Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 3 - Vejle to Sønderborg (Denmark)

Stage 3 of the Tour de France and it is a 182km long flat race that starts in Vejle, in the south east of the Jutland Peninsula of Denmark and ends in Sønderborg in Southern Denmark.

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Vejle Windmill built in 1847 can be seen from a great distance.  It was a functioning mill until 1960.

St Nicholai Church built in the 13th century. One of the best conserved Iron Age bog bodies, that of the Haraldskær Woman, is on display in a glass-covered sarcophagus.  The exterior brick wall of the north transept has 23 spherical indentations, each approximately 6 inch in diameter, which hold the skulls of 23 robbers who were caught and beheaded in the nearby Nørreskov forest.

St Nicholai Church

Jelling, an old town dating to the Viking Age and home to the Jelling Stones. It was originally a Pagan site, but was later enlarged and converted into a large-scale Christian site.  There are two large burial mounds and beneath the mounds is a large stone ship dating back to the end of the 9th century  

Jelling Monument Site

Lake Farup, one of the deepest lakes in the region.  Kolding, its medieval castle was built in the 13th century by the King of Denmark. In the 16th century it lost its defensive importance and was turned into a royal residence.  It now houses a museum.  Then there is Christiansfeld, Christinero Park, Haderslev Cathedral, the town of Aabenraa and Brundlund Castle built in 1411 by Queen Margareth I, being fully restored in 1985 before becoming an art museum in 1998.

Brundlund Castle

The town of Graasten famous for the apple variety Gravenstein, the German name for the town and Graasten Castle was built in 1603 and in 1935 became the summer residence of the Crown Prince Frederick and Crown Princess Ingrid, who late became King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid.  The castle is the used for the official photo shoot of the royal family in summer.

Graasten Castle

The race finishes at Sønderborg in the South of Denmark.  Sønderborg Castle was built in 1158 during the reign of Valdemar the Great the castle has been extended and transformed over the years and was used as a barracks and prison until the 1960's and 1970's.  There is a castle chapel, dedicated to Queen Dorothea, which is one of the oldest and best preserved Lutheran chapels.  

Sønderborg Castle

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Dylan Groenewegen for Team Bikeexchange-Jayco/Aus

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

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

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education-Easypost/USA.

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

Combatif Award won by Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education-Easypost/USA.

Leading team: Jumbo-Visma

The Challenge: Sønderborg is where we start off today.  This coastal town is bisected by the Als Strait, making it an important location for shipping and industry.  In fact, the oldest boat found in the area is the Nydam Boat which has been dated to 320CE - that is 1700 years ago (if our maths is right)!  A newer addition to Sønderborg's history is Niels Christiansen, the CEO of Lego.  Lego has always encouraged creativity and we're pretty fond of all things creative too.

Spin something you wouldn't normally spin with.  We're not talking a different type of wool here; we're talking a different thing.  Could it be grass?  Fabric?  Strawberry laces?  If you're going to go full-creative and start working with foodstuff we'd recommend not using your wheel or spindle...  maybe just a little twist by hand!  We'd love to see pictures of the result, too!

What I did

Erm, yeah, I'm not doing this challenge either so what I decided to do was to spin the rest of the Stricken Scandinavian Mountain wool from yesterday.  The term Stricken refers to the unique colouring where the white colour base wool has black/brown fibres running through it.  This creates a textured cream colour.  It's quite a scratchy yarn so I'm not sure what I will eventually make with this one.

So, 100g spun to sport weight gives me 252m of finished yarn, which in terms of the TdF length calculations is 756m - 2 singles plus the plied length = 3 x finished yarn length.

Tour de France/Tour de Fleece 2022 Stage 2 - Roskilde to Nyborg (Denmark)

Stage 2 of the Tour de France and it is a 199km long flat race that starts in Roskilde, a municipality in the Sjaelland island region of Denmark.  

The Map

Sights and points of interest along the route

Roskilde Cathedral, a 12th century red brick gothic style Cathedral with 21 kings and 19 queens of Denmark buried in the Cathedral and its Chapels.  

