Betty Stikkers

My name is Betty Stikkers and I study wool. I have been doing this for about 30 years. My fascination began to grow when Linda le Grand and I started breeding Shetland sheep in 1994. The variations in wool and colours were endless, and I wanted to know everything about them. When I wrote my first book, “Wool in the Netherlands”, I came to the conclusion that there wasn’t enough information available about what I wanted to know.

So I went looking for the wool types for the book myself and started researching them. That way, I had everything under my own control. After this book, the book ‘Sheep and Wool in Europe’ was published in four languages, and I currently have about 350 different types of wool at home, all of which I have researched and studied. I now also have American, Canadian, Mexican, Australian and New Zealand breeds, as well as breeds from Iran.

I look up information about the breeds in Mason’s World Encyclopedia of Sheep Breeds, and if I have questions about their origins, I contact my friend Dr Hans Lenstra, who is part of the Sheep Hapmap project of the International Sheep Genomics Consortium, which studies the variable components of the sheep genome.

When our sheep developed serious problems with secondary copper deficiency, I started a field study in collaboration with two universities in the UK and Sweden and came to the conclusion that this also had a major impact on the quality and colour of the wool.

Actually, we are conducting research into the insulation values of wool, which is also very fascinating. I receive wool sent to me spontaneously from all over the world, and all of it is measured and examined for felting and spinning qualities.