Longwool Romance

Yes, you guessed it right: the fourth and last of this sheep breed” update this February is all about the gorgeous Wensleydale sheep breed from Yorkshire. But, before I start off to explain all about this breed I’ll give you a bit of insight what this week was for me.

Apart from the blending, prepping and getting all the fluffy stuff and dye pigments  ready for this weeks and other updates, i did a little bit extra because I saw that the gothic tops were running a bit low on the website. I absolutely looooove  that blend: super soft, dramatic deep black superfine merino and shiny mulberry silk. It is so fabulous to spin and, after some tweaking on how to dye this blend, I am having a ball with dyeing it too! Lots of colourways have been restocked on the website: just go to gothic tops in the what’s new section. Oh, and did I mention there are a few NEW colourways available ?! Go check them out 💚

So, what does a day look like for me in the dye room and how long do I spend there ? Well, that’s easy: all day…lol and after a day at the dye pots, I hop to the other kitchen and cook a meal, bake a bread, feed all the hungry animals and then…spend the rest of the evening custom spinning yarns, planning what needs to be done, emails, do some social media stuff  (way too little marketing I’m told but who has time ?! Lololol) and packing orders…and then it’s bed time, where I normally spend lots of time staring at the ceiling, listening to the sounds of Paul snoring happily…lol

My sleeping inability is dismal at the best of times, but this week I made the huge mistake of opening up some emails, checking messages and comments I might have missed on social media and BANG! There they were….tons of abuse and bullying and shouting at me by fans of a certain animal rights organisation who shall not be named. I was stunned and of course I could not sleep at all that night.
 I love animals, I treat animals with respect and love, but apparently because one shears a sheep and clip a bunny to relieve them from their fur, some say that is abusing them and instead, the wool should be thrown out and given back to the land…..

This ofcourse is not my first rodeo dealing with this kind of ..eh…stuff..When I was doing weekly craft markets I was called “KILLER!” More than once by members of said organisation. I know there are horrendous practices, particularly in China going on in regards to the farming of animals, but small farmers and hobby farmers only have the best in mind for their flock. Which brings me to this: if you have any questions about how small farmers get their wool ? Ask! Do your due diligence and most of all do not jump to conclusions. Well, now  that’s off my chest..lol. Let’s have some fun exploring these incredibly curly Longwool sheep. 

Look at those curls !

The Wensleydale is a British breed of domestic sheep. 

 It is named for the Wensleydale region of North Yorkshire, in the north of England, where it was bred in the early nineteenth century by cross-breeding a Dishley Leicester ram with local long-woolled sheep of a breed that is now extinct. 

It has a blue-grey face and long purled wool, and is among the heaviest of British sheep breeds. It is an endangered breed, and is categorised as "at risk" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. It is often used as a ram breed to cross with other breeds to obtain market lambs, and for its high-quality wool. The Wensleydale has also played a part in creating the gorgeous Blue Faced Leicester Sheep with its lustrous wool. But, I digress…. 

The legend behind the origin of the breed tells us the story of a ram named Blue Cap which was born from the crossing between a Dishley Leicester and a – now-extinct – long-wool Yorkshire breed. Our sources describe Blue Clap as a ‘wild spirited’ and ‘outstanding animal’, that weighed over 230 kilos !, and bore the blue face and lustrous wool characteristic of the breed. Born in 1939 Blue Cap, was widely used by local farmers to improve their livestock by crossbreeding. By giving lambs consistently like himself, Blue Cap became the founding sire of the Wensleydale breed. The Wensleydale sheep quickly established itself as an excellent crossing breed providing with hardy, prolific animals and heavy milking ewes. 

Beside these enviable qualities, Wensleydales also produce good quantity of lean meat, and a wool particularly lustrous and silky in appearance. 

