Natural Wools Makeover
Jonathan & Denise >
Facebook keeps telling us that It’s been a while since we’ve posted about The Hebridean Woolshed. There’s xxxx people waiting to hear from us, apparently. Well, some of those seem to be so anxious to hear from us that they decided to visit the Woolshed in person (here in South Uist, that is) : that would explain why this season has got off to an unprecedented, busy start. We’ve been working day and night (well, okay, into the evenings) trying to keep up!
The problem is that people keep buying what we have on the shelves – and just replacing what we’ve sold takes up so much time, never mind making anything new! We’re brimming with ideas we want to experiment with, develop into new items for sale, and new ways of presenting what we make, but it’s difficult to find the time for continuity of thought and simply time enough to make progress. We really would like to!
One thing that has – at long last! – come to fruition, is some new variations on the theme of Natural Wools – that is, undyed naturally coloured wool from our own Hebridean sheep, and from our neighbours’ Cheviot sheep.
Today, several months after we sent the sorted, graded fleece off to the micro-mill for processing, the postie delivered several boxes of our new Beinn Sgiathan 3-ply Aran wool yarn. We were very excited to unpack the wools; but also a somewhat anxious as to what we would find. It’s the first time we’ve specified a blend of two different wools ; we had to overcome our worry that the result would have neither the character and warmth of the Hebridean, nor the simplicity and light of the Cheviot – but would prove to be bland and boring.
But, as we opened up the first box, we couldn’t help burst out with exclamations of delight. The yarn we’ve created is, if anything, more than the sum of its parts. It’s a yarn that’s rocks tumbling down the scree-strewn north face of Beinn Sgiathan in Eriskay (we’ve named this new yarn after the hill), boulders speckled with lichens ; it’s wind-torn seas, it’s scudding storm clouds, the high walls of our historic kitchen garden.
Another innovation (well, for us) is to have some of the wool from our Hebridean ewes and rams returned to us as Roving – taken from the process that immediately precedes the spinning itself. This means we can now offer hand-spinners and craft felters the chance to buy selected quality wool from our own An GĂ rradh Mòr flock of Hebridean sheep – but in a form that is highly convenient and increasingly popular amongst spinners and others.
These changes have led us to revise or reorganize some pages of this website, and we’ve taken the opportunity to re-energize the content with new pictures. The main change is that Hebridean and Cheviot pages have now been combined into a new page Natural Wools.
So, off you go, explore! Your feedback would be very welcome.
English
Basque
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Scottish Gaelic
Spanish
Welsh
Fantastic! 🙂 🙂 It’s pretty soggy here this morning. Hope it’s better up there.
Proper Hebridean summer, at last!
It’s so nice to hear that you’re busy and your items are popular! The wool is gorgeous–I love the description you give of it–it’s a yarn born of a specific place! I kind of wish I knew how to knit . . .
J > Years ago, Denise taught me to knit: my first project was a pair of mittens for our 3-yr old Rebecca. An ambitious project – what was Denise thinking!? Nonetheless, the left mitten was completed successfully. “Well done!” said Denise: now you can make the right mitt – it’s just the same. So I did. Poor Becky has had problems with her right thumb ever since. ;~)
Your stuff is gorgeous! No wonder it keeps selling out!
I’m so glad things are going well with so many possibilities ahead.
Have bookmarked the page ready for the autumn when I get my knitting needles out. Just need to find a pattern. It looks gorgeous.
D > By midnight last night we’d already sold 20% of the rovings to customers – all ouwith the UK, so involving International postage. This morning we’d just set up the new display in the ‘real world’ garden shop, went into the house for a coffee – and 10mins later a couple who went into the shop as we left it came down to the house with 14 balls of Beinn Sgiathato buy – saying how lovely it is. Wow! Turns out he’s the knitter, and the wool will be made into a sweater for her. Now that’s a morning to remember.
What a great idea to sell the wool as rovings for people to spin themselves. How exciting! It all looks so beautiful!
Yarn looks lovely! I will try and figure out how to order before it is all gone!
Beautiful!
What a wonderful post! Glad the blend worked out. Never heard of Roving – intrigued!
Love your yarns and fiber! The Cheviot/Hebridean yarn is gorgeous!
I tried to order 300 g of Hebridean roving and can’t get the Add to Cart button to work. Help!
J > IT Department called out! ;~)
J > That’s fixed now. I’ve sent an email to you with more information. Thanks for your interest – and the earliest response we’ve ever received to a new post or page!
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