Christine Jordan was on the hunt for something to help clean up a one-acre site around her home in Co Carlow. Little did she realise that by getting two Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep to keep down the grass, it would change the direction of her life.
After years as a kitchen design specialist, running a cookery school and working in the organic food sector, it started a whole new love affair with sheep and wool. This, in turn, led to a new chapter as a regenerative farmer for Christine in her 50s.
“Getting those sheep has been transformative on so many fronts for us here,” she says from her Rough Circle craft studio, where she now produces felted wool homeware and holds educational workshops for the public.
Left with fleeces after shearing the initial two Valais lambs, Christine was determined to use the “extraordinary wool” with “long, white curly ringlets” which changes colour on the sheep every year to make something practical and beautiful.
What was pivotal, she says, was taking research trips to the Netherlands and the UK, where there is a lot of innovative work with wool happening. From there she investigated making raw fleece rugs “where you don’t use animal skin; you are recreating a skin on the back of the fleece with wool by the felting process”.
“I use the fleeces in a very simple way to produce what look like sheepskin rugs, but there is no animal skin. I combine the wool with recycled leather and linen to make practical but beautiful homewares that herald the beauty of the wool,” adds Christine.
Raw fleece felting involves minimum intervention – the wool is undyed, washed only just to remove grit and soil before rolling and pressing the fibres together.
Christine Jordan pictured with one of her adorable Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep.
\Claire Nash
“They are full of texture, and they look as close as possible to what they were like on the sheep outside [on the day before shearing],” she adds, showing off some of her beautiful rugs, cushions and woven tuffets [seat covers] which have a rustic, cosy look.
Circular nature
While the name of the studio is a nod to the circuitous route to where she has found herself after initially studying textiles and millinery in college, it also refers to a circular island nearby and the circular business Christine has created in the Barrow Valley, between Bagenalstown and Leighlinbridge.
Her enthusiasm is infectious, and she laughs that she is like an “unstoppable train” when talking about how much she enjoys caring for her now 68-strong flock, the majority of which are purebred Herdwicks on 15 acres.
Technically a mountain breed, she says they are thriving here on a forage-only diet and are fantastic for any smallholders or anyone with marginal land or, indeed, anyone who wants them to run alongside a faster turnover commercial breed.
“Underknown in Ireland”, the Herdwicks are ideal for her to manage without help because they are smaller than the more commercial breeds, only growing to about 50kg in 12-14 months.
Lambing was “utterly effortless” in April. This is due in part to the good weather, and she believes her decision to shear the sheep down to 1cm wool in March, several months earlier than usual. It’s something she learnt from visiting Fernhill Farm, a fibre farm in Somerset with 3,000 sheep.
The so-called primitive breeds have been a “real eye-opener” for Christine and her husband Jim, whose smallholding was certified organic earlier this year.
“Jim came from a commercial sheep farm, and he had negative memories of the hardship.
“With this breed, he cannot believe how clever they are – they are low input, low maintenance, healthy and easy to lamb. We don’t have much health issues with them.”
“It’s just a different way of sheep farming, and they produce really good meat, but it is longer [than the commercial breeds], which are bred to grow fast [for meat].”
During that extra time, Christine explains that the sheep are benefiting the land with their grazing patterns. They move the sheep regularly, never letting them eat down the grass to the end and ensuring no soil becomes exposed.
Christine Jordan pictured holding one of her beautiful felted wool cushions and her cat. \Claire Nash
This has resulted in a lot of wildflowers, plants and grasses coming back naturally. Indeed, Christine counted 10 different grasses outside her back door recently that were not there previously. The couple has also fenced several acres of a floodplain as a nature reserve.
With no prior agricultural experience, Christine is quick to acknowledge that this type of farming has come at the right time with her children raised and educated. She doesn’t have to run it as productively or commercially to generate income as she would have earlier in her life.
Nonetheless, she is surprised by the income opportunities from the workshops. The felted raw wool products are attractive to consumers who are interested in their affordability in comparison to other wool products.
“When people come for workshops, they learn the whole process of sheep to fibre, how wool is grown, how it is harvested, how it can be used,” explains Christine. Upcoming workshops include a day of felting, wool-lampshade making, a day of weaving and another entitled ‘From Sheep to Fibre: A Day of Wool’.
“I have farming women saying to me: ‘I see the wool dumped in the shed every year; I want to do something with it,’” she says. “Felting is a much more accessible activity to do with wool. You don’t need any special equipment – you just need a bit of knowledge,” she says, adding that a rug could be made in a few hours.
During the workshops Christine also starts a conversation about another topic that she is fiercely passionate about. “I get tired of wool being seen as a problem because it is unbelievably useful in so many ways, in so many capacities. It’s hugely beneficial in the horticultural world as a fertiliser and as a mulch.
“In the marine world, wool can be used to trap oil spills; it can be made into ropes very successfully,” she says.
“Wool – which is growing at a constant rate as sheep meat consumption increases globally – needs innovation, engineering, design and creative thinking to stop it being seen as a waste problem.
“The new generation of young farmers, engineers, ag scientists and designers can absolutely solve the ‘wool problem’ by opening new bioeconomic and agricultural activity that works with the environment and not against it,” insists Christine – and she is optimistic this will happen.
Christine Jordan shows off one of her beautiful raw fleece felted rugs using wool from her Swiss Valais Blacknose and Herdwick sheep.\ Claire Nash
If there is only a focus on the high-end yarn work, which uses 5-10% of wool, nothing will change. It’s the other 90% that is the key, she says. “Sheep farmers also need to have that lightbulb going off that connects that potential of the wool [as fertiliser] in the way that coastal farmers understand the benefit of seaweed.”