The breed was officially named in 1876 leading to the foundation of the Wensleydale Long Wool Sheep Association in 1920, which at its creation included 197 members and 3059 registered ewes. Despite its early popularity, British farming communities soon lost interest in Wensleydales. In 1967 the number of Wensleydales declined to only 18 registered flocks and 291 ewes. After the formation of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust in 1973 the breed was put on a critical list. Although it is still considered as a rare breed, thanks to the work of dedicated breeders, Wensleydales are once again established all over the UK, and have extended into Europe and North America, but unfortunately not in Australia.

Wensleydales classify as a ‘luster long wool’ breed i.e a long wool breed specifically selected for the sheen and brilliance of their fleece. Long wool sheep are naturally strong, hard-wearing and lustrous, however Wensleydales fleece presents a thinner fibre diameter and a longer staple length, which makes it softer and even more lustrous than most long wools. 

It takes on average 15 months for a lamb to grow its full fleece. Once shorn it will never grow back as long again, thus most photos of Wensleydales with wool down to the ground are those of lambs that have kept their first fleece. 

As Wensleydales do not produce any kemp, most of their raw fleece can be used for spinning, resulting in 5kg of usable wool per animal. Wensleydales are easily recognizable due to their extremely long fleece divided in well-defined curly locks, and their deep blue head and ears. Their head is broad and partly covered in fine wool. Both rams and ewes are polled and can be either black or white. 

They are also distinctively tall and strongly built; ewes weigh on average 90 kg while the ram can go up to 135 kg, making the Wensleydale sheep one of the heaviest British breeds.

Wensleydale wool has the great advantage of being shiny, fairly soft and hard wearing. Yarns made from long wool are usually worsted spun, a spinning method than enhanced the natural properties of the Wensleydale fleece by adding some extra strength, softness and sheen to the finish product. Ultimately Wensleydale wool is a great fibre to knit with, if you want to prioritize the strength, drape and shine of your knitted garments. 

 I hope you are inspired to try spinning with these amazing shiny, colourful tops: it is a fabulous experience and I can’t wait to see all your Wensleydale spinning adventures !

To browse all the wonderful colourways please go here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new/products/wensleydale

Have a fabulous weekend!

hugs

Charly

Rare sheep and climate change

A cute, smiling north Ronaldsay lamb 

Busy doesn’t even start to describe this week! Lol I was glad, on a personal level, to have the time to wash my hair (dyeing and cutting it into shape will have to wait a few days …lol)  and take a relaxing bath but that was about it…rofl The rest of the time was taken up with prepping, dyeing, spinning orders, negotiating with mills and AQIS (the Australian quarantine system known to be so strict in order to keep our ecosystem safe and rightfully so) not even mentioning getting my taxes done finally AND most importantly: getting all the February art journey clubs ready, packed and shipped ! Please have a look on my Instagram feed where you can find me as @ixchelbunny : there’s a sneak peek video of the batts. I will be posting more photos of the batt, yarn and fibre clubs later this month. I don’t want to give too much away and spoil the surprise of all the club members!

Which reminds me! Club sign ups for the clubs starting in April is open now! Click here to learn more : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

It has only been a week or so that I thought summer would never get here and boom! All of a sudden we get hit by a 41degree Celsius heatwave for a day…lol. Mind you, now it is thunder and lightning and heavy rain so who knows what tomorrow will bring. The weather sure keeps us on our toes!

Whether you can blame el niṉo or la niṉa, one thing is certain: the weather is erratic and dramatic at the moment. Climate change has a big hand in this I believe, and we should have listened to science in the 1970s but instead we got yuppies, Wall Street “greed is good” and economic growth banks/governments, forgetting that to grow and flourish, we need the planet we live on to be cared for and the animals (and people!) to be able to provide themselves with shelter and food and what they need to survive. 
I’m very much a positive, half glass full kinda person, and I do believe that science is always the answer. Case in point is the fact (you probably thought I’d never get to the point did you🤣) that science has found that feeding live stock seaweed, lowers the harmful methane production (eg burps and farts from cattle)…. Well, one of the rare sheep breeds I focus on this week in Rare sheep month,  is The North Ronaldsay, seaweed eating sheep ! A marvel of super awesome sheep, who eat seaweed most of the time and are only ever on a grass paddock when they are delivering their lambs.

And here they are, all grown up, out on the north Ronaldsay shore eating seaweed

I have written several blog posts about these amazing sheep before, so please click on this link here (  https://ixchelbunny.blogspot.com/2021/07/dinna-fash-and-spin.html ) if you would like to read more about their history, the properties of their fleece and see videos about them as well ! 

This north Ronaldsay blend together with silver infused seaweed and cashmere is an absolute dream to spin and is good for the environment plus good for your skin. You don’t have to take my word for it: try it yourself! There are a few new colourways to discover this week as well ♥️

You can find all the new goodies in the “what’s new” section here : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

Have a fantastic week  and thank you so, so much for your awesome support ! 

big hugs

Charly

Valentines and Shetland Sheep

The Shetland Islands are a magical landscape:
no wonder they make wonderful wool there !

 

Amazing how time flies when you are having fun ! All the February clubs are almost ready to ship middle to late next week! It’s been full on dyeing kilos and kilos of yarns and fibres  for the clubs alone and that’s not counting the regular updates. No wonder I don’t go anywhere …lol. And, when I am not dyeing or cooking food to feed the hungry masses, I’m spinning yarn. I have been doing lots of spinning til late at night of our angora bunny yarn and also some pretty special blend with qiviut I have been saving up, so I could offer this extremely special handspun yarn at the upcoming yarn and fibre market organised by the handknitters guild Victoria in May.

Much more on that awesome weekend of enabling later and also on my social media so please keep an eye out! You definitely don’t want to miss it!

Paul has been super busy again making some gorgeous phang support spindles! Phangs are very nice spindles to spin yarn on: they spin  much “slower” than say Russian or Tibetan spindles but they are great to create anything from fine to bulkier yarn. Support spindles are my go to spindles whenever I want to relax: they are, what I consider, very “zen” type spindles, spindles with an almost meditative effect. Saying that, everybody is different of course and thankfully so! What is your favourite type of spindle? You can find all his new phang spindles here: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/spindles-2/products/lotus-phangs

Please don't forget the sign ups for the next clubs, starting in April, are open! You can find all the information right here when you click on the link: https://ixchel.com.au/collections/clubs

oh yes, before I forget!! Next week is Valentine’s Day and what better way to celebrate than with a fibre or yarn blind date?! I have added some extra special blind date offers for you and you can find them here in the what’s new section here, together with the new Shetland Dream tops update : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/whats-new

So, what is on offer on this second week of rare sheep breed month 2023 ?  One of my absolute favourite blends of all time : My Shetland Dream blend with a gorgeous fine Shetland blended with Mulberry Silk and a dash of super soft Cashmere.

I am still dreaming of going to the Shetland Wool week sometime, but in the meantime I am armchair travelling and reading lots of fabulous Shetland stories and hoping to be as accomplished as I can knitting colourwork and spinning beautiful Shetland fibres. I am a big fan of colourwork and all things Scotland, including the books by Ann Cleeves and the tv series “Shetland”..of course !

The story of Shetland wool and textiles is intricately entwined with the people and the place. Remote and rugged, Shetland’s ancient landscape has been home to the unique sheep and inspired craftspeople for centuries. Textiles have been key to the shaping of Shetland’s society, economy and culture and the story continues to this day! 

Shetland has something that makes it truly stand out amongst other places - there’s a rich, vibrant knitting, spinning and textile scene and the industry has been revitalized in the last decade. People care more about the provenance of their clothing, are interested in hand made and the stories that it holds. A decade ago, not many people would have imagined that knitting and spinning would go through such an incredible resurgence and that Shetland and Shetland sheep would once again become a very important place.

