Natural
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Dyed Yarn & Fiber
Coopworth Lace
Price range: $19.00 through $25.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageCoopworth is a Longwool breed created by crossbreeding Romney and Border Leicester sheep. The breed standard focuses on production as opposed to the way the sheep looks ( ), so some Coopworth look more like Romney and some have the clean head and roman noses of Border Leicester. Creamy white, strong fiber with an opalescence that dyes beautifully.
Farm source: hand selected fleeces from Over the Grass Farm in The Plains, Virginia. The flock was dispersed. We currently don’t have a source of Coopworth fleece. Know anyone raising them in the Chesapeake Fibershed? -
Dyed Yarn & Fiber
Full Monty – Montadale True Woolen
Price range: $38.00 through $44.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageMontadale is a modern US breed developed in the 1930’s in the midwest from Cheviot rams with Columbia ewes. These sheep are raised for both meat and their exceptionally white wool which is in the “medium” range. Medium is right in the middle of all the types of wool and makes an excellent knitting yarn that is fairly soft and yet still fairly strong.
Farm source: hand selected fleeces from Saffer’s Montadales in Warwick, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. -
Dyed Yarn & Fiber
Cotswold True Lace
Price range: $28.00 through $34.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageCotswold is an English Longwool breed probably developed with Leicester genetics. Imported into North America in 1832, it is mostly used for cross breeding rams in the commercial sheep business. The sheep grow 8″ to 10″ staple of wool in a year in bold, open locks. The fleece is white, very lustrous and strong. It felts quite well, including on the sheep if care is not taken. As with other strong Longwool breeds, it is traditionally used for lace shawls.
Farm source: hand selected fleeces from Davlin Farm in Loudoun County, Virginia -
Dyed Yarn & Fiber
Dorset Dress
Price range: $31.00 through $38.00 Select options This product has multiple variants. The options may be chosen on the product pageDorset sheep are originally from the Downs area of England. The first Dorsets in the US came to Oregon, shipped by the Hudson’s Bay Company in the 1860’s. East Coast imports came in the late 1800’s. Polled (hornless) Dorsets were a mutation that happened at North Carolina State College in the 1950’s and now outnumber Horned Dorsets here and in other countries. One of the most common sheep breeds in the US, raised primarily for meat.
The fleece is very white with no black fibers like black faced meat breeds (Suffolks and Hampshires). The sheep will grow fleece from 2.5 to 4 inches long in a year and it has the robust crimp (extremely springy) of Down-type wools.
Farm source: hand selected fleeces from Flat Duck Farm, Boyce, Virginia
