The Livestock Conservancy identifies breeds of livestock that are in danger of becoming extinct. Currently the Romeldale/CVM breed is classified as Threatened. According to the Livestock Conservancy, breeds classified as Threatened have less than 1,000 registrations per year and less than 5,000 individuals worldwide.
I have been working with this wonderful breed since 2008. I maintain one of the few flocks of Romeldale/CVM sheep in the southeastern U.S. It is a unique situation to work with an endangered breed. Issues taken for granted in other breeds become a major undertaking and expense in a breed with small numbers and few breeders.
Club CVM is a quarterly fiber club. Each club release will be a Romeldale/CVM wool and/or Romeldale/CVM wool blend roving, batts or smidgens (mini batts) from my studio. The Romeldale/CVM wool is from my flock. The fleeces are professionally sheared each spring. I carefully skirt my fleeces and send them to the mill for washing and carding. The wool is returned and I create the final roving, batts or smidgens in my studio. Purchases of this club or any other products from my studio help to support my farm and conservation efforts for this wonderful breed.
The Club CVM boxes (first release) is available in the Wild Hair Studio Etsy shop. The Club boxes are for sale during the month of January. Then I will dye and prepare the fiber. Fiber boxes will ship in March and yarn boxes will ship April.
The first club release contains:
4 oz of Romeldale/CVM roving
2 oz of Romeldale/CVM wool and other luxury add-ins batts
A short news item about my flock/sheep with a photo. It may be a feature about a specific sheep or about the flock as a whole.
*The roving in the photo is the sample I carded for the first club release. It is a natural-colored dark brown, combined with hand-dyed blue and green. The batts will be in a coordinating color scheme.
I am also offering the option to receive this club release as handspun yarn. If you choose the handspun option, there is no choice of yarn weight. I will hand spin the 4 oz of roving and send this as 1 or 2 skeins of 2ply yarn. The 2 oz of batts will be spun and sent as one to two skeins of 2ply yarn. These yarns will not be super bulky, but also not super fine – more of a medium weight.
Wild Hair Studio is a participating fiber supplier for Leicester Longwool wool and Romeldale/CVM wool for the Livestock Conservancy’s Shave ’em to Save ’em Challenge. This Club CVM release has 4 oz of Romeldale/CVM roving and will qualify for the Shave ’em to Save ’em Challenge.