Saturday 1 September 2012

California Variegated Mutant


California Variegated Mutant or CVM

Critically rare breed
(in 1990, less than 2,000 worldwide)

Staple: 7.5-15cm

Micron: 21-25

About California variegated mutant sheep: CVM have a fascinating history coming from 2 badger faced lambs appearing in a Rommeldale flock in the 1960’s. Large scale mills avoided even a single fiber of random colours showing up in fleece, resulting with culling of the coloured lambs. Californian, Glen Eidman(passed away 1999) saw things differently and bred these sheep focusing on the colour and fleece quality. With mills turning away the coloured fleece, CVM’s were marketed towards hand spinners. CVM offer near limitless colour and marking combinations (including dark grey, black, brown, moorit and spotted, barred face badger pattern) in addition to lovely fleece that not only [1]darken but become finer with age.
                               
My spinning experience: I had never spun CVM and was immediately in love. It was an easy, enjoyable spin with the resulting yarn as sproingy as heck…or lofty if you prefer. I ended up spinning this breed fleece from 2 different sources and have not been disappointed at all. Californian Variegated Mutant is hereby the first breed of this project to be added to my Top 10 of I-want-more-of-this-stuff list.



[1] Most sheep are born their darkest and lighten with age

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