Berrichon du Cher - France

Berrichon du Cher is one of two breeds of sheep derived from an older Berrichon from the Berry region of France, which was horned and long-woolled in the 16th century, according to images from the time, but by the 18th century images show them as being polled and having wool of the Merino type.  During the 19th century, the original Berrichon breed was crossed with British breeds including Dishley Leicester, Cotswold, Romney and Southdown and also a French breed, Charmoise, all with the aim of improving the meat quality.  The Berrichon du Cher is the result of these crosses.  

This breed is large, mainly white, with a white face that is free of wool.  The rams weigh about 110kg and are about 73cm at the withers, and the ewes weigh about 70 kg and are about 68 cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  They are a breed that is raised primarily for meat and are hardy to their local climates and the wool is of a very high standard.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed raw fleece back in May 2022 from a lady from whom I bought many of the breed samples for my British Sheep Breed Project.  I have purchased a number of samples from her for this Non-British Breed Project too, although she doesn't stock very many breeds that fit this category.  It was described as a medium fine soft white dense fleece with good crimp and a 4-7 inch staple and this one was sourced from a UK keeper of the breed and this is a really hard to find breed that I haven't seen for available in any of the usual spinning fibre stores here in the UK.

Although it was sold as pre-washed it felt sticky/greasy to me on arrival so I gave it another wash, how I like to wash fleece in preparation for spinning, hot water with a shot of washing-up liquid, and I'm glad that I did as the water turned quite milky when I put the fleece in which confirmed to me that it was still full of lanolin.  Lanolin is not a bad thing, it's actually good for dry skin, but it's bad when you are trying to comb a fleece as it makes it really hard work and makes your wool combs all sticky and nasty.  My sample actually weighed 109g on arrival and after a wash and dry it reduced to 104g, so 5g of sticky lanolin washed out.  I can't remember if the photos of the fleece below were taken before or after I re-washed.

I did notice that the fleece was quite fuzzy, crimpy and the staples looked short, a lot shorter than I was expecting, until I pulled on one of the locks and it suddenly extended to about twice the length and stayed that length even after I let go of it.  There were lots of little round balls of wool in the fleece that looked like the pilling that can occur on woollen jumpers and the like.

I finally got around to combing this on 16th January 2024; all the little bits came out very easily with the combs and I am left with 54g of soft, bouncy fibre to spin.

As it is so bouncy, it will bloom once spun and washed so I needed to spin this as fine as I could to achieve the thickness I required for the project. I started spinning on 12th September and finished spinning on 14th September 2026. It was an interesting spin, as I added a lot of twist and yet when I plied it back on itself to test how it was spinning up, it didn't look like there was much twist at all and looked like it was almost unspun. I added much more twist to this yarn than I normally would, and of course, I added more twist to the ply to keep it balanced.

I achieved a yarn that was 55g/267m and is really soft. It is suitable for next to skin wear. I started knitting the sample on 22nd September, didn't knit everyday, and finished it on 28th September 2026.

Klövsjöfår - Sweden

Klövsjöfår is a heritage breed of sheep from the Jämtland province in North-west Sweden and is included in a conservation programme. 

Klövsjö sheep were "re-discovered" when a group of sheep were purchased from Maj Oldander in Klövsjö in 1991.  Maj Olander had taken over the sheep from his father who in turn had received them as a wedding gift from his mother.  From Ivar Andreasson's herd, the animals were then spread to Halland and Skåne and in 2003 Johan Widing carried out an inventory of these sheep which resulted in the sheep being considered a separate breed of country sheep. During the autumn of 2004, a few more animals were added to the gene bank and they originate from a few herds in Klövsjö.  In 2010, the last known original herd of Klövsjö sheep was added to the gene bank.  These sheep are still kept in a summer pasture despite repeated problems with bears.

The animals can live to be very old, 15 years for a ewe is not uncommon.  According to Maj Olander, his grandmother used to cook porridge for ewes that had no teeth left so they would survive the winter.

