Jonathan & Denise >

We’re Open! And we’ve a new look, too!

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This year, the stock in our shop is hand made to an even greater degree than previously. Scarves, for example : they’ve always been hand-woven (by Denise), of course, but now more of them are woven with hand-spun yarn, rather than mill-spun ; and there’s more of such yarns that are hand-coloured with plant-based dyes.

The Hebridean Woolshed : Post-lockdown reopening 5th July 2020

The Hebridean Woolshed : Post-lockdown reopening 5th July 2020

More of our hand-knitted hats are made with millspun yarns made with wool from our hands-on home-reared sheep, there are now far fewer made with bought-in millspun yarns. We’ve made new wall display units that show the skeins of yarn to better advantage

The coronavirus lockdown started just before we were going to open the Hebridean Woolshed’s ‘walled garden shop’ for the 2020 season, so this is the first time the shop has been open since the end of September last year. Researching, designing, making, and setting up the coronavirus-related safety notices, procedures and so on has been bothersome ; but it is of vital importance.

Interestingly, we’ve experienced a growing sense of reassurance from doing this, and now being able to step back and see the result. We can only hope that our customers are reassured by what they encounter now, when arriving at the shop.

The Hebridean Woolshed : Post-lockdown reopening 5th July 2020

The Hebridean Woolshed : Post-lockdown reopening 5th July 2020. Though eternally popular, we’re ready to move on from these beanie hats. They may be hand-knitted by Denise, but are made with entirely bought-in lambswool.

It will be strange for us to serve our first customers : until now we’ve not had to wear a mask, or gloves, whereas our customers (almost all of whom are from the mainland or abroad) almost certainly have got used to it all!

It’s a really beautiful day of sunshine-and-showers, and as the islands was opened up to visitors yesterday, it would be lovely to welcome our first customer this afternoon ; but who knows what will happen. Who will be our first customer, when will they come, and what will they buy? It would be disappointing if our first customer actually bought nothing at all!

…

[The following day : ] Which is exactly what happened.