Seaweed Eating Sheep Adventures

Do you love Seaweed? Did you know that there are sheep who do? Today's update is all about a very special rare breed sheep on the Scottish Isle of North Ronaldsay.

The North Ronaldsay Sheep are the only animals in the world, aside from a certain Galapagos lizard, to be able to subsist entirely on seaweed, leading to its nickname ‘seaweed sheep’. The breed is thought to be over 5000 years old. The breed is farmed within the Northern Ronaldsay Islands, Orkney and kept nearby the seashore for most of the year. In 1832 the Laird of North Ronaldsay decided that his pastureland should not be wasted on native sheep and a dyke was built round the island to keep them on the shore and off the land. It was most probably this separation that resulted in the preservation of the North Ronaldsay, as it prevented cross breeding which had been the downfall of other Orkney sheep.

The North Ronaldsay is one of the Northern Short tailed primitive group of breeds that also includes the Manx Loghtan, Soay, Shetland and Icelandic . The North Ronaldsay is still mainly found on its native island, the northernmost of the Orkneys. The sheep keeping system on North Ronaldsay is unique and involves a stone wall which keeps the sheep on the seashore and away from the cultivated land for most of the year. This wall was built in 1832 and since then the breed has evolved to survive primarily on seaweed. The sheep live on the seashore most of the year around and are only brought onto the better land for lambing.

The North Ronaldsay is one of group of primitive Northern Short-tailed sheep and represents a very early stage in the evolution of domestic sheep. DNA studies have shown a close relationship to sheep found in the Stone Age village of Skara Brae on mainland Orkney, which dates from 3000 BC. In 1832 a wall was built around their native island to confine the animals to the foreshore for most of the year in order to conserve the inland grazing. Since then the breed has developed its distinctive metabolism due to its diet of seaweed, which also renders it susceptible to copper poisoning under standard sheep management systems. North Ronaldsays are very sensitive to copper and will die of copper toxicity if put on the wrong type of grazing. This is due to their seaweed diet and the unique metabolism they have evolved. They should not be fed commercial sheep mixes as despite the label saying “No Added Copper” the normal ingredients used will often have a background level high enough to be toxic (ten parts per million is too high). The North Ronaldsay is capable of surviving on less than larger breeds and is an active browser, used to ranging over long distances in search of food.

Here is a video of North Ronaldsay and their cute Seaweed eating sheep:

Colours of their fleece are variable: including white, various shades of grey, black and moorit (deep brown). The double fleece has coarse outer guard hairs and a fine soft inner coat. I have never ever felt and dyed something as extraordinary as this sheeps fleece. It is springy, almost feels moist even after its scouring and washing. It almost feels like it resists the dye when you pour the pigments on and everything immediately flows to the bottom, leaving the top layer of the fibre springy and almost without dye. At least, that is what appears to happen…it takes the dye beautifully and retains its springy texture and openness.

Before dyeing and spinning though was the rather painful process of getting rid of the guardhairs !

 Here’s a view of the raw fleece :

After all of the cleaning and carding and blending you get what I am offering you today !

It is a dream to spin and work with. You can make a yarn that is strong and still soft to wear. It is very very special ! There are only about 600 of these seaweed sheep left in the world. Only through our effort of conservation of the environment and conservation through appreciation of this rare breed by spinning and knitting its fleece, can we hold on to one of the oldest and most special breeds in the world alive today.

Please understand that I do not have a lot of stock of this exceptional rare breed fibre. Do not wait too long to pounce on this week’s update to avoid disappointment. These tops are an amazing spinning experience.

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this weeks blog entry. Have fun !!!

North Ronaldsay sheep blended with 

Silver infused Seaweed, Blue faced Leicester and Cashmere   

100 gram tops

Seaweed Forest 

sold-

Natural -sold-

Gothic Purple -sold-

Tequila Sunrise -sold-

Rose -sold-

Zombies n Mermaids -sold-

Peacock Party -sold-

Barbie in the Wild -sold-

Gothic Pink-sold-

Sexy Weatherman -sold-

Unicorn Rainbow -sold-

Springtime Heather -sold-

Starry Night -sold

Have a fun weekend Creating your Dreams!

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable.

All my contact details are to be found at the end of this week’s blog entry.

Have fun !!!

More and more people are telling me they absolutely love working with the IxCHeL Tweed yarns. There will be lots of photos next week.

If you want to see more photos please go to my facebook or Instagram pages.

IxCHeL Tweed fingering weight yarn

Super soft lambswool 70% and Kid Mohair 30%

Spun singles, fingering or sock weight yarn

+/- 200meters/218yards

50grams      1.76oz

AU$16

Wattle
(A beautiful sunshine yellow that goes so well with the kookaburra the silver grey)

Kata Tjuta
(an intense pure red that goes well with the Kookaburra and the Wattle and the Amethyst colourway and soooooomany others)

Amethyst
(a bright purple colourway with bright red flecks)

Kookaburra
(a beautiful silver grey with ochre accents that complement the dingo colourway)

Dingo
( A beautiful warm honey ochre with pops of royal bluebell, kingfisher and kangaroo paw)

Grevillea
(a gorgeous raspberry base with pops of royal bluebell, flowering gum, grey and daintree)

Flowering Gum
( a gorgeous medieval warm red with bright red, kookaburra and fern forest accents)

Fern Forest
( a deep forest green with accents of bright red, dusky purple and daintree) )

Jacarandah 
( a fabulous deep purple with accents of royal bluebell, daintree, grevillea and kingfisher )

Wombat
( a fabulous deep walnut brown with accents of dingo and kookaburra)

Kangaroo Paw 
( a fabulous warm orange with accents of fern forest, royal bluebell and grevillea and dingo )

isn’t it gorgeous how the Kangaroo paw knits up?! )

Royal Bluebell 
( a deep blue with accents of flowering gum, kookaburra and fern forest )

Wallaby
( a warm light brown with accents of soft blue and kookaburra)

Daintree ( a soft green with accents of fern forest and dingo)

Kingfisher 
( a fabulous Turquoise blue with accents of fern forest, kangaroo paw, Jacaranda and Grevillea)

Pm me if you would like to give some of these amazing new IxCHeL Tweed yarns or the Buddhas tears tea a good home or if you want to sign up for the IxCHeL Clubs ! Enjoy looking and have a fun weekend !

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this week’s blog entry. 

IxCHeL Buddhas tears tea

carefully packed and presented in a special organza gift bag

50g/ AU$19

Two organically grown superior green tea leaves and a jasmine bud are plucked from the best quality tea bushes and mixed with delicately smelling jasmine blossoms, then sieved and hand rolled on bamboo trays, into small balls while the leaves are not quite dry. 

The leaf captures the fine jasmine aroma and releases it during brewing, giving a champagne coloured cup. 

 Brewing: 1-3 minutes 75-80degC , 

 4 pearls/cup, 

you can reinfuse 3-4 times so those 4 pearls last a looong time

Carefully handrolled tea

Enjoy the tea over and over again, by adding hot water again and again

All my contact details are here:

Please don't hesitate to contact me at any time if you have any questions okay? Always happy to enable. All my contact details are to be found at the end of this week’s blog entry. 
Have a fun weekend !!!

How To Order:

1. You can email me on ixchel at rabbit dot com dot au or ixchelbunny at yahoo dot com dot au
2. Message me on facebook or 
3. Message me on www.ravelry.com  where I am ixchelbunny.
4. message me on Instagram where I am @ixchelbunny

I will email you right back with all your order details and payment methods.

Any questions? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? : Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.

Dates to put in your Calendar

Pakenham Black n Coloured Sheep and Wool Show

September 29th at the Pakenham Library     10 -3pm 

Get ready for lots of new goodies that are planned !!!
I will be there with an amazing amount of new exclusive wool blends and yarns, batts, felt and landscape and botanical natural dyes and so much more !!!
I will also have spindles by the amazing Bearded Dragon and lots of fibre tools as well from darning mushrooms to noste pinne, Turkish spindles, Navajo and Mayan spindles, Turkish spindles and needle cases to distaffs, and something amazing  for spinners and knitters.

Get ready for a fabulous Sunday filled with lots of craft and fun !!!

 RABBIT ON !

((hugs))

Charly