Klövsjö sheep are quite large for a common sheep.  The rams weigh about 60-80kg and stand about 66cm at the withers, the ewes weigh about 45-70kg and stand about 64cm at the withers.  The body is quite low and wide.  The ewes are in heat all year round and can lamb twice a year.  They usually have two or three lambs, but single lambs and quads also occur.  Some ewes lamb standing up.

The Klövsjö sheep have good orientation skills and are easy to move between different pastures.  The ewes are exemplary mothers and lamb well in groups.  The animals are very affectionate and the ram can usually be left with the flock all year round.  He is very protective of the ewes and lambs, both against predators and strangers.

The Klövsjö sheep has been preserved in the gene bank of the Swedish Farm Sheep Association since 2003.  In 2019 there were 600 registered breeding ewes in 83 flocks and as of 2021 there were 673 registered breeding ewes.

The sheep are white, or black with white socks and/or white markings on the face but brown and grey sheep and spotted sheep also occur.  Both rams and ewes are usually polled, but horn buttons are present and horns have previously occurred on rams in the original herd.

The fleece are double coated. The wool is of the rya type with an incredible shine and lustre, but there are also animals that have wool that is woolly.  The wool usually grows so long that it reaches the ground and is excellent for spinning and felting.  The sheep are usually sheared twice a year to avoid the risk of felting and to make it easier for both the shearer and spinner. The face is free of wool and shiny, the tail is short.

I have discovered that when the term "Rya type" is used to described Swedish wool, it is not saying that it is like that of the Rya sheep, a Swedish breed of sheep.  Silly me for thinking that! "Rya type" as a wool type, has a long and shiny outercoat and soft undercoat with almost no crimp.  The outercoat to undercoat ratio is between 60/40 and 50/50 and is a way to describe the staple type and distribution of undercoat and outercoat within that staple.

I bought this breed in as 250g of unwashed raw lambs fleece  in May 2022 from the same lady called Anita Grahn based in Uppsala, Sweden that I bought the 8 breed sample pack from.  Her online shop has been empty for some time, although it is still open. 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.  

So, I was expecting 250g of raw fleece but it was actually over 300g when it arrived.  It was the lambs first shearing at 6 months of age and it was sheared September 2021.  Fibre lengths were 7-14 cm (2¾ inch - 5½ inch)

From the sales page she described the fleece as "The wool is magically soft!  The fibre length varies because there are parts of the wool which seem to be only underwool, and parts that are only guard hairs.  Some tangling, but still fantastic wool!  The wool has both underwool and longer cover hairs of fine diameter, and often with a shine."

I sorted and washed the fleece on 4th June 2022, and once all the second cuts had been removed, and it was dry, I was left with 214g of clean fleece.  As I was busy with other projects, I didn't get around to combing this fleece until 19th February 2024, and there were a lot of tiny short bits of fleece; some of it broke up into little pieces as I pulled on the locks.  I persevered with it, and I managed to get 81g of spinnable fibre from it.  It is very soft; it's lamb's fleece, after all, but it is kind of like really fine hair, like a Longwool type, but finer and shorter.  The fibres are smooth, not crimpy or fuzzy.

I began spinning this fibre on 11th September 2026. It was lovely to spin, very soft, fine, and straight, with very little crimp. I removed several clumps during spinning that the combs had missed. I spun both singles the same day and plied them the next day. I achieved a yarn that was 77g/222m.

I knit the sample piece from 18th to 20th September 2026. The yarn and knitted fabric are soft and could be worn next to skin, but that might be because it is lambswool, which is usually softer than an adult fleece, and also because I prepare the fibres by combing; this removes most of the guard hairs, where they exist.

