Ryeland rocks!

Thanks to Jane at Dove Farm, via Twitter, I am now the proud owner of a white Ryeland fleece.  Thanks to the lovely sunny weather I have even been able to wash and dry some of it already!  It's very beautiful, pearly white and soooooo soft.  I have started the lengthy job of carding it, to prepare it for feltmaking - rather than rolling it up into rolags like I would for spinning, I roll it in the opposite direction off the carder to make little fat sausages of wool where the fibres are mostly running in the same direction - not as smooth as commercially combed locks which most feltmakers use, but less troublesome than rolags where the fibres go every which way.  Over the weekend I shall be using the first of the carded wool, mixed with some wonderful dyed fibres from Freyalynn, in a study for the Tretower series (see earlier blog posts).  Can't wait!!!

Eager anticipation...

Thanks to the amazing resource that is Twitter, I am now eagerly awaiting the arrival of two rare breed fleeces - one Ryeland from Dove Farm in Derbyshire, and one Grey Faced Dartmoor from Sam's Lamb in Devon.  Very excited as I've not worked with either of these breeds before.  The Ryeland is to be incorporated into my project on the domestic history of Tretower Court (see previous blog posts on the subject of palimpsests and medieval sheep), and the GFD will be the latest in the Felting British Wool project.  There will be stacks of wool left over, as each fleece weighs usually at least 2-3 kilos, often much more, so even after the skanky bits and any vegetable matter have been removed, I should still have lots to play with - both for felting and spinning.  Yay!

In search of Ryeland fleece - medieval history on the hoof

My latest quest is for Ryeland fleece - I have a contact consulting the flock book for me to track down a source for me!  Why am I pursuing Ryeland fleece?  Well, my current project is connected with Tretower, a historic manor house north of the Brecon Beacons, and I am looking to use some wool in the felting process from a breed of sheep which would have been familiar in the house's heyday between the 14th and 17th centuries.  The Ryeland sheep (named after the rye-growing area around Archenfield in South Herefordshire which was its heartland) was developed by the monks of Leominster in the 12th or 13th century, producing a remarkably fine wool which was greatly in demand - its value was such that its alternative name was 'Leominster Ore'.  As a high-status dwelling in the later Middle Ages, only a relatively short distance west of Herefordshire, it is very likely that Ryeland wool would have found its way to Tretower, which is why I am keen to use this breed in my Tretower project.  Few breeds of sheep in the UK now, other than the 'primitives' such as Soays, can trace their origins back as far as the Ryeland - the 'improvement' of native breeds which resulted in the breeds we now have was largely a product of the 18th century onwards, and continues even now - as with, for example, the Beltex!

Felting British Wool project - breeds update

I am very excited to have the prospect of a Boreray fleece from Raskelf Rare Breeds in Yorkshire (once it's off the sheep!), I am particularly keen to have more primitive breeds represented in the project.  So far my tally of breeds (raw fleeces) is as follows:

Black Welsh Mountain
Lleyn
Hebridean
Wensleydale
Manx Loughtan
Norfolk Horn

I also have Shetland, Teeswater and Blue Faced Leicester as tops or washed locks, but ideally I'd like to be able to document the entire process of fleece-to-piece for these breeds as well.  I am living in hopes of some Dorset Horn and/or Poll Dorset from the Kennixton Flock if I ask nicely!  And I am optimistic I may be able to source some Herdwick too.  After shearing this year I will put out an appeal on Twitter for interesting fleeces.

The project is progressing very slowly due to pressures of work in the day job, and also a couple of submissions I am working on for deadlines in the next few months.  Sadly there are only 24 hours in any day!  I had hoped to have enough to create at least an interim exhibition by the end of 2012, but looking at my commitments for the next few months, I think it's going to be some time in 2013 before I get far enough through the project to begin to think about that.  For each breed, I want to juxtapose a sample of the raw fleece, washed and carded fleece, a felt sample, and a piece of textile art incorporating one or more breeds - I am currently weighing up different approaches to exhibiting this.  Watch this space!