Marie Wallin British Breeds

BRITISH BREEDS is Marie Wallin’s signature yarn - a beautiful, soft, bouncy 4 ply yarn. Worsted spun in Devon, BRITISH BREEDS is now available in twenty-six shades. A carefully curated color palette that Marie insured will work well together in Fair Isle knitting, but also would be beautiful for single color projects.

BRITISH BREEDS is made from four different British sheep breeds: Bluefaced Leicester, Exmoor Horn, Wensleydale or Romney, and Zwartbles. The wool fiber from each breed adds a certain characteristic to the yarn. Bluefaced Leicester adds the beautiful softness. Exmoor Horn adds softness too, but this sheep produces a white fleece and therefore adds a ‘cleaness’ to the blended tops, making for more successful dyeing. Wensleydale / Romney adds the strength and luster. And Zwartbles adds the bounce or springiness. To produce the yarn, the Bluefaced Leicester, Exmoor Horn and Wensleydale / Romney wool fibers are first blended together and then dyed into various colored tops. These colored tops are then blended together using a ‘recipe’ to create each of the twelve base colors. Each color base is then blended with the undyed Zwartbles fiber, creating the lovely 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.

25 grams / 93 yards
6.5 stitches per inch / US 3
Handwash in cool water and mild soap