Svenskt Finullsfår (Swedish Finewool) - Sweden

Svenskt Finullsfår, otherwise known as Swedish Fine Wool Sheep are descended from the Nordic short-tailed sheep.  They are a friendly breed whose individuals are easily tamed.  They are commonly used in production, as the breed has a high fertility, produces good meat carcases, wool and sheepskins.  They have high milk production, good maternal qualities and that the ewes can go into heat all year round.  This makes the Svenskt Finullsfår the sheep breed in Sweden that produces the highest total lamb weight per ewe and year. 

During the 1930s, all landrace sheep were recorded as one and the same breed.  A division into wool types was made in 1935 and from 1936, landrace sheep were recorded in the studbook under three wool types; fur, rya and fine wool.  The fur type was separated into its own breed in 1971 and other landrace sheep were combined into "white landrace".  In 1976, the Sheep Control Authority took over the pedigree registration of sheep.  During the 1930s and 1940s, repeated imports of Finnish Fine Wool were made and the Svenskt Finullsfår were then considered by many to be Finnish.  

From the 1950s, landrace sheep have been used for crossing with meat-breed sheep to increase their productivity.  The number of landrace sheep fell sharply again.  In the 1980s, interest in the Svenskt Finullsfår picked up again.  New imports were made from Finland.  The Swedish Fine Wool Association, which was formed in 1988, was however able to show that the Svenskt Finullsfår had been genetically very little affected by the imports and in 1995 the Swedish Board of Agriculture included the Svenskt Finullsfår as a breed in the list of Swedish livestock breeds and from 1998 the breed was eligible for environmental support.

The Svenskt Finullsfår is classified as an endangered livestock breed and is eligible for support from the Swedish Board of Agriculture.  Conservation is primarily carried out "in situ" i.e. by keeping as many live animals as possible in different herds.  The Swedish Fine Wool Sheep Association is a breed association and works to support conservation work by establishing breeding plans, holding courses and spreading knowledge about the Svenskt Finullsfår.  

The head and legs of the Svenskt Finullsfår are wool-free and shiny.  The tail is short with a broad base and a narrow, wool-free tip.  The ears are small and thin, the bridge of the nose is straight or slightly convex.  both sexes are polled.  The animals are curious, social and affectionate with a lively temperament.  They are good foragers and have the ability to, outside the gestation and lactation periods, feed on leaner pastures and are therefore well suited to landscape management.

The fleece is characterised by its soft, shiny, silky and fine-fibred wool, and is available in white, black and brown and more rarely, speckled.  The wool is similar over the entire body, which means that entire fleece can be used for the same purpose.  Fibres are crimpy and lustrous, with good elasticity.  Conservation breeding efforts since the 1930s have emphasised the wool quality, aiming for fibre diameters in the range of 15 to 25 microns with fibre lengths between 1¾ and 2½ inches (4.5cm - 6.5cm).

In 2017, there were 3,473 ewes and 254 rams.  Of these, 2,214 ewes and 224 rams were kept in purebred breeding, distributed over 104 herds.  The Svenskt Finullsfår are found throughout Sweden, but are most common in the southern and central parts. Between 2004 and 2009, the Fine Wool population in Sweden increased and at its peak was just under 5,000 individuals in purebred breeding.

At the beginning of 2018, a closed studbook was introduced for the breed, which means that there is no risk of crossbreeding with other breeds in the purebred population.  Pedigree registration and record keeping are handled by Elitlamm, which is linked to the Swedish Sheep Breeding Association.

I bought this breed in as 113g 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.  Her online shop has been empty for a long time now, since she announced she was in hospital, so I don't know if she survived whatever she was in hospital for.  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.  

I washed this on 25th May 2022, and the water turned quite brown and milky too, so it was both dirty and greasy. I honestly thought that I had somehow managed to felt it during the washing stage, but once it was dry it all just poofed up, and it wasn't felted. Phew!  

