I am so excited to be part of Meet the Shepherd/ess – Edinburgh Yarn Festival’s new Sunday event. I’m delighted to be part of a small line up of ‘farm to skein’ yarn producers. You can read all about the other exhibitors here, there’s a lovely bunch – some who I know and some who I’m looking forward to meeting for the first time.
Tickets go on sale tonight (wednesday 31st January) at 7pm GMT. It is a relaxed event to wind down EYF 2018, with lots of room to knit and relax. I’ll be ready for lots of chatting about where Black Isle Yarns wool comes from and the fabulous local shepherd/esses who so carefully manage their special flocks. I’ll bring my top-secret new wool, new designs, kits and naturally dyed yarns as well as beautiful nature’s shades.
The event will run from 10am to 2pm, Sunday 18th March at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. I’m really looking forward to seeing lots of you there!
I am delighted to have worked with two new flocks, in addition to ones used previously, for Batch IV. They have very different characteristics, terrain and sheep.
The first new farm is South Muirnich where Glenda and Ian are bringing an old croft back to life. It is a wonderful wild spot to the south of Loch Ness with stunning views to hills and lochs. Along with their Highland ponies Glenda is building a flock of Icelandic sheep. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting this flock, they are a characterful bunch – all somewhat good at escaping, especially Aragorn the tup – and, with their primitive Northern European Short-Tailed ancestry, behave very differently from the Scottish Mules I grew up with.
Icelandic sheep are double-coated with a strong outercoat called the ‘tog’ and a fine undercoat called the ‘thel’ which we have spun in the traditional Icelandic ‘Lopi’ method. Both coats have been worked together in an unspun fibre – which can be a little fragile until knit together when it becomes a very durable, and warm, fabric. Broken ends can be easily joined with a little moisture (otherwise known as spit-splicing!).
The second new flock for Batch IV is Eilean Dubh, a small flock of pedigree Bluefaced Leicester sheep kept and shown by John and Sheena’s children (one of whom is a school-mate of my eldest). They are based near Culbokie on the north side of the Black Isle (Eilean Dubh being the Gaelic for Black Isle). Their beautiful flock of majestic-looking Bluefaced Leicesters produce typically fine, silky and lustrous fleeces. They were my first experience of working with this special wool and I really enjoyed skirting (cleaning) them one warm afternoon this last summer.
Unfortunately John and Sheena have been unable to secure grazing for the future and were very sad to have to disband their flock – but pleased to know that their lovely sheep have found good new homes. I will be working hard in the coming weeks to find more local Bluefaced Leicester wool for future years as it has been a pleasure to work with this beautiful fibre.
John and Juliet from The Border Mill, who once again spun the yarn, very kindly took a wee detour on their holiday to personally deliver the boxes containing this latest batch.
The yarns in this batch (Batch III) come from two local crofts, both of which I have talked about before and you can read more about them here (Fearniewell Croft and Orrinside Flock). I am really enjoying entering my second year of Black Isle Yarns and building relationships with the people whose sheep grow such glorious wool – visiting the same flocks at different times of year, seeing lambs grow and anticipating their fleece being available at the next clip is very rewarding.
Once again Jane’s very eclectic Orrinside Flock has produced some special fleeces. Batch III includes two new yarns from this summer’s clip (and there’s more to come in Batch IV). Jane has been really enthusiastic about seeing her flock’s wool turned into yarn and I think this is influencing her choices when she’s thinking about buying new stock. Earlier this year I had an excited message telling me that she had bought a couple of Cotswold ewes and a Wensleydale tup………..and, now, here is their wool spun up as yarn!
The first yarn is a beautiful longwool blend of 2/3 Cotswold and 1/3 Wensleydale – it is drapey, lustrous and has a wonderful halo (and is approximately 4 ply). I have really been enjoying dyeing with it – the colours are stunning!
The next yarn is a real mix and will have to be referred to as Cross-breed Blend for simplicity. It is a blend of three cross-breed ewe fleeces – Bluefaced Leicester and Cheviot, Lincoln and Cheviot, and Lincoln and Hampshire. The fleeces were all lovely and I felt they would blend well together – the resulting yarn picks up drape and sheen from the longwool ancestry, softness from the Hampshire genes and a bounce and lightness from the Cheviot influence. It is approximately DK weight and is going to be so good to knit with.
