BC Burn Pile

 

We have a thing for mutts. Something about the who-knows-what genetic mixture makes for some fun and mysterious variations. Our much loved dog Shabba is the king of mutts, we had him DNA tested out of curiosity and he came back as 12.5% of everything haha, he's a true Heinz 57.

There is a lot of mutt happening in your average Canadian "meat sheep" too. These guys are for chow, and their fibre is treated like their toenails - something that needs to be kept up for the health of the sheep but doesn't have any value once its been trimmed. The wool they grow is often tossed for compost, sold for pennies on the pound if possible, or just burnt! Hence the term "burn pile fibre".

The history of the flock that we get our burn pile fibre from includes (but is definitely not limited to) Corriedale, Suffolk, Charollais, Ascott and Dorset. Each sheeps fleece is doing something a little different even in the same flock - some crimpy, some curly, some really straight and fine - a few have lustre, several have hair (we skip those) and absolutely ALL of them are filthy! There is yoking on some, hardened tips on most and enough burrs to pick-out that I could make a set of maracas!

Compared to working with fleece from a fibre flock, yeah, this is a lot more work on the back end. But once it been scoured and carded and spun - it's beautiful wool just the same! Sure, it took a lot more elbow grease to make it presentable, but its still thermostatic / water repelling / flame resistant / anti bacterial / sustainable / living, breathing fibre that has kept us protected for thousands of years!

We love a good before-and-after, hard work, quality fibre and the element of mystery so this wool is right up our alley. It appears in lots of our blends cause its just too good for the burn pile. We hope you have a chance to try it sometime so you can see just how awesome these mutts can be :)