Sheep have lived on the Shetland Islands for well over 1,000 years, adapting to the harsh environment and thriving in the cold, wet climate.

The sheep of Shetland were an important part of subsistence agriculture of the islands, and the rugged habitat and geographical isolation produced a breed that is distinct and significant. The Shetland breed likely descends from ancient Scandinavian sheep, and it is a member of the northern short tailed sheep breed family. Historically, only a few Shetland sheep were exported, and it was not until recently that large populations were established on the British mainland and in other countries. Though fleece continues to be the breed’s primary product today,

Shetland sheep are fine boned and small in size. Rams weigh 90–125 pounds, and ewes weigh 75–100 pounds. Most rams have spiraled horns, while most ewes are polled. Shetland sheep are calm and charming in disposition, docile, and intelligent. The Shetland breed is especially prized for its wool, which is fine, soft, and strong. Fleeces average two to four pounds and vary in crimp from wavy to straight. Other characteristics of the fleece vary according to recent selection history.
Populations of Shetlands in Britain, for example, have been selected for more standardized characteristics. These sheep tend to be single coated with fiber diameter averages of 23 microns and staple lengths of two to five inches.

Landrace populations, such as those on the island of Foula, include a greater range of fleece types. These sheep may be double coated, with coarser outer wool of 30-40 microns and finer inner coat wool of 12-20 microns.

Eleven colors and thirty color patterns are recognized in the Shetland breed. This diversity is a great asset both to the breed and to the fiber artisans who enjoy using its fleeces. A few importations of Shetland sheep are documented in North America during the past two centuries. For example, Thomas Jefferson, owned a small flock of Shetland sheep at Monticello. None of the historic flocks, however, survived as purebred populations. Most Shetland sheep in North America descend from a 1980 importation of 32 sheep by the late G.D. Dailley of Ontario, Canada.

Unfortunately there are no Shetland Sheep in Australia. I have been very fortunate to secure this supersoft batch of 18,4 micron Shetland which is truly extraordinary to spin, felt, knit and wear.

The Shetland Islands were originally settled by Neolithic farmers over 4500 years ago. The horns of the sheep they raised have been found in archaeological digs on the islands, providing evidence of their presence. 

When the Vikings invaded and settled the Shetland Islands around the year 800, they brought over some short-tailed sheep from their continental herds, which interbred with the local sheep to produce further variation in an already hardy breed. 

By the year 1200, farmers began breeding the sheep of the Shetland Islands with some of the long-woolled sheep that had been brought north by the Romans. Either by accident or on purpose, this developed wool that was both longer and softer, and was therefore quite desirable for woolen goods that could both be used at home and that could be traded. 

 In 1468, the Shetland Islands were mortgaged to Scotland to raise a dowry for the marriage of Margaret, a Danish princess, to James III of Scotland. A few years following the marriage, the Scottish decided to just go ahead and annex the islands. Despite the protests of the Danes, they succeeded and the Shetland Islands became a part of Scotland. Trade in wool from the Shetland Islands was already occurring by this point, although it was likely happening only with Scotland and the Nordic countries. However, by the early 1600s knitted stockings from Shetland sheep wool, well known by then for its softness and comfort, were available through trade to the English and the Dutch populations. 

 In 1707 the Shetland Islands officially became a part of the Kingdom of Great Britain when the Acts of Union united England and Scotland as one country. At this time, wool from Shetland sheep was already widely known as a quality wool that was already softer than much of the other wool that was available. Except, of course, for the wool from Spain’s Merino sheep, which was highly regarded throughout Europe as the softest wool available on the market. 