Dan and Rachel of Fearniewell Croft were the first people I contacted about buying wool last year. They have a lovely Gotland-ish flock (‘ish’ because have some Shetland genes and aren’t quite pure Gotland). I have been eagerly anticipating this year’s clip and I am delighted that I was able to select a few more fleeces this year, so there’s a bit more Gotland-ish available this time round. I haven’t yet wound any of it off the cones as there will be a special colour-work pattern coming soon, developed especially for this yarn. I don’t want to start winding skeins until I know how much of each shade will be required by the pattern, but it won’t all go into kits so there will also be the usual 100g skeins for your own projects.
I really want to make sure that a good amount of Batch III is available online for those that can’t make it to the shows I’ll be attending this autumn………I suspect they will be snapped up pretty quickly when seen in person. I have naturally dyed a fair amount both the Longwool and Cross-breed Blends this week and am planning to have them ready in the shop by tomorrow evening at 7pm (Friday 29 September 7pm UK time). There won’t be much chance for previewing this time I’m afraid – they’re still hanging out on the line drying at the moment so I won’t be be photographing and listing in the shop until tomorrow! I’m hoping for another shop update later in October.
I snaffled one of the Longwool Blend skeins to knit a Lode Shawl (pattern by Clare Devine). I’m only in the early stages but am loving knitting with the wool and thoroughly enjoying the pattern.
Thank you so much for your support for the naturally dyed Cheviot which went into the shop at the beginning of this month – it nearly all sold within 24 hours! I really can’t tell you how much I appreciate your interest in Black Isle Yarns.
The beautiful, cosy and stylish Comfort Shawl was designed by Sarah Hazell. Sarah is a very talented (and lovely too) designer with a vast amount of experience. So when she suggested working with my yarn I was bowled over and followed up her offer pretty quickly!
After swatching with Batch Number 2’s Shetland, Shetland~Cheviot Blend and Cheviot, Sarah decided that she’d like to work with the Shetland~Cheviot Blend. This blend brings out the best of the two different wool characteristics; it gains softness and a slight lustre from the Shetland plus strength and bounce from the Cheviot (the other yarns are lovely too, of course, each with their own special characteristics!).
I knew that Sarah had a textured shawl in mind and although I did see a couple of in-progress sneak peaks I wasn’t prepared for how lovely this shawl would be. It is simple yet detailed, soft and cosy yet striking – I can’t believe how lucky I am to have had such magic worked in my yarn!
The Comfort Shawl is completely reversible and is an easy meditative knit. It is a long and shallow design which is cast on from the top edge and decreases each row……….very rewarding as the knitting speeds up the further you go on!
The Comfort Shawl is beautifully sized for wrapping cosily around your neck or can be worn in a more draped fashion for a bold and dramatic effect. The shawl measures around 200cm (79 in) along the top edge and is approximately 55cm (22 in) deep excluding the tassels.
It uses 330g of Black Isle Yarns Shetland~Cheviot Blend, beautifully semi-worsted spun at DK weight by The Border Mill. Each kit will include 360g of yarn plus a paper copy of the pattern. Kits will go on sale tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 7pm UK time.
There’s only a few kits left, if you’d like to snap one up before they are all gone you can find them here.
As you probably know by now I really love designing and sewing quilts. I’m very lucky that Love Patchwork and Quilting Magazine often publish them too – my latest submission was the All Around Arrows Quilt. I had such fun making this one………but still haven’t decided which child it should be given to!
All Around Arrows Quilt
It is made up of simple quilt blocks combined to create a variety of arrow shapes which chase each other around the quilt.
The striking Eathie Shawl was designed by my friend Emily Williams. Designed especially for the limited supplies of yarn from Horse, Frankenstein and Monkey Face the pattern only needs 60g of each beautiful natural shade (Double Cream, Rugged Grey and Hazy Charcoal) – but because of the lace design it makes a generously sized shawl (around 170cm by 70cm). The lace itself is simple and relaxing knitting requiring only increases, decreases and yarn overs. The yarn has been spun beautifully by The Border Mill and is approximately 4ply/fingering weight at 300m/100g. It has a lovely soft natural lustre and blooms beautifully with it’s first wash.
The limited supplies of Horse, Frankenstein and Monkey Face were sold as kits along with a copy of the shawl pattern – and they were all snapped up within 24 hours! However you can still knit your own in another yarn – visit Emily’s Ravelry page to buy a copy.
