Hog Island Tops

Hog Island Fibre Tops

Hog Island sheep are a rare sheep breed with a fascinating history (you can read all about it in my blog: see link below). These sheep sure can with stand very harsh conditions because of their extremely high lanolin content in their fleece.  It is the one of the most water repellent fibres, even with almost all the lanolin removed, it has this strange quality of soaking the water up and then spitting it out again almost immediately! This means, getting dry after a heavy storm, would have been a lot easier than being soaked to the bone for these sheep. It also is the most elastic sheep’s wool I have ever worked with and has fabulous tensile strength, making it fabulous for socks.

The fibre is extremely nice to work with: it traps the air beautifully, it’s crisp but downy and the staple length is medium to short (like that of a down sheep like Southdown and Hampshire down sheep). Hog island wool is extremely springy and lends itself very well to woollen type spinning. It is also one of the most elastic wool fibres I have ever worked with.

The micron count as with all critical or endangered breeds vary a lot (from 20-30 micron).  The fibre is perfectly suitable to make socks, jumpers, shawls or scarves with. Just like the Hog Island sheep it can withstand quite a lot.

Fibre Top Roving details

Weight per top: 100g / 3.52oz

Contents: Hog Island 100%

You'll find more information of the Hog Island breed with cute photos on the IxCHeL blog.