Announcement
SHOP UPDATE
Tuesday The 11th October 2022
Dear all, I am very pleased to be be able to let you know that we have now added our fantastic antique rose to our 4ply and DK range sue to to customer requests.
Items
All Items
Reviews
-
Cal on 09 Oct, 2022
5 out of 5 starsPerfect, thank you. Helpful seller, very fast to respond to a query.
-
-
Kate on 27 Jul, 2022
5 out of 5 starsBeautiful quality and great customer service. Would recommend.
-
Nicola on 27 May, 2022
5 out of 5 starsBeautiful yard, so soft, and grass green is the most glorious colour.
-
eratica on 08 Mar, 2022
5 out of 5 starsLovely fibre, i have washed it but not processed it yet, but it looks good. Thank you for the swift delivery.
-
eratica on 08 Mar, 2022
5 out of 5 starsupdated to add: I hate to leave negative reviews, but feel it is only fair to update my original review. The fleece i received had very weak tips. The tip were still quite dirty after scouring and I wrongly assumed that carding would open them up (using my hand carders) I did not realise the tips would break off causing nepps in my rolags. Rather than waste the fleece i purchased, I have now resorted to cutting off the tips of each lock prior to carding and it is going much better. It does hinder the process somewhat though and takes a little of the joy out of my fibre crafting. Original review: Lovely looking fibre, haven't touched it yet, but look forward to processing it, then prepping it and using it. thanks for swift delivery.
-
Holly on 28 Feb, 2022
5 out of 5 starsStunning wool, I’m a beginner spinner and it’s so nice to work with. I had such a struggle finding wool that I was comfortable working with in terms of welfare and knowing that the wool I’m using comes from a very loved slaughter-free flock is so lovely 🥰💕
-
-
Pat on 29 Jan, 2022
5 out of 5 starsThis fleece has been easy to process. Slightly muddy tips but wash and comb out very clean. What starts off as a natural, old ivory colour washes to a beautiful warm white. Uniform crimp, long staple, and not a lot of lanolin. Looking forward to spinning this up and either leaving it natural or dyeing it.
-
About TheDoultonFlock
-
-
Here are my beautiful teenage (shearling) girls.
-
One of our prize winning rams with the most beautiful fleece, Bob, being shown by his best friend, Leon, at Masham Sheep
-
New mom gazes lovingly at her three new babies.
-
One of our shearling fleeces we sell to spinners. Fleeces to follow soon!
-
Here is one of our Champion Fleeces, this time at Great Yorkshire Show.
Breed, show and sell fleece and yarn from my rare breed English Border Leicesters.
I started my flock way back in 1996 with 2 ewe lambs, bought from a sale at Lanark, which I called Martha and Minnie, after Coronation Street characters. Originally I had bought them just to show at local shows but fell in love with them, and very soon I added Dennis, Mavis, Natalie, Raquel, Maud, Gail, and Maxine. That was it- I was hooked on the breed. The Border Leicester sheep has the most amazing personality. They're very clever and know exactly how to get you to love them.
I adore them and do not EVER send any for slaughter. My sheep are born to live long healthy normal lives.
The Border Leicester has the most amazing fleece,white, semi lustrous, strong, crimped, with beautiful long locks, crimped from the skin to the very end of the staple. We have had a lot of success and won many Championships, East of England, Lincoln, Great Yorkshire to mention but a few, with our fleeces and with Wool on the Hoof. The sheep themselves have also won many Championships as they are so stunning.
I have sold to hand spinners and felters for a long time now and someone a few years ago, suggested that I get some of my fleeces processed into worsted spun yarn. I did and we launched our very first Limited Edition Doulton Border Leicester worsted spun yarn, in both DK and 4 ply, last September. We only produced it in 3 dyed colours, Light Grey,(Wainstones), Dark Grey,(Alum Beck) Doulton Blue and natural, which we called Sheep!
The demand for the yarn was really excellent and the feedback from our knitters was superb. Everyone liked it. It gives great stitch definition and there are many examples of projects which can be seen on our Ravelry group-The Doulton Flock.
We produced another Limited Edition which included two new colours in Spring.
We sent off the 2016 clip and have just received the latest Limited Edition colours which are so beautiful. We now have Semerwater, a lovely navy, Wainstones, the original light grey which was very popular, Dalby Forest, a beautiful green and Cringle Moor, a vibrant purple.
The sheep have grown to be 300 strong, each and every one of them named and loved by us. The rams are bred to breed half bred ewes. The breed is known as "The Sheep Industry's Great Improver". This means that my rams produce beautiful half bred ewe lambs, which are longer and leaner and become fabulous breeding ewes. The breed also gives very milky ewes.
We have also exported shearling ewes and rams to Italy, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Belgium, where people who love the Border Leicester want to start their own little flocks in their own countries.
Latterly the Border Leicester has declined in popularity and is now on The Rare Breed Survival Trust's "At Risk" list. This means that there are less than 1300 breeding ewes in the country. I,and my flock of lovelies, do everything we can to promote the breed. We attend all the large County Shows, often showing in Any Other Native Breed classes. We have just come back from the Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate where we picked up a trophy for Wool on The Hoof, the Male Champion, and the Reserve Overall Champion. Our shearling ewes also got tickets.
A shearling fleece we took got second prize in the fleece classes too.
We really try our hardest to promote this wonderful British breed in any and every way we can.
Everything we make from the fleeces and the yarn goes to support my flock.
Production partners
-
Ruth Dorrington
Leeds, England
Ruth took a Fine Arts Course at Leeds University and went on to become an artist and designer.
Shop policies
Accepted payment methods