The Natural Fiber

• ColorBlack

This Dutch breed is growing in popularity with farmers as breeding ewes. Zwartbles are calm sheep with lovely manners and an almost black fleece which, when bleached in the sun, goes rusty red at the tips. The colour of the resulting yarn is bitter chocolate. We blend it with mohair to improve the handle and it comes out like dark, shiny coal. Rather nice! For more information contact the Zwartbles Sheep Association

These sheep, from Herefordshire and the South Welsh borders, are small and almost resemble large teddy bears! Their fleece is either white or dark, or more specifically a creamy white and mottled greybrown. The fleece is fine, crimpy and warm. In the 16th century the wool, called Lemster Wool from the local town (now spelled Leominster), was used to make fine stockings for Queen Elizabeth l. This is an ideal breed for smallholders and the ewes are particularly good mothers. For more information contact the Ryeland Flock Book Society

A Dutch import from the island of Texel, the largest of the Frisian Islands in North Holland’s Wadden Sea. Living in Britain since the 1970s, the Texel is a big, meaty sheep, with a heavy head, long body and short legs. More functional than elegant, they are often used for cross breeding to produce lamb. They are normally white, but the dark-coloured ones are also bred for wool and are called Blue Texels. The wool is fine, soft and crimpy. For more information contact the Texel Sheep Society (link is external) and The Blue Texel Sheep Society (link is external).

This is probably the hardiest of all the UK’s mainland breeds and lives largely on the Cumbrian fells which are among the highest parts of England. The young sheep have dark fleeces, but by the time they are two to three years old these go grey or white. The wool dyes beautifully and works well for mats, rugs and floorings, but it can also be knitted into accessories, bags and body warmers. It is perhaps the only yarn for a ‘real’ fleece jacket? To see the Herdwick in our range follow this link (link is external)

Another rare breed, one that has learned to graze on seaweed on the Orkney Island from which they take their name. As a result they are fenced out to the beaches to conserve grazing for cattle. The fleece is quite coarse, but very soft and comes in a range of colours from white through to grey and brown. This creates design opportunities for knitwear, perhaps in the style favoured by a certain Danish TV detective. The sheep are small with strong wills. For more information contact the North Ronaldsay Sheep Fellowship

This Northumberland breed is a direct descendant of the Dishley Leicester sheep created by Robert Bakewell in the eighteenth century and is said to be the largest of the the indigenous breeds in the British Isles. Tall, white and with distinctively large ears, these elegant sheep produce good, medium-fine wool with some lustre.