Roskilde Cathedral

Town of  Lejre, then the palatial mansion of Ledreborg, Gammel Lejre; the Land of Legends Historical and Archaeological Experimental Centre and a museum that tells the stories and myths of Denmarks oldest Royal Family. Holbæk, tis the sunniest city in Denmark and has its own microclimate and Oro Island can be reached by ferry.  Dragsholm Castle originally built in 1215 was used as a prison in the 16th and 17th centuries but is now a luxury hotel and restaurant. Reputated to being the most haunted in Denmark with the ghosts of a white lady, a grey lady and Lord Bothwell, the Prince Consort of Scotland, the third and final husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, who ended his life in captivity in the prison on 14th April 1578.

Dragsholm Castle

The ruins of Esbern Snare Castle built in 1170. The Lutheran Church of Our Lady of Kalundborg was built in the 13th century of red brick and the shape is unique to Denmark with a central tower surrounded by four smaller towers.  

Church of Our Lady of Kalundborg

At 160km along the route is Slagelse which dates back to the Vikings and was a Pagan site. Hans Christian Anderson went to a Latin school in Slagelse in the 1820's.

Trelleborg

Korsor, a port town on the main island of Seeland and south of the Great Belt Bridge.  

Korsor, with the Great Belt Link in the distance

The Great Belt Link links the main island, Seeland, Built in sections; the East Bridge links Seeland to the islet of Sprogo and is a suspension bridge, the East Tunnel is underwater and the West Bridge links Sprogo Island to Funen and is a combined road-rail bridge.  

Nyborg Castle was built around 1170 was restored 1917-1923 and became a museum (Nyborg Slot).

Nyborg Slot

Who Won the Stage and Who Won What Jersey

The Stage winner is Fabio Jakobsen for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl.

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

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

The Polka Dot Jersey won by Magnus Cort Nielsen for EF Education-Easypost/USA.

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

Combatif Award won by Sven Erik Bystrøm for Intermarche - Wanty - Gobert Materiaux/BEL

Leading team: Jumbo-Visma

The Challenge: Roskilde is the starting point of today's stage.  Formerly the Danish capital its cathedral is a huge pull for tourists and is a UNESCO heritage site.  For those looking for something a bit more rock-n-roll it has held a rock festival since 1971 with some of the biggest names headlining.

The riders have got a flat ride today through to Nyborg so we've gone for something nice and easy.  Your challenge is to spin a natural-coloured fibre of Scandinavian origin.

Suggested Fibre:  Let's go all in with Scandinavian Mountain Wool

What I did

Well it just so happens that that is one of the fibres that was on the pre-informed list of fibres that we might need and I just so happened to buy it as I hadn't got anything suitable that isn't earmarked for something else.

I only managed to spin half of it today, so 50g of single spun.

Llandovery Whiteface Hill Sheep

The Llandovery Whiteface Hill sheep is a breed of Welsh Mountain sheep that has been bred for generations to thrive in the area of the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire and is a little larger than other Welsh Mountain sheep.  Development of the breed has focused on retaining the hardiness and maternal quality of the breed whilst improving conformation to ensure that demand for ewes for breeding stock and lambs for the food chain and the focus remains on improvements for the meat market.  There is no focus on improving the fleece.  Demand for breeding ewes come from all across Wales and beyond for the production of Welsh Mules and Welsh Half-breds. The Llandovery Whiteface Hill Sheep Society was founded in 1998 by a small number of local farmers wanting to progress the genetic development of the breed.  However, they do not appear to have a website as yet.

Llandovery Whiteface Hill ewes

Llandovery Whiteface Hill rams

The Llandovery Whiteface Hill sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 6: "Other UK Native Breeds" (over 3000) registered breeding ewes.  Breeders remain in the localised area of Llandovery and the sheep are sold at Llandovery Market.  There is no information about this breed in either of my two reference books and one of them is produced by the British Wool Marketing Board, who couldn't tell me anything about the breed when I approached them for information and if it wasn't for the fact that this breed is listed on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust website I would not have known that it even existed.  There is also very little information on the Internet about the breed either and nothing about the qualities of the fleece, micron counts, weight or staple length or how best to prepare it.  It seems that it is undiscovered from a hand spinning point of view.

They are a medium build sheep with a whiteface and legs, which are free from wool, white ears and black nostrils. Ewes are naturally polled but rams can be with or without horns.

They produce a medium size dense white fleece, mine arrived at a little over 3kg, that contains a large amount of kemp in both white and red.  The staple length is around 4-5 inches (10-12.5cm)

The advise in my reference books for similar fleece is that they can be spun from teased locks, it can be carded or combed. If you leave the kemp in that it is going to create a very textured scratchy yarn with interest from the red kemp.  If you comb it and remove the kemp then you will be left with lovely soft wool.