I had 92g of clean, washed fleece ready for preparing.  I tried combing this, but the fibre lengths were too short, and I couldn't open the locks up very well, so it has sat in a bag waiting for me to figure out how I was going to process it until I bit the bullet and got on with it on 14th May 2025.  I've never gotten to grips with carding, but I managed to at least open up the locks using a pair of carders, and then I added the short fluff straight onto my combs from the carders, and I managed to comb it a little bit to remove the rubbish and then dizzed it off my combs.  From the pile of rubbish that was building up, it looked like I was throwing away at least 50%, but from my 92g of washed fleece I now have 61g of fluff ready to spin.

I started spinning this on 6th August. It was tricky because the fibres are so short, and I had to add more twist than normal to keep it together. Plying was easier, although in some places it looked overplied and in other places it looked underplied. I didn't finish spinning until 8th August, and I achieved a yarn that was 58g/197m and very soft.

I knit the sample piece from 1st to 3rd September, and the knitted fabric is soft with a slight fuzziness.

Ouessant - France

Ouessant sheep, (pronounced weh-SAHN), are named for the small rocky French island in the English Channel known as Ushant or Ouessant, where the breed was developed.  They are also known as Mouton d'Ouessant and Breton Island Dwarf. They are a primitive, heritage breed of sheep that belong to the Northern European Short-Tailed family of sheep. They are reputed to be the smallest sheep in the world with rams standing just 49cm at the withers and ewes standing at 45cm at the withers.  The island's shepherds traditionally selected for smaller sheep that could produce a bit of meat and fibre on limited feed, they also strongly selected for black sheep.  Although the breed can throw an occasional white animal, most are solid black or moorit brown.  

Rams have two relatively large horns, ewes are polled.  Black and brown rams grow dark horns whilst the white rams grow lighter coloured horns. Ewes are single-lambing, and the breed is primarily used for wool production.  They are strong and very hardy and extremely sensitive to threats and danger and will flock together to protect themselves and their lambs from predators.  They are able to survive on meagre pasture and are also capable of producing a good amount of high-quality wool.  In Paris, the city government recently began using a small herd of Ouessant sheep to graze public lands.  They are also used to graze vineyards and orchards.

The Ouessant existed exclusively on its home island until the beginning of the 20th century, when they almost went extinct and were only saved by a few aristocrats allowing the few remaining sheep to graze and breed on the land surrounding their chateaux.  Though no longer found there, they are widespread throughout Europe, with Ouessant breed societies in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, and the UK.  The breed is also gaining in popularity in the US and NZ.

As they are one of the Northern European Short-Tailed breeds they have retained the tendency to shed their fleece. The fleece is of a primitive type, double-coated, well packed.  Rams develop manes of longer coarser hair and kemp on the nape of their necks and throats which may be darker.

The fleece generally weighs 1kg - 1.6kg for a ewe or 1.1kg - 1.8kg for a ram.  Average staple lengths are 3¼-4 inches (8-10cm) long but can be shorter or longer than this average.  The undercoat can be quite fine, with micron counts in the mid to lower 20s.  The outercoat can be quite a bit coarser, in the mid 30s.  The average is 25-28 microns. Typical of double coated fleeces, the staples are triangular, with wide bases consisting of the fine undercoat and very pointed tips formed by the coarse guard hairs.  

It will be pointless trying to dye a dark fleece but a white or grey fleece can be dyed, taking into account the base colour and the fact that different fibre types in the fleece will take dye differently.

The different coats can be separated or spun together.  Combing and flicking will separate the different fibres but you can also just hold the lock and pull the longer hairs out by hand.  You can card the fibres if they aren't too long but it will be difficult to keep everything together and mixed.  If you are separating the fibres you will have to judge when to stop removing any shorter guard fibres in the knowledge that the yarn will only ever be as soft as the coarsest fibres.  Guard hairs are most co-operative if spun worsted style.  The undercoat can be spun worsted if its long enough, or woollen.

