On Thursday, March 26th 2025, we started our third and last day of the EWA study tour with a visit to the new owner of the Texelkleed brand that was originally founded by Renske. The rugs are mainly made of Texel wool: the wool is core spun around a cotton thread, and then felted before its woven into very sturdy rugs.
After this interesting visit, we drove to the north of the island. We met the shepherdess Daphne who still had some of her sheep in the dunes for landscape preservation. In all, she has about 150 sheep but in two different flocks. The flock we saw was composed of sober sheep breeds like the Drenthe Heath Sheep, the Heidschnucke, Racka sheep and some Coburger Fuchsschafe that Daphne received as a gift. When asked why she doesn’t use Texel sheep for this, her answer is simply that Texel sheep would not survive on the scarce vegetation because they are such a developed meat breed that needs a lot of nutrients. Furthermore, Texelsheep could not move through the brush and landscape like the heath sheep can. So, for the preservation of the dunes, the sheep’s job is to maintain the grass low and the bushes and trees from growing, so that the rabbits come back and eat the grass (they disappear if the grass is too long). Daphne’s flock has ‘leader goats’ (our visitors from Iceland breed leader sheep at home) that quickly came to her when she called them, sheep following.
The wool is not as soft or uniform as that of the Texel sheep, but you can still spin beautiful yarns from it, which can then be used for gloves or other outer garments. In fact, the designer Natasja Hornby used Daphne’s sheep’s yarn for her mitts design LINK, that you can find on Ravelry. Of course, almost all of us wanted a skein of the yarn. I am going to knit LINK, for sure.
In the afternoon, we splitted up: some of us went to a place where people with special needs can work in a textile workshop, for example. There, they have lots of looms for the weaving of cloths. Others decided to relax at a fancy hotel where they offer a wool bath! This Woolness is offered at the Boutique Hotel Texel and I had to try it, of course. They wrap you up in clean, carded Texel wool, your feet and hand get creamed with Noordkroon Cream and then you can relax listening to soft music.
We ended the day at a restaurant close to the sandy beach near Den Hoorn. As all the times before, we really enjoyed each other’s company, exchanged our impressions of the day and the whole trip. The next day would be our departure day and so we felt even a bit sad that this trip was over already. But after a study tour is always before the next! And the next EWA study tour is already planned and coming up soon: from May 16th to 23rd, some of us will meet again in South Wales!
