Romancing the Romanov Sheep

The Romanov Sheep originally hail from the Upper Volga area of Russia and were named after a town in the region. The breed first came to prominence in the 18th century.  Mature male rams reach up to 80kgs in weight, with ewes averaging 40-50kgs. 

The Romanov sheep are a very early maturing breed, the Romanov can reach full sexual maturity as early as 3-4 months old! 

They can also breed at any time of the year and ewes are very prolific, sometimes having up to six lambs per birth. Multiple births are extremely common in this short-tailed breed.  

They are very hardy and very strong and are well adapted to harsh cold climates. They are generally black in colour when born, though this changes to grey as they mature. Their face and legs are usually black in colour as well, with large white markings common on the top of their heads. 

Their wool is famed for being very strong and resourceful and is double-coated. Their undercoat is about 16-22 microns and their outercoat is 40-150 microns. 

The average fleece shorn from a Romanov weighs 4.5kgs in total. 

From sourcing to dehairing and blending it took me about a year this time for me to get this blend to you. Lots of sourcing, lots of forms and administrative rules and regulations !  And, The wool needs a lot of creativity in preparation! Unlike most double coated breeds where the outercoat is significantly longer than the undercoat, the Romanov’s two coats are of similar length. This complicates the job of separating the coarse fibres from the fine undercoat! The right set of wool combs have done the trick but it takes a loooooong time. 

 You may know I love to dye over a base that is grey or brown: it makes the dye so much more interesting and deep. The colour of the Romanov is grey and absolutely amazing to dye and spin There are no guard hairs in the blend at all and because I have blended it with Silk, Cashmere, Angora and the softness is out of this world. I wanted to incorporate a bit of that shine and shimmer that you see when a fresh coat of snow has fallen and the sun shines on it, so I added mulberry silk for that lustre and shine effect. As you can imagine I only have a very limited amount available: some natural and some dyed. 

Orange moon magic

The Séance Society

IxCHeL club sign ups for the 3rd quarter (July, August, September)  are open !

Note to all International club members: All international club parcels are  shipped with tracking.   There is an option of having all three of your clubs shipped together to save on shipping cost:  Just ask me for a postage quote !

Any questions? Any custom orders for yarn or dyeing fibre? : Please don’t hesitate to ask! Always happy to enable.