The wonderful British Breeds yarn is the perfect yarn for Fairisle and stranded colour work knitting. The melange effect of the colours help produce the beautiful Fairisle patterns synonymous with Marie Wallin designs.

British Breeds is a 100% Wool yarn blended from 4 different British sheep breeds and available in 26 colours in 25g balls.

British Breeds took two years to develop into the beautiful, soft, bouncy 4 ply yarn that it is today. Worsted spun in Devon by John Arbon Mill, British Breeds is available in 26 glorious colours.

British Breeds is made from four different British sheep breeds. The wool fibre from each breed adds a certain characteristic to the yarn; Bluefaced Leicester adds the beautiful softness, Exmoor Horn adds the softness too but this sheep produces a white fleece therefore adding a ‘cleaness’ to the blended tops making for more successful dyeing. Romney adds the strength and slight lustre and Zwartbles adds the bounce or springiness. To produce the yarn, the Bluefaced Leicester, Exmoor Horn and Romney wool fibres are first blended together and then dyed into various coloured tops. These coloured tops are then blended together using a ‘recipe’ to create each of the 26 base colours. Each colour base is then blended with the undyed Zwartbles fibre creating the amazing mélange effect. Once the yarn is spun it is sent to Edward Hill’s Ltd in Bradford to be steam relaxed and balled into 25g balls. The steam finishing ‘opens up’ the yarn creating the full, light appearance and handle.

Yardage and tension:
British Breeds has an approximate length of 85m (93 yds).
Tension of 28 sts & 29 rows to 10cm measured over Fairisle knitting using 3.25mm needles.
Stocking stitch tension is 26 sts & 34 rows to 10cm using 3mm needles.

Care:

To care for your British Breeds yarn, please keep any unused yarn in a plastic storage box or bag so there is less chance of a moth attack!

To care for your British Breeds garment, please hand wash carefully using a mild, natural liquid soap detergent in lukewarm water. Once washed, ensure that as much water as possible is extracted from the garment before drying. This can be done by squeezing the garment between two towels. Reshape the garment whilst damp and allow to air dry naturally.

It is worth noting that 100% wool garments require minimal washing, wool fibre is naturally self-cleaning! To freshen up your knitwear, just hang on a line outside to ‘air’, any stains can be spot cleaned. In the summer, store your knitwear away in plastic storage bags with a natural moth deterrent, such as a cedar balls or lavender bags.