Monkeyface and Friends
Monkeyface and Friends
Monkeyface and Friends
Monkeyface and Friends
Monkeyface & Co (2020&21 fleeces ), Monkeyface and Friends (2022&23 fleeces), Fraoch (2022 fleeces)

Monkeyface and Friends 4ply

£24.50

Fibre: Monkeyface & Co (cross breeds, mostly Wensleydale cross) 30%, Bluefaced Leicester 25% and Gotland 45%

Farm: Culgowrie Flock, Craiglands and Wester Braelangwell

Clipping Year: 2022 and 2023

Weight: 4ply/Fingering

Meterage: 335m/100g

Suggested Needles: 2.5 -4.5mm

Sold in 100g Skeins

9 in stock

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Monkeyface and Friends originates from three flocks and is a limited edition batch spun with some especially lovely fleeces – Monkeyface and the Stinker Sisters plus additional Wensleydale/Wensleydale Cross from Culgowrie, Bluefaced Leicester from Craiglands and Gotland from Wester Braelangwell.

Jane’s Culgowrie flock is eclectic but lovely and I have had Culgowrie yarn spun since the beginning of Black Isle Yarns. There have been several batches of Monkeyface & Co, with fleeces from Monkeyface and her two daughters – Stinker and Stinker Sister. Monkeyface herself is of uncertain origin, I think possibly Gotland with a northern European short-tail sheep breed, perhaps Shetland or Hebridean. Either way her fleece is delicious and her daughters’ fleeces are very special (their dad was a Wensleydale tup).

Craiglands is a big farm with several breeds of sheep and for Monkeyface and Friends I picked out the best of their Bluefaced Leicester. Wester Braelangwell is a small-holding style farm and has a beautiful flock of Gotland, the best of their fleeces were kept aside especially for this batch of yarn.

I wasn’t quite sure what shade this yarn would be, given the mix of natural fleece colours included – rich browns from the Culgowrie flock, white BFL from Craiglands and a mix of greys from Wester Braelangwell’s Gotlands. I am delighted with the end result which is a heathered grey with a hint of warm brown. To me it looks like the prettiest tree bark you could possibly imagine (I am a bit of a tree fan!).

The resulting yarn, spun beautifully by The Border Mill, is approx 335m/100g. It is quite a dense, two plied yarn, which will be a little more fine than most other yarns of the same m/100g. Monkeyface and Friends is silky, drapey, slightly lustrous and a beautiful heathered warm grey.

I have included a photo of 2022’s Monkeyface & Co batch plus 2022’s Fraoch along with Monkeyface and Friends as, if you have either or both of those previous yarns, I think they might work well together. I’m afraid I haven’t kept any earlier Monkeyface & Co batches for comparison. The yarn details for those two yarns, both also two plied and spun by The Border Mill, are:

Monkeyface & Co, Monkeyface and Monkeyface x Wensleydale fleeces from Culgowrie, 2022 release (2020 & 21 fleeces), 335m/100g

Fraoch, 75% Shetland fleeces from Craiglands and 25% Gotland/Gotlandish fleeces from Fearniewell and Fraoch Cottage, 2022 release (2022 fleeces), 320m/100g

 

 

 

Clipping year: 2022 and 2023 | Weight: 4ply/Fingering | Rec. Needles: 2.5-4.5mm

Warm Heather Grey

Monkeyface & Co 30%, BFL 25%, Gotland 45%

Farm:
Culgowrie Flock, Craiglands and Wester Braelangwell

Metres per 100g:
335/100g

  1. Black Isle Yarns are gently and minimally processed by The Border Mill from real animals who enjoy an outdoor life (in beautiful surroundings, lucky beasts!) – consequently you may find the odd bit of vegetation in your yarn, these are easy to remove as you knit and, if you’re lucky enough to find some, I hope will remind you of the special animals who have grown your yarn!
  2. I do my best to show the yarn colours as accurately as possible but please be aware that colours do vary from monitor to monitor.
  4. Your yarn should be gently hand washed in cool water using pH neutral wool wash such as Eucalan or Soak. This may seem time consuming at first but should soon become an enjoyable part of working with a gently treated natural product.
  5. All my dyed colours have been thoroughly washed and rinsed however there may be a slight release of residual colour on washing – this shouldn’t change the overall yarn colour or alter other colours.

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