All Black Isle Yarns are custom spun with fleeces I hand select from local farms and small holdings. If you’d like to know more, this blog post explains my process from ‘field to skein’ and details all the love and care that goes into each skein. For information on each of the farms follow this link. And have a look here for more information about my natural dye process.
From summer 2019 I’ll be growing Black Isle Yarns with the intention of building a core group of several beautiful yarns, spun in larger quantities, which will be available year-round and supported by a suite of designs. I plan to develop one new yarn (with fleeces handpicked from local flocks as usual) each year and the first should be available from early spring 2020.
I’ll continue to produce most of the well-loved smaller scale yarns I have developed to date, and will no doubt add in other one-off specials as and when I come across beautiful wool I can’t resist!
The list below details the yarns available currently. If you’d like to know when the online shop will be updated please do join my newsletter………and if you have any questions please just ask (I can often put together a custom dye/order)!
| Yarn | Weight | Spin/plies | Breed | Flock | Mill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auchen Sport | 375m/100g | Woollen/2 | Bluefaced Leicester Hogg/Shetland/Cheviot Hogg (40:30:30%) | The Arr/Inverhouse, St Finbarr’s Meadows, Craiglands/Muirton, Coulmore, Culgowrie | New Lanark |
| Coulmore DK | 220m/100g | Worsted/3 | North Country Cheviot Hogg (first clip) | Coulmore | The Natural Fibre Co. |
| Gotland(ish) DK | 200m/100g | Semi-worsted/3 | Gotland (with a hint of Shetland and Charollais) | Fearniewell Croft | The Border Mill |
| Gotland Alpaca DK | 200m/100g | Semi-worsted/3 | Gotland (with a hint of Shetland and Charollais) & Alpaca 50:50% | Fearniewell Croft & British Alpaca | The Border Mill |
| Shetland DK (2017) | 170m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Shetland | Helendale Shetlands, Meadows Flock, Woodside Croft & Bogallan | The Border Mill |
| Shetland DK (2019) | 220m/100g | Worsted/3 | Shetland | Inverhouse, Meadows, Bogallan, Woodside & Craiglands | The Natural Fibre Co. |
| Cross-breed Blend Light DK | 245m/100g | Semi-worsted/3 | Bluefaced Leicester and Cheviot, Lincoln and Cheviot, Lincoln and Hampshire | Culgowrie Flock | The Border Mill |
| Shetland Sport (2017) | 275m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Shetland | Helendale Shetlands, Meadows Flock, Woodside Croft & Bogallan | The Border Mill |
| Shetland Sport/Heavy 4ply (2019) | 350m/100g | Worsted/2 | Shetland | Inverhouse, Meadows, Bogallan, Woodside & Craiglands | The Natural Fibre Co. |
| Coulmore 4ply | 350m/100g | Worsted/2 | North Country Cheviot Hogg (first clip) | Coulmore | The Natural Fibre Co. |
| Monkeyface & Co 4ply | 370m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Monkeyface (possibly Gotland x Shetland) plus Monkeyface’ daughters Stinker and Stinker Sister (Monkeyface x Wensleydale) | Culgowrie Flock | The Border Mill |
| Killen Sock | 270m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Bluefaced Leicester & Mohair 80:20% | Craiglands & Wester Raddery, & SA Mohair | The Border Mill |
| Bluefaced Leicester Suri 4ply | 315m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Bluefaced Leicester & Suri Alpaca 70:30% | Craiglands & Wester Raddery, & British Suri Alpaca | The Border Mill |
| Bluefaced Leicester 4ply | 320 & 375m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Bluefaced Leicester | Craiglands & Wester Raddery | The Border Mill |
| Longwool Blend 4ply | 305m/100g | Semi-worsted/2 | Wensleydale and Cotswold 75:25% | Culgowrie Flock | The Border Mill |