As the late 1700s arrived, Great Britain set their sights on disrupting Spain’s firm grip on fine wool market. It is important to understand that the wool industry in Europe during the 1700s and early 1800s was as beneficial to a country’s economy as industries such as steel, aluminum and technology are today. A country that could produce fine wool in great quantities was a country that would have a solid financial base, and with a solid financial base came power and influence. Great Britain wanted to be that country, and believed that by acquiring Spain’s Merino sheep to breed with their own, the British wool industry would as least be equal to Spain’s – if not outright exceed that of Spain’s. Unfortunately for Great Britain, Spain simply didn’t want to give them any Merino sheep. Spain tightly controlled their Merino sheep and while Spain had made gifts of Merino sheep to some countries beginning in 1735, England was not on their list. Who could blame them? Prior to Spain’s development of Merino sheep, the English had been dominant players in Europe’s wool industry and Spain certainly did not want them to regain their position in the wool market. Enter King George III of Great Britain, Sir Joseph Banks, and Sir John Sinclair. 

By the 1880s, King George III had commanded Sir Joseph Banks to either find or develop a sheep that could compete the Spanish Merinos. At this point in history, a revolution in English sheep breeding using methodical, scientific and selective techniques had been going on within Great Britain for a couple of decades (see the article on Bluefaced Leicester). So, King George III and Banks had good reason to believe that by identifying and breeding just the right sheep, they could come up with something that would allow Great Britain to compete with Spain’s wool industry. With Merinos unavailable, Banks looked around the globe for sheep that would be suitable for wool-improvement purposes, even going so far as to examine sheep from Tibet. Sir John Sinclair of Scotland, a friend of Banks, had identified Shetland sheep as a promising breed. King George III was already a fan of having his stockings made of Shetland wool. The question was, could Shetland sheep be bred for the qualities the British wanted to have without Merinos, or would Merinos be required? Banks and Sinclair began a long correspondence by letters during the late 1780s through the 1790s exploring the possibilities. Sinclair sent samples of Shetland wool to Banks, but Banks was doubtful that the samples being sent to him, while fine and soft, were representative of the entire breed. He had noted that “stichel hairs,” longer and coarser hairs, were found in samples procured elsewhere. In fact, this was because many of the Shetland sheep of the time, like Icelandic sheep, were double coated and could produce both fine and thicker wool. Some Shetland sheep today still retain this trait. 

 Sinclair pressed Banks for many years to consider Shetland sheep as what Great Britain needed to breed for fine wool, describing what he referred to as the “kindly breed” of Shetland, or Shetland sheep that did not have the double coat with longer hairs that Banks disliked. He gifted Shetland wool to Banks that was “properly dressed and prepared” to exclude the long, rough hairs, making sure to include separate samples for Banks’ wife. He continually sent letters to Banks reassuring him that many of the Shetland sheep were free from the dreaded “stitchel hairs,” and then sent more letters discussing how he was looking at sheep from Denmark without long, coarse wool that might be bred with the Shetland to further reduce that trait. In another letter he describes how it is the method of gathering wool that produces the soft locks that Sinclair is looking for – Shetland sheep at the time, and many even today, will molt which allows the wool to be plucked off of the sheep. Sinclair let Banks know that this process, called rooing, meant that the wool was sorted between the fine wool and coarse wool as the plucking occurred. Despite all of Sinclair’s efforts, Banks was unconvinced that Shetland sheep were the answer. He continued to look for ways to get Merino sheep to breed with the sheep of Great Britain, which he was certain was the solution to improve the wool qualities in British flocks. 

In 1787, Banks managed to get two Merino rams and four Merino ewes out of Portugal, which became the base of the royal flock. Around this time, it can been seen from Sinclair’s letters that he gave up on the quest to convince Banks that Shetland sheep were the way of Great Britain’s future. Instead, Sinclair began to focus on breeding newly acquired Merinos from the royal flock to other sheep, and the Shetlands’ moment of glory began to fade. The Shetlands, like several other breeds of British sheep from that time, started to disappear as interbreeding for wool improvement resulting in the development of other lines of sheep. 