If you make a yarn that contains both coats it will have texture but will always be scratchy.  Outercoat yarns make fabulous warp yarns in weaving, although can be knitted or crocheted for something requiring strength and texture, such as a crochet storage basket.  The undercoat on its own can be soft enough for socks, mitten or other garments.

I brought this breed in as 100g of washed fleece in May 2022, but it was so dirty with dust and soil that I washed it myself before I combed it.  

I didn't actually comb it until February 2024, leaving me with 50g of lovely spinning fibre that is soft and bouncy.  The reason for so much loss was that the fleece was full of VM and scrappy little bits of short fibres/second cuts about 1cm long.  Interestingly though, I did not realise that this breed was a double-coated breed at the time of preparing the fibre. I certainly didn't notice it in the fleece that I prepared, and I can't really see it in any of the photos either.

I started spinning this on 4th August, finished on 5th August 2026 and it was a pleasant, easy and straightforward spin, very much like spinning Jacob or any of the "downs" breeds. It is relatively soft and very bouncy. I achieved a yarn that was 46g/176m.

I knit the piece for the project on 29th August. It is a proper black, black rather than the often brown-black of so many dark-coloured fleeces.

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.

Blue Texel - The Netherlands

Blue Texel sheep are derived from the Texel sheep and named after the island of Texel just off the coast of the Netherlands, where Lincoln and Leicester Longwool sheep were crossbred with the native sheep in the mid-1800's with the goal of achieving a high-quality meat breed.   Blue-woolled lambs were sometimes born in Texel flocks, but no attention was paid to them until the early 1970's when deliberate breeding for the blue colour began, and some all-blue flocks were established.   By 1983 there were 213 blue sheep across 11 flocks.  By 2009, numbers had risen to about 6500, and they were classed as "not at risk", but by 2021 numbers had dropped to about 4000, with 2545 registered breeding ewes, and they have been re-categorised as "endangered/at risk".   

This breed are medium size and the blue can vary from very pale to dark but no part of the fleece is wholly black or white but usually the head, shoulders and rump are darker with the lighter shade over the back.  The rams weigh about 100kg and are about 72cm at the withers and the ewes about 80kg and about 68cm at the withers.  Both sexes are polled.  They are a breed that is raised primarily for meat and the fleece are a secondary crop.

 

I bought this breed in as 100g of washed raw fleece back in May 2022 from a lady from whom I bought many of the breed samples for my British Sheep Breed Project.  I have purchased a number of samples from her for this Non-British Breed Project too, although she doesn't stock very many breeds that fit this category.  It was described as a lovely soft fleece with locks that are springy with a crisp feeling and with a partially organised crimp that is easy to spin and has a lofty quality.  This fleece has come from a prize winning flock in Oxfordshire here in the UK.  This is a really hard-to-find breed that I haven't seen available in any of the usual spinning fibre stores here in the UK.

Although it was sold as pre-washed and I wasn't intending to give it another wash, after washing other pre-washed samples and seeing how much lanolin washed out, I decided to wash it again as a precaution on 31st May 2022 and I'm glad that I did as the water turned quite milky when I put the fleece in which confirmed to me that it was still full of lanolin.  Lanolin is not a bad thing; it's actually good for dry skin, but it's bad when you are trying to comb a fleece, as it makes it really hard work and makes your wool combs all sticky and nasty.  

I combed this on 18th January 2024 and it gave me 60g of lovely hand combed top that shows lots of variation of colour, although one hand combed nest in particular does stand out from the crowd so I might need to do something with that to blend it in with the others.

I split the fibre into two equal piles, undid all the fibre nests in the first half, and put all the ends together and pre-drafted from all of them at the same time to even out the colours and tones as much as possible. I had to spin it as fine as I could, as it is one of those fibres that bloom after washing to set the twist. I spun over 2nd and 3rd August 2026, achieving 58g/213m of yarn that is not too dissimilar to Jacob wool or any of the "down" breed wools.

I started knitting on 16th August and finished on 24th August, only working on it a little at a time because I was working in the garden again.