Faithmead Yarns - Our Sheep

We keep a handful of several different breeds which are:-

Leicester Longwool, Lincoln Longwool, Bluefaced Leicester, Coloured Bluefaced Leicester, Border Leicester, Wensleydale, Teeswater, Corriedale, Cheviot and Gotland

We have been producing 'Award Winning Fleeces' from many of these sheep at both Country and County level since 2011, and have been especially proud to have won 'Champion Speciality Knitwear Fleece for Wales' in 2018, followed up by 'Champion and Reserve Champion at Pembokeshire County Show', and 'Brecon Depot Champion Fleece' in 2019.

The Faithmead Flock has been a non-breeding flock since 2017 when I took the decision that the quality of their wool was paramount and for this to happen, the sheep require as little stress in their lives as possible. Lambing is a very stressful experience and can cause a weak staple (from my experience) and even fleece break.

You might wonder how we manage to continue supplying that first wonderful Lamb wool? Every Spring I buy in a few 'Mollie' lambs. These are lambs that have had to be taken away from their Mothers for one reason or another and need to be reared on a bottle. Most farmers will try and 'adopt on' a 3rd (triplet) from a lambing but this doesn't always work. Thus, I end up with the wonderful additions of youngsters such as "Hope Too" (2017), "Venus" (2018) and in 2019, my little threesome of Holly, Hazel and Tiddly.

The different varieties of sheep produce very different types of wool and as a consequence very different types of yarn. The fibres from each sheep may be different thicknesses and therefore a 4ply in one sheep may be completely different to a 4ply from another sheep and so 'swatch' knitting is essential.

We welcome visitors to come and meet the sheep. However this is strictly by appointment as we are a very busy working Smallholding and the diary is busy too.