Breac is a new one-off spin from The Border Mill. A year or two ago Aileen from Cairnurenan Croft contacted me asking if I would like to buy some of their Jacob fleece. I was immediately intrigued, it is a breed I haven’t worked with before and I have always been keen to try working with their gorgeous multi-coloured wool.

I had a lot of fun in the summer picking out fleeces and chatting to Aileen. Cairnurenan Croft is on the edge of the Black Isle and Aileen and her family breed Jacob sheep plus rare breed cattle. Their land includes the remains of a Chambered Cairn, Cairn Irenan (from which Cairnurenan originates) which is a Scheduled Monument.

I had originally planned for Breac to be a pure Jacob yarn but changed my mind when visiting Sally Ann’s Wester Braelangwell flock. Wester Braelangwell is in the heart of the Black Isle and I usually buy just Gotland fleeces from Sally Ann. However, in the last couple of years, they have used a Jacob tup with their Gotland ewes and I found some very beautiful Gotland x Jacob fleeces which I couldn’t resist buying to include in Breac.

Breac (meaning ‘speckled’ in Gaelic) has been expertly spun by The Border Mill to retain a heathery effect in the yarn and making the most of different colours in the fleece (which did involve a fair bit of sorting and splitting the fleeces into their separate colours, firstly by me and then additionally by Kate at the mill!). There are good amounts of Breac in the heathery grey and also smaller amounts of Dorcha Breac which is a darker, more brown shade – from recarding the fibre from the ends (to ensure there is as little waste as possible).

Yarn notes:
The 25% Gotland x Jacob genes in Breac lend a dense and drapey nature to the yarn. With around 20wpi Breac will knit as a Fingering or possibly Sport weight. But please note that, because of the heavy nature of the fibre, there are fewer metres per 100g than might be anticipated.

In terms of handle I would say that Breac/Dorcha Breac is a little more rustic than most of my yarns. For me it will be comfortable as a hat but perhaps not as a shawl or cowl. I am working on a Pityoulish Vest (by Emily K Williams, and available in print and digitally as part of the Perspectives Collection) and am really looking forward to wearing the finished vest with a long sleeved top or shirt underneath.