Christine Jordan was on the hunt for something to help clean up a one-acre site around her home in Co Carlow. Little did she realise that by getting two Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep to keep down the grass, it would change the direction of her life.
After years as a kitchen design specialist, running a cookery school and working in the organic food sector, it started a whole new love affair with sheep and wool. This, in turn, led to a new chapter as a regenerative farmer for Christine in her 50s.
“Getting those sheep has been transformative on so many fronts for us here,” she says from her Rough Circle craft studio, where she now produces felted wool homeware and holds educational workshops for the public.
Left with fleeces after shearing the initial two Valais lambs, Christine was determined to use the “extraordinary wool” with “long, white curly ringlets” which changes colour on the sheep every year to make something practical and beautiful.
What was pivotal, she says, was taking research trips to the Netherlands and the UK, where there is a lot of innovative work with wool happening. From there she investigated making raw fleece rugs “where you don’t use animal skin; you are recreating a skin on the back of the fleece with wool by the felting process”.
“I use the fleeces in a very simple way to produce what look like sheepskin rugs, but there is no animal skin. I combine the wool with recycled leather and linen to make practical but beautiful homewares that herald the beauty of the wool,” adds Christine.
Raw fleece felting involves minimum intervention – the wool is undyed, washed only just to remove grit and soil before rolling and pressing the fibres together.
Christine Jordan pictured with one of her adorable Swiss Valais Blacknose sheep.
\Claire Nash
“They are full of texture, and they look as close as possible to what they were like on the sheep outside [on the day before shearing],” she adds, showing off some of her beautiful rugs, cushions and woven tuffets [seat covers] which have a rustic, cosy look.
Circular nature
While the name of the studio is a nod to the circuitous route to where she has found herself after initially studying textiles and millinery in college, it also refers to a circular island nearby and the circular business Christine has created in the Barrow Valley, between Bagenalstown and Leighlinbridge.
Her enthusiasm is infectious, and she laughs that she is like an “unstoppable train” when talking about how much she enjoys caring for her now 68-strong flock, the majority of which are purebred Herdwicks on 15 acres.
Technically a mountain breed, she says they are thriving here on a forage-only diet and are fantastic for any smallholders or anyone with marginal land or, indeed, anyone who wants them to run alongside a faster turnover commercial breed.
“Underknown in Ireland”, the Herdwicks are ideal for her to manage without help because they are smaller than the more commercial breeds, only growing to about 50kg in 12-14 months.
Lambing was “utterly effortless” in April. This is due in part to the good weather, and she believes her decision to shear the sheep down to 1cm wool in March, several months earlier than usual. It’s something she learnt from visiting Fernhill Farm, a fibre farm in Somerset with 3,000 sheep.
The so-called primitive breeds have been a “real eye-opener” for Christine and her husband Jim, whose smallholding was certified organic earlier this year.
“Jim came from a commercial sheep farm, and he had negative memories of the hardship.
“With this breed, he cannot believe how clever they are – they are low input, low maintenance, healthy and easy to lamb. We don’t have much health issues with them.”
“It’s just a different way of sheep farming, and they produce really good meat, but it is longer [than the commercial breeds], which are bred to grow fast [for meat].”
During that extra time, Christine explains that the sheep are benefiting the land with their grazing patterns. They move the sheep regularly, never letting them eat down the grass to the end and ensuring no soil becomes exposed.
Christine Jordan pictured holding one of her beautiful felted wool cushions and her cat. \Claire Nash
This has resulted in a lot of wildflowers, plants and grasses coming back naturally. Indeed, Christine counted 10 different grasses outside her back door recently that were not there previously. The couple has also fenced several acres of a floodplain as a nature reserve.
With no prior agricultural experience, Christine is quick to acknowledge that this type of farming has come at the right time with her children raised and educated. She doesn’t have to run it as productively or commercially to generate income as she would have earlier in her life.
Nonetheless, she is surprised by the income opportunities from the workshops. The felted raw wool products are attractive to consumers who are interested in their affordability in comparison to other wool products.
“When people come for workshops, they learn the whole process of sheep to fibre, how wool is grown, how it is harvested, how it can be used,” explains Christine. Upcoming workshops include a day of felting, wool-lampshade making, a day of weaving and another entitled ‘From Sheep to Fibre: A Day of Wool’.
“I have farming women saying to me: ‘I see the wool dumped in the shed every year; I want to do something with it,’” she says. “Felting is a much more accessible activity to do with wool. You don’t need any special equipment – you just need a bit of knowledge,” she says, adding that a rug could be made in a few hours.
During the workshops Christine also starts a conversation about another topic that she is fiercely passionate about. “I get tired of wool being seen as a problem because it is unbelievably useful in so many ways, in so many capacities. It’s hugely beneficial in the horticultural world as a fertiliser and as a mulch.
“In the marine world, wool can be used to trap oil spills; it can be made into ropes very successfully,” she says.
“Wool – which is growing at a constant rate as sheep meat consumption increases globally – needs innovation, engineering, design and creative thinking to stop it being seen as a waste problem.
“The new generation of young farmers, engineers, ag scientists and designers can absolutely solve the ‘wool problem’ by opening new bioeconomic and agricultural activity that works with the environment and not against it,” insists Christine – and she is optimistic this will happen.
Christine Jordan shows off one of her beautiful raw fleece felted rugs using wool from her Swiss Valais Blacknose and Herdwick sheep.\ Claire Nash
If there is only a focus on the high-end yarn work, which uses 5-10% of wool, nothing will change. It’s the other 90% that is the key, she says. “Sheep farmers also need to have that lightbulb going off that connects that potential of the wool [as fertiliser] in the way that coastal farmers understand the benefit of seaweed.”
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