Keep an eye out too, as I have plans afoot for the pattern to be adapted for use with DK weight yarn and I will of course have more 4ply/fingering in the future. While the design was created for this special limited edition yarn it will look stunning in other yarns, both dyed and undyed.
Hello and Happy Spring (although it’s rather cold here in the Highlands!)
Last post I introduced the yarns in my new batch, Spring 2017, and promised I’d be back to share information and photos of the farms and sheep that grew the wool. It has taken a while to get round all three farms – they’re busy people – but I’m so pleased that I can now tell you more about where the wool comes from.
I’ve been working with my very talented friend Emily Williams to bring you a shawl pattern designed exclusively for three yarns from Orrinside Flock. The release, of the yarns and pattern, is likely to be next Thursday 4th May. I’ll be notifying the date and time of the yarn release by newsletter (sign up on my homepage) and then also on Instagram. I’ll share a couple of sneak peeks below!
I loved working with the two women and flocks who produced the wool that went into my ‘scary fine’ Shetland yarn. ‘Meadows Flock’
Sally is the wonderful woman behind Meadows Flock. From the first moment I contacted her (as the Highland Rep of the Shetland Sheep Society) she has been entirely enthusiastic, helpful and positive about my plans for Black Isle Yarns. She has been keeping Shetlands for many years and I suspect has ‘enabled’ a great many other small flocks in the Highlands. Sally rents a variety of small fields on the edge of the beautiful old town of Dornoch and her sheep are the friendliest I’ve ever come across. On the day we’d arranged for me to visit and photograph the flock unfortunately Sally had to go to a funeral, but she left out a bucket of feed and instructed me to call ‘sheep’ as I arrived………..and lo and behold I had a very willing set of models (including Fudgie the pony!).
Meadows Flock
‘Helendale Shetlands’
Janet is a fairly new smallholder who Sally introduced me to. She lives inland from Dornoch in the stunning Kyle of Sutherland, on the edge of some very wild land indeed. Again Janet couldn’t have been more helpful (as well as making delicious coffee!) – I’m so enjoying meeting these lovely people with a passion for their sheep and an interest in what happens to their wool. Her flock were a little more wary of me as a stranger but were clearly very comfortable with Janet……….Janet has adopted Sally’s ‘sheep’ call and they all came running at the sound of her voice, pausing and slowing down once they spotted me.
Helendale Shetlands
‘Highland Shetlands’
The fleeces I bought from the Meadows and Helendale sheep were nearly all coloured and I felt that the yarn options would be enhanced with some white wool. I wasn’t able to source any white Shetland fleeces directly from breeders so decided to approach my local Wool Marketing Board at Evanton. I went with an open mind, not sure whether I’d come home with any wool, but the visit was fascinating and I did pick out several beautiful, high quality white fleeces.
The Evanton depot’s collection range is entirely Highland so although I don’t know the individual farm(s) I do know they’re all local to me. I also know, because of the quality of the fleeces, that the sheep must have been well managed and cared for…………sheep in poor health develop a break in their fleece and will shed parts or all of their wool. The knowledge and skill of the people who work at the Wool Board was very impressive. Rather than have them pick out fleeces for me I decided to try selecting by myself first and then get their feedback. I was pleased that 5 of the 6 fleeces I selected passed muster as being the best quality – the fifth was pretty good too but we did find a better one with a bit more searching.
If anyone can point me in the direction of a breeder who has white Shetlands in the Highlands I’d be delighted – I’m still looking but have had no success so far. Ideally I’d prefer to work directly with sheep owners so they get a good return for the fleeces and so I can build a relationship with them and tell the story behind their wool.
The remaining wool came from one, very eclectic, flock. ‘Orrinside Flock’
Jane is someone who is passionate about livestock and the land – not only does she work in a farm advisory role but she has a huge range of animals on her smallholding, including some very lovely sheep. Her land is on the edge of the Black Isle, not far from Beauly, and has beautiful views inland to Glen Affric and Cannich – a very lovely area with hill after hill on the horizon.
Her core flock consists of North Country Cheviots which are the main sheep around here. They’re not generally thought to have particularly exciting wool and it is often written off as being fit for carpets only. This is most definitely not the case with the fleeces I chose from Jane’s flock!
