Blueface Humbug - Three Ply Wool By the ball and 50 similar items

Named for their beautiful gray-blue skin underneath their lustrous wool, the story of Bluefaced Leicester sheep is also the story of how England contributed to a revolution in livestock breeding. Bred from crossing dark skinned, fine-wooled Border Leicester sheep with a variety of other English sheep, including the dark-blue skinned Wensleydale, the breed was part of a long challenge by English sheep farmers to compete with the Spanish Merino. The Bluefaced Leicester is best known for fine white wool, but some produce a color that’s called brown — although it mostly looks silver-gray — and others produce black. Sometimes genetic hiccups produce patterned sheep; but those traits tend to vanish quickly as they are considered undesirable and bred out again. Blueface Leicester Gray is actually a fine layering of black and white hairs until the eye sees gray. And it's nice to work with, very soft. This particular preparation was marked as Humbug, which seems to mean a blend of gray-brown and white fibers. The resulting yarn is a lovely smooth silver-gray with flecks of white; although it doesn’t actually shimmer, it looks like it ought to. This was spun double drive.