Yarns spun from Llandovery Whiteface Hill fleece that contain the kemp are definitely suited to household items and upholstery and if you have removed the kemp then I would say that they are definitely good for next-to-skin use.  

This one has been extremely difficult to get my hands on and it has taken me over a year to obtain a fleece. I couldn't find any for sale anywhere because it is not well known and I discovered that the British Wool Marketing Board just clump the fleece in with other white Welsh Mountain fleece.   Given that there is no website for the breed society there was no obvious point of contact.  I did find a blog post that mentioned the breed and I contacted that person, who was very helpful and put me in touch with a farmer of the breed who informed me that his sheep were sheared the previous week, on 16th June 2021, and he was happy to sell a fleece to me.  Then it went silent and I never heard from him again.  I feared it might have been due to Covid but it wasn't and I eventually gave up on him.

I recommenced my search in April of this year, just before the start of shearing season, and the best time to make contact with breeders to reserve a fleece.  Seeing as how the Rare Breeds Survival Trust know about how many of this breed there are I contacted them for help and they gave me an e-mail address for the breed society.  I made contact but never got a response.  Browsing Instagram one day I suddenly got the idea to search for Llandovery and lots of business accounts came up, one of which was a wool shop in the town, so I made contact.  I got a response the following day to say she couldn't help but she put me in touch with someone else.  That person couldn't help me either but she gave me a phone number to call so I rang the number and it was the Llandovery Market, where they sell the sheep.  I explained to them what I was doing and that it was the last fleece I needed to complete the project.  They gave me a name and a phone number of a local farmer who, in their words, is very approachable and helpful.  I rang and left a message and after a couple of chats on the phone I purchased a fleece and it arrived quite quickly.

I have bought this breed in as a full fleece from Wyn Morgan in the Brecon Beacons and it arrived on 8th June, my 20th wedding anniversary, and it weighed just over 3kg.  I had a little peek inside the top of the bag and it looked very kempy but I wasn't able to get it out of the bag and examine it until I had time to start washing it on the 10th June.

About half of the fleece was washed on 10th June and it filled my drying hanger so the rest had to wait until this was dry.  This first batch filled a pillowcase and weighed 1,105g (excluding the weight of the pillowcase.  The rest of the fleece was washed on 14th June and weighed 811g once it was dry, giving me a total of 1,916g of clean but kemp rich fleece to prepare.

I combed 228g of fleece to get 94g of gorgeous, soft, hand combed top, just enough for my project.
  

Look at how white and fluffy that single looks on the bobbin

My finished yarn is of good quality to the touch of the hand it is really soft and squishy and light with just a very tiny crispness to it if you squeeze it hard. I have 93g/230m of double knit weight yarn. My knitted piece for the project took 46g/114m so I have some left to do whatever with, and the rest of the fleece of course.

Black Welsh Mountain Sheep

Black Welsh Mountain sheep have been around since the 13th century and are native to the southern mountains of Wales.  Originally they were an occasional anomaly from the regular Welsh Mountain breed but during the 19th century they were used for selective breeding for the colour and developed into a breed in their own right and now they are a pure black breed.  The black fleeced sheep have been around since medieval times and was called gwlân cochddu (red-black wool) and was considered to be a highly desirable commodity. 

The Black Welsh Mountain sheep, at the time of writing, is in the Rare Breeds Survival Trust category 6: "Other UK Native Breeds" (over 3000) registered breeding ewes and they can be found mostly in Mid Wales but there are specialist flocks across the UK.  They are a small sheep with a black head and legs, which are wool free, with a mature ewe weighing about 45kg and rams are around 60-65kg.  Ewes are polled and rams grow horns. They have a placid temperament and are easy to handle.

They produce a good sized fleece of  around 1-2kg and it is black, a proper true black.  Unusually these sheep do not grey with age like other coloured sheep breeds do.  Their fleece is also of better quality than their forebears and other Welsh Mountain breeds, probably because they have undergone a process of selective breeding in the past to develop the breed for its colour and no doubt only animals with the highest quality and softest of fleece were used to make the most of the desirable black fleece.  The fleece is still slightly on the crisp side but has very little kemp and is softer than their counterparts.  The staple length is generally 3-4 inches (7.5-10cm).

