...Is it Beastrib, or Muttoncalf, or Legstring?"
('Rumpelstiltskin' Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm, 1812)
Quite a late night last, spinning this, my first tiny ball of wool, from lovely chocolate brown Ryeland fleece. I suppose it's the sort of work a young child would produce in the days when everyone could spin, super-chunky and guilty of 'slubs' and 'overspin', but it should knit up into a fine mug-cosy/pint-cooler. I hope the producer of this fine fleece was not overly snowed upon this winter.
Ryeland sheep have been famous for at least six centuries, kept by the monks of Leominster in the rye-growing area of South Herefordshire. Their wool was known as 'Leominster Ore' and for hundreds of years it was the main wool used in English broadcloth.
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