Sheep, Wool & Wool Craft

9 ewes are the basis of our sheep flock. They are not purebred, but an evolving mix of breeds determined primarily by fleece quality. Our primary breed is CVM, California Variegated Mutant, which is a relatively modern breed selected from Romeldale for a wide variety of natural fleece colour as well as fineness and length of staple. We have a bit of Shetland and BFL in our ewes as well, adding shine and length. Our ladies are beautiful! The CVM fleece is very fine with a tight crimp, making them soft and perfect for fine garments next to the skin.

After spring shearing, fleeces are skirted and brought to a local mill for processing. This mill turns our raw fleeces into rovings and semi-worsted yarn. Each fleece is processed separately, so you can buy yarn or rovings from one particular animal year after year. As the sheep age, their colour shifts and the quality of their fleece changes, so we also blend some of the fleeces to create more exciting yarns.

Rebecca also hand dyes some of the yarn, making one of a kind handpainted skeins. These skeins will self-stripe or create bands and spots of colour, depending on the knitting pattern.

Pin-drafted rovings are dense and lofty, with the fibres semi-aligned. This can be hand spun into semi-worsed yarns with increased strength and shine, less loft and warmth – fantastic for lace work or harder wearing garments. It can also be spun long draw for more woolen characteristics of loft, bounce and warmth – suitable for light, warm garments. They can also be felted, and the crimp and fineness of the fleece allows for lightweight felt with great strength.

Rebecca turns her hands to spinning (though these yarns are for personal use, not for sale), dyeing, felting and knitting. Dyed skeins, knitted hats and felted cushions are all available for sale. Check out our Farm Shop for more details on what’s currently available!