Sheep sampling

I've started making a Deco cardigan, from Scottish pattern designer Kate Davies, and I'll be working on it for a while.  A long while.  The rows for my size are 241 stitches long, and that takes some time to knit.  There's no side seam so I'm working on the back and both fronts all together.  I'm knitting sportweight yarn on a US4 needle.  Had to go up one needle size but I got both stitch and row gauge.  I got gauge on the Toasty Cardigan on the specified needles and it's an English pattern, then I almost got gauge on Deco on the specified needle.  Britons are definitely more uptight in their knitting!

The yarn is one I've been planning to use for a while, it's a CVM/mohair blend sportweight yarn from Winterwind Farm.  CVM stands for California Variegated Mutant, a subtype of the Romeldale sheep (which is a cross of Romney and Rambouillet, developed in the US in the early 1900s).  It's undyed and a nice grey colour, a little unevenly spun but I think this will be a hard-wearing fabric.

The next project after Deco is another large endeavour, the Topiary wrap.  Got the yarn for this in Portland OR earlier this year, Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, a Targhee/Columbia wool blend.  I've used Columbia wool before, in Imperial Stock Ranch yarn, and I wasn't impressed with finding 3 knots in the first half-skein of yarn.  Hopefully Shelter will be better yarn, though I'm expecting some vegetable matter.  I liked the spongy feel of the wool, but not that yarn.

I've also knit with handspun Gotland, Polwarth, Wensleydale, Finn, and Jacob wools, and commercial BFL sock yarn.  The BFL tends to be thinner than regular sock yarn and wears well, though the dye may not last as well as the yarn.  It amazes me how different the sheep breeds are.