I was fortunate on my recent visit to England to attend Yarnporium at King’s College in London.  This festival is small by American standards; held in The Great Hall, it accommodated 30 vendors and spotlighted 10 indie dyers.  However, it was an educational experience for me, for here I found companies who cared deeply about preserving and promoting British Breeds.  Blacker Yarns from Cornwall has breed-specific yarns:  Blue-faced Leicester (who knew it was so soft?), Gotland, Hebridean/Mohair, Jacob, and Shetland.  One yarn I brought back, Tamar, is 30% Cornish Mule (yes, baby soft mule fibre) blended with the long staple breeds Teeswater, Wensleydale, and Leicester Longwool.  Baa Ram Ewe (aptly named after the Babe lines Baa-ram-ewe, Baa-ram-ewe! To your breed, your fleece, your clan be true! Sheep be true! Baa-ram-eye!) featured their yarn Dovestone.  This luscious yarn from Yorkshire is made of 50% Bluefaced Leicester, 25% Wensleydale Longwool, and 25% Masham.  The merino used in Alpaca Delight from John Arbon Textiles is from the Falkland Islands.  Desiring to keep the wools British, the Falklands offer the dry climate Merino need to thrive.  Britain still doesn’t enjoy the knitting culture that has grown up in America, but these last six years since the Prince of Wales launched the Campaign for Wool, the industry has seen great strides and Yarn in the City’s Yarnporium is one of them.  May they have many more successful events!