Spinning the white blend of the North Country Cheviot

I know that I have started to blend the Llandovery Whiteface Hill ready for spinning but I really should crack on and finish the spinning that I started as well.  I've already spun the lime green version a few months ago now so it was time to spin the natural version of the North Country Cheviot blend.   I almost forgot to take any work in progress photos of the spinning, but at least I did remember, unlike last time!

This one is prettier now that it's spun up and it will be interesting to see how it knits up at some point in the future.  I intend to find a pattern that will use both yarns in one project.

The fibre content of this one is 83% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon

It has spun up to sport weight and the skeins are 77g/180m and 72g/162m

Spinning the green blend of the North Country Cheviot

I thought that would make a start on spinning up some of the blends that I have been making in recent months.  I've started with the Lime North Country Cheviot with natural coloured additions.  I completely forgot to take any work in progress photos of the spinning, I think I just got so engrossed with spinning that before I knew it I was all done.

I actually think it looks prettier in the fluffy fibre format than it does now that it's spun up but it will be interesting to see how it knits up at some point in the future.

The fibre content of this one is 86% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 3% Mulberry Silk Noil, 3% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon.

It has spun up to sport weight and the skeins are 101g/182m and 74g/128m

Making my own matching reverse blends from some North Country Cheviot fleece

I'm carrying on with more blending today, although I might pay for this later with some serious shoulder ache.  I keep forgetting that I'm not as young as I once was and the old bones and muscles moan and creek these days.

A few days ago I dyed some North Country Cheviot fleece a gorgeous shade of green that is certainly different to anything you could possibly find in any shop.  Today I am going to blend everything together that I have picked out and I am going to do it twice, in reverse colours.  Bear with me, all will be revealed and will make sense shortly.

So, first up is the Lime coloured Cheviot with the natural or white textures. In this blend was 157g North Country Cheviot wool, 10g Tussah Silk, 6g Hemp, 5g Mulberry Silk Noil, 4g Trilobal Nylon.

Top left: Natural undyed hemp and below that is natural undyed Mulberry Silk Noil
Top right: Dyed North Country Cheviot hand combed nests
Bottom left: White Trilobal Nylon and bleached Tussah Silk

Next up is the natural coloured Cheviot with lime coloured textures.  In this blend was 137g undyed North Country Cheviot wool, 10g Tussah Silk in shade Caiprinha, 7g Hemp in shade Caiprinha, 7g Silk Noil in shade Chlorophyll and finally 2g each of the Trilobal Nylon in shade Caiprinha and Neon Green, the later I dyed myself a few days ago because I knew I hadn't got enough of the Caiprinha for this project.

Top left: Hemp in shade Caiprinha and below that is Silk Noil in shade Chlorophyll
Top right: Undyed North Country Cheviot hand combed nests
Bottom left: Trilobal Nylon in Caiprinha and Neon Green and Tussah Silk in shade Caiprinha

I did try and over-dye the Silk Noil in Chlorophyll a few days ago to make it more like the green of the Caiprinha fibres but it didn't want to take the dye, it might have done slightly, but not very much.

So the finished blended fibres are very pretty.  My favourite right now is the green with the natural coloured textures.  It's a shame that the silk noil in the other blend didn't take on the green dye as it would have made it less "yellow" but I'm happy enough with these.  The amounts are different between the colourways and so is the final fibre content because of that but once spun up I envisage that these two will be worked together in the same project in some kind of striped item.

The fibre content of the Green Cheviot with natural textures is :  86% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 3% Mulberry Silk Noil, 3% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon.  There is approximately 174g of this to be spun.

The fibre content of the Natural Cheviot with lime textures is : 83% Cheviot Wool, 6% Tussah Silk, 4.5% Silk Noil, 4.5% Hemp, 2% Trilobal Nylon.  There is approximately 153g of this to be spun.

North Country Cheviot

There are three distinct Cheviot sheep breeds here in the UK.  The South Country Cheviot, The North Country Cheviot and the Brecknock Hill Cheviot.  All three varieties share distinctive looks: they have wool-free white faces, upright and perky ears, Roman noses, dark nostrils, and their eyes are ringed dark which makes them look like they are wearing eye-liner. All three then have their own distinguishing features and characteristics and they are different in size and whether they have horns or not.  Each have their own blog post so be sure to click on links within the posts to navigate between the three.

The North Country Cheviot sheep is a breed in its own right but was originally developed from the smaller South Country Cheviot sheep.

In 1791, Sir John Sinclair was tasked with improving the national stock and he selected the native long woolled hill sheep found in the Border's Cheviot Hills from all other breeds he had seen and he gave them the name of Cheviot (now known as the South Country Cheviot or Border Cheviot), the first time they had been named as a breed.  He believed they were the perfect mountain sheep in both form and fleece and so he took 500 of these Cheviots more than 300 miles north to his Langwell Estate in Ulbester, Caithness which is almost the most northern part of mainland Scotland.  It was a success and they flourished as they suited the terrain and so many more thousands were transported north over the following years.  They were crossed with Leicester Longwool and other rams and the breed developed into the bigger and slightly different North Country Cheviot.

Cheviot and Leicester sheep were exhibited at the Highland Show in 1831 and this was the "shop window" to a wider audience. Classes at the Royal, Paris and Smithfield Shows soon followed.  Due to many breeders improving further on this breed there are now three "types" within this breed: the Hill or Lairg, the Caithness and the Border, which I find really confusing given the fact the South Country Cheviot is also sometimes referred to as "The Border Cheviot".  My head hurts!  The wide variety types within the breed ensures that crossing rams are available to meet most conditions.

The North Country Cheviot is big, long, robust white sheep that is prolific with strong maternal qualities that are very alert and active and weighing in at 55-80kg for a ewe and 100-120kg for ram they are considerably larger than the South Country Cheviot .  They have wool-free white faces, upright and perky ears, Roman noses, dark nostrils and their eye are ringed dark which makes them look like they are wearing eye-liner. Both sexes are polled.  At the time of writing, the North Country Cheviot is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 6: "Other UK Native Breeds" (over 3000) registered breeding ewes.  

The fleece is white, crisp and lustrous and generally weighs 2-3kg with a staple length of 3.5-6 inches (9-15cm).  The locks have rectangular staples with slightly pointed tips and a three dimensional crimp.  Breed associations specify no hair, kemp or coloured fibres should be in the ideal fleece.

This fleece can be carded if you have a shorter fleece or if you have a longer fleece it can be flicked or combed.  Takes dyes well and clearly.  The resulting yarns can be used for socks, sweaters and the like.  

I had a bit of trouble locating this breed as many clump all three Cheviot breeds under the umbrella name of "Cheviot" but I did finally manage to get a fleece or at least a part fleece from a lady who has them on her farm just outside of Halifax, West Yorkshire.

When it arrived it weighed 889g (which is why I think it is just a part fleece) and after sorting it, washing it and drying it weighed 659g.

I decided to comb all of this fleece and I got 398g of hand combed top from it that contained both long and short fibres.

I picked out about 100g and started spinning.  The rest can be blended with other fibres in the future perhaps.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and is 98g/176m.  It doesn't feel as soft as the South Country Cheviot, which technically I haven't spun yet, I spin that in about 3 weeks time but I'm a Dr Who fan and I've done some wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey stuff to come and update this post with information and add links to the other Cheviot breeds cos they don't just appear magically all by themselves you know.  My knitted piece for the project took 44g/80m so I have some left to do whatever with.