It’s in this time of Covid that I’ve rekindled my passion for knitting and cast some wool on to the old needles again. I’m sure you’ve done the same. But not all was well ……..

In the early part of the summer I read news reports of UK sheep farmers unable to sell their fleeces. Due to the general economic impact of Covid. It made me take more interest in the yarn I was knitting with. It shocked me to find that most of what I was knitting with starts life a long way from the UK and some of it wasn’t even wool. From this came the seed of an idea. We can play the tiniest part in supporting the British wool industry by making our own yarn.

The idea took shape when we enlisted the help of a wool expert. Sue Blacker, who is very well known and respected in the industry, liked our concept. Especially that we wanted to concentrate on British sheep breeds. She was our guide in our selection of the sheep breeds for our first batch of wool. Our vintage 20 wool, a unique blend of Shetland and Bluefaced Leicester sheep! Ready in Spring 2021, we’ve chosen a soft blend. People who maybe haven’t used British wool before can experiment with our blend. It might feel quite close to some other yarn you might be using, from far away - begins with ‘m’ and ends in ‘o’!

We are on a steep learning curve on our wool adventure. We do learn something new everyday, which is very exciting. We’re enjoying it and really looking forward to getting hold of our first batch to share it with you to see what you think. And we’re already thinking about what we’d like to do next on our wool adventure.

What now?

I’m thinking that’s enough information for us to explore for the moment. We could use the coming posts to talk about how the wool is progressing. A bit more about the wool itself, and what we’re learning on the way, if you like?

I’ll share some of my current knitting projects too. I’m not an expert knitter by any means, but I enjoy it and I’m only knitting with British wool now! I’ve discovered lots of super producers out there. I can introduce you to the wool I’ve been using so far for various projects. That would give you a bigger picture of the great British wool scene if you’re not already familiar with it.

So thanks again for reading this far. If you’ve got any suggestions for what you’d like to hear about in these pages don’t hesitate to let me know.

We’ll kick off the New Year with an update on the wool adventure. Let you know how close we are to getting the wool into our hands - then yours.

Chat with you soon

Linda

British sheep

Knitting British

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