The locks are not particularly distinct but can be separate from the fleece by locating a tip and pulling outward and so spinning from the lock is achievable.  It can be carded or combed.  Drafting is easy.  There is no point trying to dye this fleece as it is so dark that it is just a waste of time and dye. 

Yarns spun from Black Welsh Mountain fleece very nice and can be used for sweaters, hats, scarves, mittens, blankets and more.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds. I also had a 25g sample that I got with another pack so broke the 50g into two shorter lengths and then split the 25g down the length into two thinner strips.  This made the pieces almost the same length so I stretched the thinner piece out to the same length as the 50g and pre-drafted and spun them together at the same time. Then done the same for the other two pieces.  There are some white fibres on the larger sample but this could of come from one of the other breeds in the same box.

There are a small amount of tiny non-white hairs/fibres that are easy to remove.

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and it is quite soft with a slight crispness and definitely quite sturdy.  I have 74g/128m of lovely natural black worsted weight yarn.  My knitted piece for the project took 49g/85m so I have a small amount left to do whatever with.

Swaledale Sheep

On with the next breed for my British Breeds project and its the turn of the Swaledale, named after the valley in which the breed originated in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.  The Swaledale belongs to the Blackfaced Mountain category of sheep.

The Swaledale 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 that there are over 1,200 pedigree flocks of Swaledale sheep within the UK alone, so there are good numbers of these sheep around.  According to the British Wool Marketing Board the breed was established in the UK during the 20th century.  They are used to produce cross breed sheep known as Mashams and North Country Mules.  The Masham is produced by breeding a Teeswater ram (or sometimes a Wensleydale ram) to either a Dalesbred or a Swaledale ewe (and sometimes a Rough Fell ewe is used).  Ewe lambs from these crossings are then raised as breeding ewes in commercial flocks due to improved qualities.  North Country Mules are produced by using a Bluefaced Leicester ram with a ewe suited to the locality of the flock, usually one of the Blackfaced Mountain breeds and the ewes produced are then cross-bred again with rams of larger meat breeds such as Texel or Suffolk.

Swaledales are usually found in the more mountainous regions of the UK but particularly up in the Yorkshire Dales, County Durham and the pennine fells of Cumbria.  They are well known in the English Lake District, along with Dalesbred, Rough Fell and Herdwick breeds of sheep.  They are related to both the Scottish Blackface and Rough Fell and are noted for their ability to thrive in exposed locations, although the specific origins of the breed are unknown.

The Swaledale is a medium build sheep with a blackface, white muzzle and white circles around the eyes and the legs are free of wool.  Both sexes grow curled horns, although the males horns grow much larger.  Individual sheep tend to be hefted to a specific part of the mountain or fell and will remain there, often where they were born, without the need for fencing.

They produce a medium size fleece that contains hair and kemp that protects them against wet weather, along with finer wool to keep them warm. It has the largest proportion of finer wool out of the three most similar breeds, Swaledale, Herdwick and Rough Fell.  This is a breed that produces wool that is definitely not for worn next to skin wear.  The fleece is white to off-white but if you leave the kemp and dark fibres in then yarn produced will appear grey, this is what I have for my sample.  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 1.6 to 3 kilos in weight. 

This fleece can be spun from teased locks, it can be carded or combed using Viking combs.  During combing the fibres will pull off in sequence of length as always, which means that you will first pull off the longest fibres, then the medium length and the kemp will come off last so you can spin them like that and have and everchanging yarn that may barber-pole during plying or you could take 3 lengths at a time and stagger them so you have each type of fibre in your hands at all times and thereby re-combining them as you spin as long as you keep your grip light else they will separate again.  Carding will keep the fibres mixed.

Yarns spun from Swaledale fleece are definitely suited to household items and upholstery and not for any kind of clothing except maybe a lined jacket.  

I have bought this breed in as pre-prepared fibre in a box containing 50g each of four British Breeds and you can see the dark fibres and the kemp in this photo.  I also had a 25g sample that I got with another pack and the small sample was slightly different in quality so I stretched it out to the same length as the 50g and spun them together at the same time.

Spun to Sport Weight my yarn is 74g/185m

My finished yarn is of medium quality to the touch of the hand and you can feel the prickly hair and kemp but I do like the colour.  My knitted piece for the project only took 20g/50m so I have some left to do whatever with.