Rambouillet Top

About the fibre

Staple length: 50-70mm. Micron count 20-23

Fine

Rambouillet sheep are sometimes known as "the French Merino." They have a fine wool with good crimp. This wool is suitable for felting and spinning.

Natural white

Each bag contains 100g of wool.

About the breed

In the 1780s, King Louis XVI of France bought Merino sheep from his cousin, King Charles III of Spain. Until this point, Merino wool had been an industrial trade secret exclusive to Spain -- for centuries, harsh penalties had been meted out to anyone caught trying to sell the sheep outside of the country.

The remainder of the century fared better for the sheep than it did for Louis. The imported sheep were raised, outbred with English breeds, and meticulously selected for bulkier bodies and longer wool in an experimental farm in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet, to produce a dual-purpose sheep -- an economic dynamo for French agriculture.

Cushing Memorial Library and Archives, Texas A&M, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons