Our flock of Ryelands are very friendly. They are a forgiving breed of sheep for those of us who foray into farming whilst learning on the job, and also working off farm jobs. A gentle call from us suffices to instigate a flock move, negating the need for a Collie or Kelpie. Our spaniels Pip and Moss prefer to give the sheep a wide berth, aware that the Ryeland’s would readily instigate a game of tag rather than respectfully move away.
They also have very soft wool, which, once the flock grew to a productive size provided us with a bountiful annual harvest of fleece. It felt right to see if we could process the fleece into wool for others to enjoy but also make some clothes. Actual clothes which could be worn and loved, which would last.
Once the sheep are sheared, and the best fleece is filtered, the Natural Fibre Company in Cornwall turns the raw fleece into yarn. We then worked with a UK based company to machine knit our first collection of woolen wears. It required us to turn our hand to design. Thankfully centuries of tradition had paved the way for a bible of Gansy designs captured by Mary Wright in her beautiful book, which is a blue print for earthy, natural knits.
Shepherding now feels a little different when wearing a compete set of woolen’s grown by the girls.