Alongside her Cheviots Jane has some really special mixed breed ewes. You can tell from their names how much she loves and enjoys them! The three ewes whose beautiful wool I picked out are Horse (Bluefaced Leicester-Cotswold cross), Monkey Face (possibly Gotland-Hebridean cross) and Frankenstein (Bluefaced Leicester-Cotswold-Cheviot cross) – shown left to right respectively (although Horse, as an old lady who wasn’t at all willing to cooperate, has a stand-in by way of her daughter aptly named ‘Horse’s Daughter’!). The three yarns from these lovely ladies are the ones that will be released next week – see below for some first glimpses of Emily’s fabulous shawl design.
Orrinside Flock – Horse’s Daughter, Monkey Face and Frankenstein
Since I first met Jane last autumn she has bought a couple of Cotswold ewes and a Wensleydale tup – and sent me an excited text to tell me about them! I’m very much looking forward to some more lovely cross breed fleeces in the years to come.
I hope you enjoyed that wee glimpse of where the yarn comes from. Here’s a couple of Emily’s photos of the Eathie Shawl in progress. Yarns from, left to right in both photos, Monkey Face, Frankenstein and Horse.
Hello and happy March – my goodness time does seem to be flying by!
I’m so pleased to let you know that the second batch of Black Isle Yarns is ready (I think it will be referred to as Spring 2017). I picked it up from Juliet and John of The Border Mill in Edinburgh last Thursday when they very kindly took a break from setting up their Edinburgh Yarn Fest stand to handover and chat about this latest batch (and plans for the next).
I’ve been looking forward to seeing these yarns for what feels like such a long time now. The first fleeces were bought, and carefully stashed in our gardening shed, at the end of last summer. And gradually, over the autumn months, more and more fleeces were added until I delivered a load down to Juliet and John in early January. We had a planning phone call in mid February, to work out the specific yarns weights and blends, and they worked at high speed to have the yarn ready so they could bring it all up to Edinburgh for me last week.
I’ll introduce the farms, and sheep, who kindly grew the fleeces in another newsletter and keep this as an introduction to the yarns themselves – otherwise this will turn into a not-so-small novel.
Very sadly the mill was unable to cope with the Ryeland fleeces which I talked about last autumn – their staple length is just too short for the particular set-up that The Border Mill has. Perhaps at some future date I’ll be able to work with their beautiful fleece, but for now that plan is on hold.
Shetland Cheviot Blend from Spring 2017 Batch heading to the dye pot this morning I posted this photo on Instagram a few days ago – do you use Instagram? I really enjoy it as a way to connect with lots of other like-minded people. I post quite regularly so it is a good way to keep up with what I’m up to. If you click the photo you’ll open up my account – have a wee look, there’s usually lots of lovely Black Isle and Highland scenery as well as my latest wool and craft snippets.
The first set of yarns is some absolutely gorgeous Shetland in a range of natural colours and white. The coloured fleeces in particular were extremely soft – to the extent that they were dubbed as ‘scary fine’ by Juliet. They posed a real challenge to the mill and weren’t able to go through the separator (which helps remove bits of vegetation and dirt) as it would have shredded the fine fibres, so they have been washed and tumbled multiple times instead. All the extra effort and care has been very worthwhile as the yarn is beautiful. I’m very grateful to the mill for adapting their process and treating each set of fleeces in the best way possible.
Three different yarns have been spun all at approx Light DK weight. The first is a beautiful barberpole variegated with three plies one each of charcoal, fawn and white. The second is a heathered grey and finally there is a simple natural white. All three will work well together and all should take dye beautifully too.
The next set of fleeces came from a lovely small farm with a very eclectic flock. As well as some very high quality cheviot (which I’ll talk about below) I picked out some special, rather unique, fleeces. Needles to say there’s only fairly small quantities of each of these yarns. They have been spun at an approx 2-ply weight.
Monkeyface is rather uncertain of her origin, she looks somewhat Hebridean but her fleece doesn’t bear too much resemblance to that fairly hardy fleece type, instead it is soft and lustrous with a lot of character (and the occasional Hebridean-like guard hair). Now that I have seen it spun I wonder if she may be a Heb-Gotland cross with a fleece that takes after her Gotland ancestry. The resulting yarn is a very dark charcoal black with just a hint of brown.