By the early 1920s, there were not many purebred Shetland sheep left. The wearing of Fair Isle sweaters by the British royal family in the early 1920 may have saved Shetland sheep from extinction. Fair Isle knitting is a stranded colourwork technique named after Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands, where distinctively patterned sweaters were knit using the technique. 

These sweaters began their rise to popularity in 1921, when the Prince of Wales (later Edward III) wore his in public. Knitted mainly with the many hues of naturally colored wool produced by the sheep of the Shetland Islands, along with some dyed wool accents, these sweaters began to become immensely popular with the broader public. 

The Fair Isle sweater hit the height of its popularity in the 1950s, although by that point it was often just the technique and design that made a sweater a Fair Isle sweater; it was no longer necessarily expected that the wool of the sweater be from the Shetland Islands, although if it was it did give the sweater that extra authenticity. With the burgeoning popularity of Fair Isle sweaters, it is perhaps not surprising that a group of 1920s Shetland islanders were motivated to preserve the few remaining lines of Shetland sheep. 

The Shetland Flock Book Society started in 1927, and around the same time the government was approached for assistance. The Department of Agriculture for Scotland agreed to support the effort by providing subsidies for purebred Shetland rams. The breed recovered slowly, though. Even the Fair Isle sweaters that were still knitted in the Shetland Islands during the 1950s did not necessarily use wool from the Shetland breed of sheep – there were still too few purebred Shetland sheep around, and the style of the day required bright dyed colors rather than the variety of natural colors provided by Shetland sheep – and dyed wool could be gotten from any sheep with white wool, not just white-wooled Shetland sheep. 

 By 1977, Shetland sheep were still listed as an endangered breed by the Rare Breed Survival Trust. However, interest in the sheep blossomed over the next several years, and by 1985 Shetland sheep were removed from the endangered breed list. It was perhaps not coincidental that the 1980s also marked the time during which Shetland sheep became popular among small farmers in United States. Although a few Shetland flocks had existed in the U.S. prior to the 1920s, it wasn’t a popular breed in the country until the 1980s, a time when many farmers in the U.S. were experiencing a renewed interest in rare breeds. 

A few Shetland flocks are on record as having existed in the United States during the early 1900s. However, from 1921 until the 1980s, Shetland sheep were not allowed to be imported to the United States, which prevented U.S. farmers from acquiring Shetland sheep during those decades. Today, though, a number of U.S. farmers are making up for lost time by raising Shetland sheep. It is a rare county fair, state fair, or fiber animal show that does not include these adorable little sheep among its ranks of livestock. 

Shetland sheep come in a wide variety of marking and colors – they include white sheep, black sheep, and a wide range of browns and grays. As a heritage, unimproved breed, Shetland sheep have one of three different kinds of fleeces: kindly/single-coated, long, and double-coated. The kindly/single-coated is the finest and shortest of the fleeces at only about 2-4 inches in length; it is used for fine knits such as lace, shawls and finely worked socks. The long fleeced Shetlands with soft and long staple wool between 4-8 inches in length are the most common these days, and much of the available yarn on the market is spun from their fleeces. 

The double-coated Shetland sheep are even more versatile than that of either of the other types, having a remarkably soft undercoat of wool and long and lustrous outercoat of wool that can reach lengths between 6-10 inches or more. The coats of the double-coated sheep can be separated, or spun together. Generally, Shetland wool has a thickness of 23-25 microns, but is can be even finer or thicker depending upon where it is gathered from the sheep. Wool between 10-20 microns can be gathered from the neck and shoulders, while wool between 25-30 microns can be gathered from the britches. Like Merino, many people who find wool to be irritating to their skin discover that wearing clothing made from the wool of Shetland sheep to be quite comfortable and not itchy at all. The wool is graded from Fine at its smallest diameter of 10 microns to Medium at its largest diameter of 30 microns, making it a very comfortable wool to wear.

