Yarn and Fleece products
All our fleece and yarn products come from our own micro flocks of sheep, and is traceable to the individual it was sheared from. Most of our yarn processed for sale is hand washed in Ecover washing powder, thoroughly rinsed, dried and sent to Griffiths Mill, Sudbury to be turned into 4ply, Dk or chunky yarn.
Karen and Dave at the mill are willing to deal with small fibre producers.. which enables me to send batches of Jacob fleece and have it spun as grey yarn.. or send two sacks of brown and white Jacob fleece separated, which they then spin separately and ply together giving us a lovely candy striped yarn.
I can also bulk together the most similar of my home bred white crossed fleeces to be spun as naturally creamy unbleached yarn.
Some of this I permenantly dye in food grade dyes (Koolaid) as we are on a septic tank - meaning I have to avoid the common chemical mordants used to fix other dyes.
I did send a batch of our fleece to be processed at the local North Ronaldsay wool mill. They were really helpful, however they are set up to deal with the North Ronaldsay (rare breed) sheeps fleece which has way more kemp and a shorter staple length than my girls fleece. Unfortunately the yarn I recieved back had a few too many tangles to be saleable - I was sad not to be able to use the local mill, but happy to deal with the ever helpful and friendly Karen and Dave. So I reverted to using Griffiths Mill.
Some of our fleece is carded using a borrowed drum carder and I either spin it myself for use for my own knitting or sell it in 100g bags as felting batt or for spinners who wish to avoid the preparation of the fleece. This is mainly sold locally through the Shapinsay Craft shop and For Arts Sake (Bridge st) in Kirkwall.
