If anyone looks in the British Wool Marketing Board's publications, it
becomes clear that the sorting is by breed/area, not by what US spinners
decide is the wool type. <<
Our spinning guild usually manages to get someone from the British Wool
Marketing Board in to give us a talk every couple of years - he comes
with a car load pf fleece that are exact models of their classification.
I gather that while the sheep are classified into the various Hill/Down
breeds etc with many, many subcategories, the actual sorting and
categorizing of fleece is done solely by the characteristics of the wool
under the sorters' hands. If a sheep follows the spec. for its breed AND
is in the right sort of place in the UK (weather/site etc) its wool will
probably be in the "right" breed category..... but he told us that if
you move a breed eg to kinder conditions, the fleece will probably
change at least to a different sub-band. ie a fleece gets typed as what
it is, rather than what the breed says it ought to be.
Also most UK sheep that the wool board deal with are crosses!
Chris in Cheshire UK
ps To the Wool Board - coloured sheep of any sort are anathema! (sp?)
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