• The Blog
  • About Square Sparrow
  • Contact Square Sparrow

Squirrel

Shetland Sheep 1

5 years ago Scotland, Shetland sheep, wool

From Shetland fleece to Shetland shawl: Tufty’s coat of many colours

shetland sheep fleeces lying on the ground

Some of you may remember that last June I posted a short video of HunterGatherer, using old-fashioned hand clippers to shear Tufty’s gorgeous Shetland fleece. Well, the stunning fleece which appeared in that self-same video has been on a rather exciting journey since the day it left The Sparrowholding later that summer in the car boot of a friend of a friend, who just so happens to be a keen spinner and knitter.

Shetland fleece still on sheep - she is sitting with one of her twin lambs standing on her back.

As you’ll see from the (many!) photos in this blog post charting the fleece’s progress after leaving us, it was first washed to remove any grubbiness (not that our lovely sheep are particularly unhygienic, you understand, but paddock life isn’t immaculate either!).

 Tufty looks a gorgeous milk chocolatey brown colour if you see her in the field, but while being washed and spun, her wool seemed to change hue slightly and in some of the photos K. kindly took, it looks almost grey.

After Tufty’s coat of many colours had been washed and allowed to dry, K. (the ‘spinning lady’) discovered that the fleece was so beautifully fine that she didn’t actually need to card (or ‘comb it out’ to you and me) it and she was able to start spinning it into yarn straight away.

Once K. had spun sufficient yarn for her intended purpose – a shawl – she got out her trusty knitting needles and began to create the gorgeous Shetland shawl which you’ll see in the photos below. HunterGatherer and I were so excited to see the end result. Doesn’t it look fab? Now who wouldn’t want to cosy up in that soft sumptuous woolliness on a chilly evening?

 

 

The 'spinning lady' spun the yarn and created the shawl with the intention of exhibiting it at the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston near Edinburgh in the summer of 2018. I’ve certainly got the date writ large in my diary and the plan is for HunterGatherer and me to go along and admire it if it is indeed one of the exhibits in the WRI tent. I might even take a photo of it home with me to show the lovely Tufty and her cheeky twins! The process that transforms it from a fluffy fleece to a finely spun yarn is slow and labour-intensive.

However, the end result is absolutely amazing, and perhaps one day either HunterGatherer or I will have to try our hand at spinning so we could create a home-spun yarn here at The Sparrowholding. Time alone will tell...

 

 

 

 

 

Contact

Address: Somewhere in deepest darkest Kinross-shire

Email: info@square-sparrow.com

Name: Square Sparrow

From The Blog
humorous festive blog from Scottish smallholding
Festive bleatings from the Sparrowholding in Scotland
4 years ago

‘Surely it’s not that time of year again?’ I hear you cry – and I can only concur. In the halcyon days (daze?) of my youth, my dear old mum regularly warned me that each year would fly past faster as I aged matured. Only now do I realise that I should have listened to […]

clump of stunning primroses in spring in Scotland
Lambing, tubs and other signs of spring in Scotland
4 years ago

Even by Yours Truly’s intermittent blogging standards, it’s been rather a long time since my last rural bulletin, so buckle up and hold on tight for a whistle-stop tour of spring in Scotland, as viewed from here at The Sparrowholding. In my defence, one of the reasons for the paucity of posts to date this […]

shetland sheep fleeces lying on the ground
From Shetland fleece to Shetland shawl: Tufty’s coat of many colours
5 years ago

Some of you may remember that last June I posted a short video of HunterGatherer, using old-fashioned hand clippers to shear Tufty’s gorgeous Shetland fleece. Well, the stunning fleece which appeared in that self-same video has been on a rather exciting journey since the day it left The Sparrowholding later that summer in the car […]

Tags
country lifescotlandfarmingfamilylife on a smallholdinglifestylesmallholding in Scotlandsheepfoodshowinghomegrownshetland sheeplambing in Scotlandanimalsgardenagricultural show in ScotlandcountrylifesmallholdingChristmaseating out in ScotlandFifesheep shearing in ScotlandScottish bloggerScottish sheepthe good lifelifestyle bloggercountry bloggersmallholder blogShetland fleecefleeceswoolspinninggardenersmallholding blognature bloggerfruitvegetablescountrysidenaturehorticulturegrown your ownseedscountry lifestylegrowinghorses
Copyright © 2018 Square Sparrow. All Rights Reserved.

Created by Interphase