it, as opposed to the compact sleekness of English longwools.  This lofty quality can add warmth to sweaters or cushioning qualities to rugs, depending on the fineness of the fibre and your plans for using it.

There are both finer and coarser ranges within the breed, and New Zealand standards have moved toward the coarse end of the scale lately in response to market demands and husbandry realities.  Thus some sheep are producing wools for general knitting yarns whilst others grow fleeces best suited for harder wearing textiles like rugs, bags and upholstery.

Fleece weigh 3.4kg-5kg with staple lengths of 4-6 inches (10cm-15cm).  The fibre diameters are usually 28-35 microns but in New Zealand there is a shift more towards 30-37 microns.

The fibres have even crimp with low lustre and free of kemp or black hairs.  They are usually white, although there are some coloured flocks.  The fleece will take dye well but not with the same clarity that other longwools do and without any shine.  It can be spun straight from the lock, be flicked or combed although if you have a fleece that is short you can card that.  The fibres will capture air and be bouncy, if you are spinning worsted you may need to spin finer than you would usually to allow for bloom.  Yarns will be slightly crisp and will be good for texture stitches and patterns.

I brought this breed in as 100g of pre-prepared fibre from World of Wool ready to spin in May 2022.

This is another breed that will bounce up after it has been spun and so you have to spin it finer than you would normally spin most other wools to achieve the yarn weight that you desire.  It took me a few days to spin this, as I've not been well, but trying to carry on and do something to stop me from climbing the walls.  So, I started spinning this on 19th June and finished it on 21st June.

It spun up as a 16wpi/Light Fingering weight yarn that is 94g/343m and has a really nice feel to it and it is soft but not as soft as Merino, obviously.  I knit the panel for my project on 3rd July 2025 and I think you can read the words clearly enough.  This and my sample used up 18g/66m of yarn.

This one is a lot easier to read than some of the others.

Advent Calendar 2024 Day 23 - Emmet

I have never heard of this character so I had to Google him and he is something to do with Jim Henson Studios and The Muppets as Kermit the Frog narrates the story.  All the information can be found in the first photo and if you click on the photo you can zoom in if you need to.

I don't think this design is based on the story but the colours in the design do seem to match the colours in the fibre.

I have undone the tightly wrapped little bundles and made them into braids to take any pressures off the fibres and also so that I can see the colours properly and feel the texture too.  This is not my favourite colour combination and, to be honest, its a bit too busy for my liking so I will need to tone it down somehow.

I did manage to find a photo online of the character of Emmet and the I can see how the colours match his clothing.

Advent Calendar 2023 Day 6

The Tradition

Day 6 is called Pōhutukawa and the tradition comes from New Zealand.  It is a flowering tree called the New Zealand Christmas Tree or Iron Tree that flowers November to January with vibrant red flowers.  The oldest tree is thought to be around 600 years old and they are sacred in Māori culture and mythology.  It is a coastal evergreen tree belonging to the Myrtle family that grow up to about 82ft tall.

The Fibre

The actual fibre content is 60% New Zealand (brown), 20% Sari Silk (Rosette), 20% Corriedale (Grass).  Because this is a New Zealand tradition we have New Zealand fibre in it.  This is a natural brown shade of New Zealand and its got green Corriedale in it, which also comes from New Zealand and its got red Sari Silk in to represent the flowers. You've got a little bit of everything in this blend, brown for the bark, green for the leaves and red for the flowers. This is actually quite a soft blend because the fibres in it are bulky and squishy and you would be able use these in any chosen craft.  This will be an interesting fibre to spin with.  The Sari Silk has got different staple lengths in it which means you don't always get an even draft on it so you would end up with some of it slightly thicker and some of it slightly thinner which would be a lovely textured yarn and it would also be good for an art yarn.  Because this a recycled Sari Silk you get pops of other colours in it so we've got a little bit of pink in here are well as a tiny little bit of green too and it will be a fun blend to work with.

My Thoughts

Upon open the packet I immediately thought of one of the fibres from last years advent calendar, which this reminds me of.  I am thinking that it might work well with last year's Day 3 "Wreath".  The colours are not my favourite blend but I'm ok with that.  

I am also writing up these blog posts some time after the date and the first photos are what I took on the day of opening using my mobile phone and the early December natural light, which isn't always the best, and the next photos have been taken some time after using my proper camera and my little lit pop up studio and the colours are more true to life. 