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

Have a wonderful, fun and creative week! Do what you LOVE and do it often 💕

Big hugs

 Charly

Celebrating Rare Sheep Breed month

It’s not quite as cold as in the photo above, with these cute rare sheep from Norway, but it’s close! While people in northern Australia are experiencing heatwaves, we down south are putting our jumpers back on and getting soaked with rain: welcome to our Summer weather 🤣

I’m going to repeat myself again and say it’s been super busy here again. Extra busy now because all the rare sheep breed updates I want to do for this short month of February had to be organised and dyed before I start dyeing the February club. It takes me about a week to dye and card and pack the club so that means that for all the updates , that work has to fit in a very small time frame. In itself that is okay, because I have been doing this for over 18years now..lol, but it helps when either the weather is nice and warm OR the fire is on in the house so everything can get nice and dry in a shortish period of time. Having weather that doesn’t know it is actually supposed to be summer and acts like it is a winter autumn is not as good to get things done. Safe to say, the whole house is filled with wet-ish sheep so to speak…rofl

I thought Is would be great to start February off with a BANG! Not only is tonight a rare sheep breed but an extra special rare sheep breed: the Norwegian Grå Trøender sheep!

The Norwegian Gra Troender is a very rare breed of domesticated sheep that originated from crossbreeding the native Landrace sheep with the now extinct Tautra sheep in the late 19th century.

In 1998, the Committee on Farm Animal Genetic Resources established a project for collecting and freezing semen from Grey Troender sheep rams in an effort to revive the breed. There are currently around 150 breeding Gra Trondersau ewes remaining today, and only 25 breeding rams; all happily grazing in Norway. Yes, they are super cute as well , with their distinctive “teardrop” markings underneath their eyes.

When you are lucky enough to be able to travel: there is a wonderful wool museum on Munkholmen, a small island in the Trondheimfjord, just a ten minute boat ride from the city center. The island has lived many lives, including being a monastery, a prison, and a fortress at different points in history, but these days it’s mostly a nice place for an outing, with plenty of green grass for a picnic, a little beach for swimming/bathing, and a few facilities on site like a cafe and a shop.

The shop (called Munkholmen Galleri) which featured all kinds of things from local artists and makers, and also has a corner dedicated to the Gra troender sheep with sheepskins and handspun yarns in three natural colours.

Here are some photos of this amazing rare sheep breed:

Originally bred in the Trøndelag region of Norway, from where the sheep derives its name, the Gra Troender are most commonly varying shades of grey and white in colour with distinctive white markings under the eyes. The wool of the sheep is uniform with mean fibre diameter of about 22-28 micron and 2–3 kgs greasy fleece weight.

The wool was traditionally used for yarns and felting and the pelts were used for woolskin rugs. The adult live weight of ewes is between 70 and 80 kg. The mean litter size is 1.8 lambs born per year. The present population numbers only around 100 sheep but it’s increasing. In 1998, the Committee on Farm Animal Genetic Resources established a project for collecting and freezing semen from Grå Troender sheep rams in an effort to revive the breed.

The fibre is very lofty and resembles the Shetland wool but with a bit more weight to it. It has a wonderful spring and vibrancy and luster to it and it spins up beautifully. I only have a very limited supply for obvious reasons, so if you would like to try and get a taste of spinning this very rare breed , please email or message me on facebook or instagram. There is only a very limited quantity of handdyed tops and natural tops available and you can find them all on https://ixchel.com.au/collections/rare-breeds

Paul has also been busy in his shed, creating some pretty stone inlay Tibetan support spindles  here : https://ixchel.com.au/collections/spindles-2 and they are all going to be available on the website tonight, together with niddy noddies, wax for your wheel or spindles and lots more! 

Have a fabulous weekend and please do share your creations on social media : can’t wait to see what you are creating! Don’t forget to add #ixchelbunny or #ixchelfibres or #ixchelyarns so I can see it pop up ♥️♥️

big hugs

charly