Marie Wallin Yarn

Looking for nature-inspired colors with pedigree designed specifically for Fair Isle/stranded colorwork? Then feast your eyes on this beautiful array, which took Marie Wallin - renown and successful designer - 2 years to develop!

Built on her passion for natural fibers and British Wool, British Breeds is a gorgeous, soft, and bouncy blend made from four British sheep breeds, each of which adds a particular characteristic to the yarn.

The famous Bluefaced Leicester gives the yarn its wonderful softness; Exmoor Horn also brings softness to the party yet enhances the yarn's ability to take on dye; Wensleydale, which will be replaced by Romney from Lot 017, gives the yarn its strength and luster; and last, but by no means least, Zwartbles adds bounce or springiness.

British Breeds offers a wonderful and authentic color palette. Each beautiful shade is fully capable of holding its own for single-color knitting, as well as stranded colorwork. With such an inviting palette, choosing one shade is a challenge!  

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British Breeds in the Making

To produce Marie Wallin's British Breeds yarn, the Bluefaced Leicester, Exmoor Horn and Wensleydale wool fibers are initially blended and then dyed into numerous colored tops. These tops are then worked together using a special ‘recipe’ to produce each of the base colors.

Each color base is then blended with the undyed Zwartbles fiber to create the lovely mélange effect and the reassuring ‘sheepy’ smell!

British Breeds is proudly worsted spun in Devon by John Arbon and his wonderful team, producing a high-quality yarn which is smooth, soft, and durable.

After it has been spun, the yarn is steam relaxed at Edward Hill’s Ltd in Bradford. This process 'opens up’ the yarn to create its full, light appearance, and handle. Finally, the yarn is balled into 25g balls ... so that you can start crafting immediately without the trouble of having to wind it beforehand!