Frankenstein has a multi-coloured fleece which perhaps reflects her muli-breed background of Bluefaced Leicester-Cotswold-Cheviot. The spun wool is a warm grey/brown and, though not quite so soft, has a gentle lustre.
The final ewe doesn’t have her own name, poor thing, but is a Blueface Leicester-Cotswold cross and her fleece has made a lovely soft, lustrous white yarn.
Again, all three yarns will work together and I think would make a superb shawl.
The Cheviot fleeces have been spun as two different yarns, both at Light DK weight so that they can be combined with the Shetland yarns.
The only blend in this time is a 50:50% mix of Shetland~Cheviot. I have some mordanting in the dye pot at the moment and I think it is going to dye beautifully. The blend retains much of the softness of the Shetland but gains from the strength of the Cheviot. It should be a very adaptable yarn.
And finally, the last yarn for Spring 2017 is pure Cheviot. John and Juliet were very complimentary about the quality of the Cheviot fleeces which I think must reflect on excellent husbandry from Jane – who I’ll introduce next time!
I’ve just had a lovely weekend at Dornoch Fibre Fest and thoroighly enjoyed meeting lots of fantastic woolly people! Now that I’m back from the show I’ll settle down and work out my plans for releasing this batch. I am hoping to work with a couple of designers to develop a pattern or two written specifically for these yarns, which may mean that not all are going to be available on-line straight-away. They will get there eventually but there may be a slight delay while the designers work their magic……….but, of course, I’ll let you know what is happening and will ensure first notice will come out by newsletter (do join if you aren’t already, there’s a wee box on my homepage). I’ll be back before long to introduce the sheep and farms who grew this latest lot of wool.
I’ve been very remiss in not posting these mittens sooner. My lovely Auntie Lorna knit a beautiful pair of Gingersnap Mittens (a free pattern by Prairiesque) as a sample for me. She’s very kind! Auntie Lorna adapted the pattern significantly, changing it to two 3×3 cables and reducing the size considerably. Much as I’d love to wear them – they’re so cosy and should be very hard-wearing (not to mention pretty in the yarn’s marled Coal Grey colour)- I’m going to keep them aside as samples for taking along to shows etc.
Hello and a very (belated) Happy New Year! I do hope 2017 is a wonderful one for you. Mine, so far, has been very busy and very exciting…….I guess that counts as a pretty good start!
I’m a little nervous to tell you this (but really there was no point in having done it if I don’t) – I am on the latest Knit British podcast, out this morning! I feel incredibly honoured to have been interviewed by Louise especially since it is her wonderful work in promoting British wool that sowed the seeds of my idea for Black Isle Yarns. I have no idea if I’ll sound daft or make any sense but hopefully there’ll be some chat about how I came to be making yarns that is of interest – and Louise is always fabulous to listen to. I believe there’s going to be an interview with Joy, The Knitting Goddess, too. She has been doing some wonderful work in producing local wool for her dye pot.
I have a small shop update going live tonight too (Friday 27th January at 7.30pm UK time) – there’s several mini skein gradient sets in 5 shades of indigo. I really enjoyed bundling up the sets with one mini skein of each shade (100g in total). I can’t wait to see what you use them for!
I also overdyed skeins which had been previously dyed with madder and cutch. The resulting colour is a stunning warm steely grey with splashes of cochineal pink. I will have a hard time parting with these and am sure there will be more along the same lines in future.
The final bit of news I wanted to share is that I dropped off the next load of fleeces at The Border Mill earlier this month. I was down in Edinburgh anyhow, not far from Duns where the mill is based, so took the opportunity to deliver the fleeces at the same time. They won’t be looked at for another couple of weeks yet but I much prefer to keep the carbon miles as low as possible.
I have some exciting plans for this batch. My plans and the final outcome will be reconsidered once John and Juliet have had a chance to wash and sort the fleece – at that stage we can have a really good chat about what will suit each grouping of fleeces best. I’ll keep you updated as things progress though I may not reveal the final plans for a while yet. All is still on track to be available by mid-March.
If you’re keen to be the first to know about future shop updates and other news do join my newsletter (find it at the bottom of the home page – here) – I sent one out last night and plan to always do so before new batches go live. I keep my instagram feed fairly up-to-date too and love hearing from and interacting with people over there……if you fancy some more behind the scenes information and photos that’s probably the best place to head. I do like to share photos of the beautiful Scottish Highlands as well as my crafty endeavours!
