It’s almost a new year and time for another epic project. I have been thinking about this since I first learned to spin this spring, and began discovering the wonderful unique characteristics of each breed.

I want to spin a small amount of as many sheep breeds as I can get, and knit the yarn into small squares. I will then knit them into a patchwork coat.

I figure I will need 18 breeds for a vest, which I can knit up and wear while I am collecting and spinning the next 20-ish needed for the sleeves. I will then have a jacket to wear while I am working on the last 50-70 or more needed for the skirt of the coat. Ambitious?? Who? Me? Nah!

I will use undyed fibre, but would like to get as much naturally coloured fibre as possible. When I have more than one colour for a breed, the square will be colour-work, otherwise it will probably contain texture of some sort. If I can, I will try to make the square represent the breed in some way.

(EDIT: I think I will use this page for the vest only, and use a new page when I start to turn it into a jacket. )

BREEDS I HAVE:
(to see a complete list of breeds I have, go to fuzzy mammals of the world spinning project

(Thank you, Ravellers and others for helping me grow this list. You are WONDERFUL!)

BREEDS I NEED:
Everything else! Help me Ravelers, you’re my only hope. If anyone has breeds not listed here and is willing to trade I will be forever in your debt. I have many breeds for trade - PM me for a full list. I’m hoping not to have to buy too many of my samples outright, since even if I only pay a small amount per ounce, plus shipping for 120 or more breeds, this coat is going to cost me far more than I can afford. I will be glad to take dirty, raw, unprocessed fleece or anything I can find.

The Squares:

1 - Columbia (white): (from a sheep named Sophie at a community shearing) Since Columbia were bred to thrive in the rangeland of North America, I knit western prairies with the Rocky Mountains in the background.

2 - California Variegated Mutant (brown from Frank, beige from Callie): thank you newfiespinner. Here is a stranded California poppy, the state flower of California.

3 - Clun Forest (white): thank you newfiespinner. Clun Forest, where the breed originated is a hilly area with scattered trees. So here is a cabled tree for this breed. (Not used in the vest - will be used later in the sleeves)

4 - North Ronaldsay (grey): thank you K2tog313 and Julie. This is an island sheep that lives almost entirely on seaweed, so I knit this square in a seaweed rib. (And it amuses me to no end that instead of vegetable matter in the fleece, there is algal matter - dried seaweed!) EDIT: I was not very happy with the seaweediness of the rib, so have knit some cabled kelp instead (in next picture).

5 - Tunis (white): thank you Wooliewoman. I couldn’t think what to use to represent this breed. Then it hit me - Tunisian crochet! Of course!

6 - Jacob (white, black): from a ewe named Maja at a community shearing. A four-horned ram (Look at it - it’ll come to you).

7 - Romney (brown, grey): thank you newfiespinner and DGUPPY18. This breed originated in the Romney marsh area. When I looked at aerial photographs of the marsh, it seemed to be dissected and squared off by regular drainage canals. Sort of like this square. For more veracity, I should have used the greyish wool for the canals and the brown for the land, but I wanted to showcase the gorgeous brown. Call it creative license.

8 - Coopworth (greys): Thank you Pam of Hatchtown Farm. I couldn’t think of anything to represent this breed so this square of ocean waves represents the farm and actual sheep from coastal Maine. I was invited to help with the shearing last spring as a newbie spinner. I took home some very dirty matted fleece from under the skirting table, and after quite a bit of work, the fibre was as utterly beautiful as her amazing commercial fleeces. I chain-plied fibre from several of her sheep from palest silver to almost-black for this square.

9 - Shetland (various): Thank you threadbndr. Fair Isle is in the Shetland Islands, so the Shetland breed gets fair-isle colourwork. I blended some of threadbndr’s Shetland with some of mine to get several beautiful shades.

10 - Criollo (brown): from a sheep named Mischief Thank you Wolliewoman. This is a South/Central American breed so I represented it with a step pyramid from Machu Pichu. It doesn’t show up well in the picture but is better in person. (Full story: A year or so after finishing this vest, Ken komhuus stumbled across this project and told me, “I remember selling that fleece to Wooliwoman”. I loved the backstory. Then 3 years later, I was talking to a Raveller from Uruguay, Peacock, who mentioned she had a flock of Criollo. I asked if she had a sheep named Mischief, by any chance, and she said, “Aaaah… Mischief!” It turns out Mischief created chaos every year by making a point of losing her ear tag. She was the only sheep in her large commercial flock who had a name instead of just a number. This is one of the reasons I love Ravelry - how else would I get this whole story, not to mention the fibre?)

11 - Leicester Longwool (white): Thank you ruthsmom. This was the first scientifically bred sheep, so it gets a strand of DNA. Dishley’s work on Leicester Longwools was of early importance in the field of genetics and influenced both Gregor Mendel and Charles Darwin. Who knew?! (Sorry, I am a biology geek; these things fascinate me.)

12 - Suffolk (white): Thank you Dana. I had no specific ideas for this breed, so I used a traditional Gansey pattern for a British breed. This will be for under the arm.

13 - Montadale (white): Thank you Ruth from Maine Spinner’s Registry. This is a modern breed, bred pragmatically for sound business reasons, so it gets a good business-suit-herringbone pattern. (I had nothing for this breed either!)

14 - Polwarth (white): Bought from PortFiber. These sheep were bred to do better than Merino in wetter, rainier areas, so Polwarth gets raindrops.

15 - Cormo (white): Thank you dogyarns and K2tog313. Cormo originated in Tasmania. I adapted a cable pattern to look roughly like repeats of the island of Tasmania. (Hey, I said I would try to represent each breed; I didn’t say I would do it WELL.)

16 - East Friesian (white): Thank you igel and Wierauch Dairy and Creamery. These dairy sheep provide igel with her favourite cheese. Igel and the dairy owners cooperated to get me fleece from their very happy looking sheep. This cable pattern represents wheels of cheese ripening on the racks.

17 - Manx Loaghtan (brown): Thank you Eowyn McGeek. These rare sheep from the Isle of Man are used in conservation grazing and have a unique relationship with the chough, an endangered bird. Their grazing creates a better habitat for the birds, and as the number of sheep rises, so do the numbers of chough. So this “little birds” pattern is for the Manx Loaghtan.

18 - Rambouillet (white): Thank you smorancie. When Spain first opened its borders to allow export of Merinos, a small flock was given to Louis XVI, who bred them at his experimental farm in Rambouillet. Then the French Revolution occurred and Loius XVI lost his head… but the sheep were saved! So these crowns are for Rambouillet.

19 - Blue-Faced Leicester (white, brown): (Thank you Debbist and smorancie. Beloved of hand-spinners, this breed gets a spinning wheel.

(The cabled borders are grey Shetland, since I have quite a bit of that. Since I wanted a softer, luxurious collar, I blended white Cormo, brown Merino, and a tiny bit of black alpaca to almost match the Shetland.)

April 2016: DONE! Just in time for a trip to Iceland with knitting friends.