The information that has been printed on the bags is not always correct and there are no fibre content percentages, these have been provided on the chat boards.  The percentages that they gave on the chat boards seem to be correct, YAY!

What I have done with my bags is to write the actual fibre content on the bag using a gold gel pen in the gap immediately below the printed details, pretty much the only thing that will show up on black are the metallic gel pens.  This is why I have not taken "new" photos of the bags.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 18 - Lourdes to Hautacam

Stage 18 of the Tour de France and it is a 143.2km long mountain race that starts in Lourdes and ends in Hautacam.

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

The race starts in Lourdes, most famous today due the Marian Apparitions allegedly seen by Bernadette Soubirous in 1858 and now visited by religious pilgrims.  The town has been occupied since prehistoric times and in the second half of the 19th century the remains of walls, parts of a citadel, necropolis and a Pagan temple dedicated to the Gods of Water were found after the demolition of the parish of Saint-Pierre.  So the sites to see today are the Sanctuary of Notre-Dame de Lourdes and the Torchlight Procession, every evening at 9pm between April and October thousands of pilgrims and tourists take part in the procession from the grotto of the apparitions to the esplanade of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary.  

There is also medieval Lourdes Castle, which now houses a museum of art and local history.  Other local interests are the Christhi Museum (calligraphy and ancient imagery), Pyrenean Museum, Lourdes Market Hall and Pic du Jer, which is a viewpoint of the city with the summit being 1,000m and accessed by a funicular railway that is more than 100 years old.  There is also a 18 hole golf course and The Gaves Green, Way, which is built on a disused railway line and accessible by all, including wheelchair users.

Lourdes

The first place of note on today's route is Saint-Pé-de-Bigorre which has an 11th century abbey of the same name and is currently a place for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela.  Next is the 14th century bastide of Montaut and then, some 23km along the route, is Louvie-Juzon, followed quickly by Izeste, Gère-Belesten and Laruns, the latter being known for its sheep's milk cheese and a cheese fair which takes place the first weekend of October every year.

Laruns

Back to the route and Eaux-Bonnes, which is made up of several small hamlets and then onto Béost, which has a 15th century Abbey/Castle.  The cyclists now tackle the climb of the Aubisque mountain pass (1,709m), which has featured in the tour 73 times.  Spandelles Pass (1,378m) is next and is featured in the tour for the first time before they reach Argelès-Gazost with a population of 3,400 and it has the Abbey of Saint-Savon.  Towards the end of the race is Beaucens, which has a 10th century castle clearly visible on the top of a hill surrounded by woodland.  The castle, now in ruins, is also home to a zoological park which specialises in birds of prey.  Today's race ends with a climb up the mountain to the ski resort of Hautacam.

Hautacam

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma.

The Yellow Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma

The Green Jersey won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Jonas Vingegaard for Jumbo-Visma.

The White Jersey won by Tadej Pogacar for UAE Team Emirates.

Combatif Award won by Wout van Aert for Jumbo-Visma.

Leading team: Ineos-Grenadiers

The Challenge: The roads from Lourdes to Hautacam mark the last mountain stage of this year's Tour de France, it is all downhill from here!  But first, the riders need to scale their final challenge - the Pyrenees, home of the highest waterfall in France and one of the highest roads in Europe!

Push yourself to finish something you have started. Spinning a braid, plying, winding, balling or biscuits.

Suggested Fibre:  Whatever you fancy!  If you've got some Botany left, you can always dip in to it to make the final push.

What I did

I decided that I would up one of the monthly subscription fibres from a supplier that I used to use to get it out of the way. I chose "Peterloo" from August 2019, which is 50% Shetland, 25% Linen, 25% New Zealand wool.  The inspiration for the fibre can be found here.

I split the fibre into two equal parts, pre-drafted it and spun two singles and then plied them together.

The finished yarn is sport weight, 100g/231m which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 693m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

August's Fibre has arrived - Peterloo

When the letter came a few days ago I didn't know what to expect other than blue and white.  Its quite nice, almost like a denim look to it and if you look really close it almost like there is a pink tinge to some of it.  Its 50% Shetland Wool, 25% New Zealand Wool, 25% Linen so its not the softest wool but she did say that it would be quite stiff until its worked.