Spinning some Romney, Silk & Linen fibre

I bought this fibre nearly 5 years ago and have finally gotten around to spinning it up.  

There are two braids and due to how it has been dyed, in a kind of splodgy fashion, I decided to Fractal spin it, which is a way to split the fibre braid up to manage the colours and amount of times that you split the braid can be adjusted if required.  

A basic Fractal spin is achieved by splitting the braid in half down the entire length and spinning one ply from one of those halves and then for the second ply you would normally split it 4 ways and spin them one after the other, starting from the same end as the 1st ply every time.  

For these braids, due to the colour distribution, I decided to split the first half into two lengths equally down the entire length and then spun them A-B and A-B.  For the second half I split it down the length 6 times and spun A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B, A-B in a bid to distribute the colours more evenly along the length of the finished yarn.  I worked both braids in this way.

The top bobbin is the second ply, with shorter colour changes.  The bottom bobbin is the first ply with the longer colour changes.

There is some visible colour differences between the two braids but if I use them together in one project I will alternate their use every 2 rows to blend and neutralise those differences.

It has come out to sport weight (12 wpi) with a combined total of 195g/546m and it is 50% Romney, 25% Silk, 25% Linen.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 7

The Cycling: Stage 7 is 170km of a flat route that starts in Mont-de-Marsan and ends in Bordeaux, France.

The Daily Challenge: There's one every year - spin something watery, blue or water inspired! We've designed Midouze to help you float along with this one!

Suggested Fibre: Midouze

What I did

I was planning to spin a blue fibre I have that is called Boat Race but I haven't finished yesterday's spin yet so I will continue with that.  It is a kind of blue-green, although leaning more towards green than blue, and kind of looks a little bit watery anyway.

The finished yarn is 50% Romney, 25% Linen, 25% Silk, Light Fingering weight and is 430m/100g.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2023 Stage 6

The Cycling: Stage 6 is 145km of a mountain route that starts in Tarbes and ends in Cauterets-Cambasque both in the Pyrenees, France.

The Daily Challenge: All change! Take your spinning outside and enjoy playing with a fibre in a different location.

Suggested Fibre: Merino/Flax/Tussah

What I did

I was going to try and sit in the back garden and try spinning out there but the weather was not playing nicely today.

I picked out a Romney, Silk & Linen blend from 2019 and the previous supplier.  When I undone the plaited braid it naturally split down the middle of the entire length of the braid.  I pre-drafted it and spun it quite finely.  For the second single I started from the other end of the braid so as not to have the colours pool too much. 

I didn't get around to finishing the spinning today and will finish it tomorrow.

Romney Sheep

Carrying on with my British Breeds project my next breed is the Romney, named after the Romney Marshes in Kent in southeast England, on which the ancestors of this breed were introduced in Roman times.  The Romney belongs to the English Longwool category of sheep.  According to the British Wool Marketing Board the breed was established in the UK during the 13th century.

The Romney sheep, at the time of writing, is in the "Other UK Native Breeds" category, according to the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.  This means that there are over 3000 sheep of this breed registered with the relevant breed society and a quick search reveals when it comes to the numbers of Romney sheep worldwide we are talking in millions, not thousands, and probably hundreds of millions as there are at least 25 million in New Zealand alone, having being introduced there in 1853 with Coopworth and Perendale breeds being developed in New Zealand by crossing other breeds with the Romneys.  These new breeds will obviously not be included in my British Breeds project.

Historically, Romney Marsh is a coastal plain in southeast England that is about a hundred square miles and much of it lies below sea level and is kept habitable by a Roman era system of drainage ditches and sea walls which were expanded in Medieval times.  The Romans bought sheep to the marshes but they suffered health problems and poor quality fleece due to the wet conditions but over centuries the sheep did slowly start to adapt.  In the 1800's Shepherds of the Marshes improved on these native sheep by introducing Leicester Longwool sheep from Robert Bakewell's flock and this then led to the Romney that we know today that grows high quality fleece even in wet conditions.

The Romney is a large sheep with a open white face and wool that grows over the legs.  The breed standard varies from country to country but here in the UK rams should have a wide broad head that is masculine in appearance and ewes should have a full face.  The back is long, wide and strong, the chest wide and the neck short and strong too. So kind of a stocky solid build, certainly not gangly.  Neither sex have horns and there should be no dark hair or kemp in an otherwise white fleece, although some coloured varieties do exist.

They produce a large dense fleece with well defined crimp and ranges from moderately coarse to fairly fine and is finer than most of the other Longwool breeds.  The finest wool can be worn next to skin but for the most part this breed it probably best being worn one layer away from the skin.  Coarser fleece are best used for outwear such as jackets and hats or household items that need durability such as rugs, chair seat pads and other soft furnishings.  Depending on the source of information, the staple length is between 4 and 8 inches long (10-20.5 cm long) and can be anything from 3.6 to over 10 kilos in weight. 

This fleece can be spun from picked or flicked locks, it can be carded or combed, made into drum-carded batts or carded rolags, its very versatile, very lustrous and takes dye really well.  This breed can be prone to "canary staining" which is a yellow colouring of the fleece caused by bacteria due to the damp or wet conditions that these sheep often survive in.  Sometimes it can affect the entire fleece, other times it will just be a section of it.  It may wash out, to an extent, but can't be washed out entirely but washing the fleece will kill the bacteria and prevent it getting any worse until you decide to either embrace the yellowing, try to overdye it or throw it away.  

Yarns spun from Romney fleece have a wide range of uses with the finer yarns being used for shawls, mittens and other clothing and the coarser yarns are more suited to household items and upholstery.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds but I forgot to get decent photos of it before I spun it.  It was a pleasure to spin with no rubbish in it, just as well prepared spinning fibre should be.

Spun to Sport Weight I got 142m out of my 50g

My finished yarn is quite nice with some lustre.  My knitted piece for the project only took 12g/34m so I have some left to play with in the future.