Washing My Soay Fleece

They say there's a first time for everything and for me this was definitely the first time ever for washing fleece, made all the more exciting because it came from one of my own Soay sheep. As I've mentioned before, Soays shed their own fleece so there is no need for clipping, but you have to be vigilant if you want to get as much of the fleece off as possible. My Soay, Yaisah, had shed almost half of her fleece before I got the rest off. I did, however, get most of Shulah's fleece.
So follow me with words and photos as I take you through my first tentative wool wash!
I started at about 12.45 pm and looked out all the things I would need. I wasn't sure whether to use detergent or soap flakes as I'd read that either is acceptable, but in the end I settled on one of my favourite detergents......

Fleece smelling like apples? Hmmm..

Please comment below this post if you have found that one particular soap or detergent works well for you personally. I'd be very interested to hear your views on this.
I weighed the fleece just out of curiosity and this was the result. Remember, this is roughly HALF a fleece from a year old Soay lamb. Next year the sheep will yield a thicker and heavier fleece.

So I filled a small bowl full of lukewarm water and the detergent and gently pressed the fleece down until it sank down into the bowl.....

Soay fleece is VERY greasy but I wanted to keep some of that in the wool to assist with the spinning process so I felt that lukewarm water was the best. Next time I will make the water a little hotter though. This is all a learning process and I'm enjoying the learning as much as the process itself!
As all my sheep are on a heathery hill apportionment with some marshy areas among it, I was not surprised to find that the water soon became very dirty. This photo is actually the second blot. In my excitement I forgot to take a photo of the first!

I was timing these washes carefully because it's important not to let the water temperatures vary, so I didn't keep it in the basin long enough for the water to cool too much.By this time the clock said......

I took three photos of the fleece after the second wash while it was on the draining board. You may be able to see the amount of lanolin in the fleece. When wet it appears almost like a hoard of tiny wet particles of rice. If you squash it between your fingers it is just a greasy mess and quite unpleasant but very good for the skin on your hands! Here are the photos I took......

And then I got distracted and took a couple of random kitchen shots!!!

I love these bull plates. I have five of them and paid only £2 each for them. They measure approx. 11 x 9 inches and I like them very much.

I'd never actually keep pigs ( unless they stayed tiny piglet size!!) but I do love paintings of farm animals. This pig painting isn't very big and is painted onto a block. It looks nice in our kitchen.

Oops no, that was the time after the first wash! Sorry!

Nothing I own is worth a lot of money. If I like it, I buy it, and most of what I love is either presents from much loved family members (those things I DO treasure!) or items picked up at car boots or other sales. After all, we can't take our possessions with us when we leave this earth. Enjoy what you have, even if it cost more in car fuel to bring it home!
Back to the draining board!
The first rinse obviously showed detergent and a little dirty water coming through but after a few rinses it was beginning to look clear and I was satisfied that I'd got enough dirt and lanolin out of the fleece to think about getting it completely rinsed and on the 'screen' for drying. Here you can see the water is clear where I've moved the fleece aside....

The book I was using to direct me in this whole process suggested using a colander to get most of the water out of the fleece and then to get a fluffy towel and lay the fleece in it and squeeze down on it to get more water out. My colander has lots of ideas of what to drain in it but fleece is not one of them!

From the colander to the towel......

Now can I ask you something?
What do you use as a 'rust proof screen' when drying your fleece? I don't really have anything that I would consider totally suitable for this purpose so I actually used a kitchen cutting 'mat' made of reinforced glass. The ones you use for chopping veg and cutting meat. I won't use it again as I wasn't totally happy with it. I found the fleece took too long to dry (but then I did have to dry it indoors). Please let me know what works for you. Just write in the comment box below. I'd be very interested to know.

Well, I hope I haven't bored the fleece off you!!! Please let me know you called by my blog. If you have your own blog I will certainly visit yours too.
Now I'm off to have a roast chicken dinner! Until next time, keep calm and read lots of blogs!

View South from Sheep Hill Park

Hi again, just me checking in with a quick photo or or two for you today. It's VERY hot and sunny for Shetland today and certainly too hot for me, but it LOOKS amazing!! Shetland in nice weather is unbeatable.
Hubby and I went up to the sheep today. While he finished off the gate to the outer pen I went calling on the sheep to come and get their extra feed. They don't really need it every day, but I'm trying to get them to keep coming down the hill towards me as it's a very steep hill and I have no sheepdog!
I'm delighted to report my one and only Cheviot ewe responded to the pedicure and antiseptic treatment I administered the other week and she's now fleet of foot. Probably much more so than I am!!! But the exercise is good for me. I recently sold my Reebok stepper because I figured I was getting better exercise chasing sheep all over the place. It's a whole lot more fun than stepping on and off a piece of plastic!
So first of all, here's the view south from the hill park......

And here's my new (primitive) gate! It cost a whole £4.00 to make!

I also managed to get a photo of my two "Golden Girls" together today. They are in the autumn of their years and not looking their best but they are just adorable! I am planning to get them in the pen this week and perhaps just 'roo' them (pluck the fleece off) instead of clipping them as it's very straggly anyway and I don't want to lose the fleece among the heather. Here they are......

Golden Girls in Glad Rags!

And just to end with, I took a photo of hubby's jumper hanging over the pen and gave it a little post-click treatment and it looked quite good......

I'm easily amused!
Until next time, take care.

Shetland Alpacas

Today I'm going to step aside from Shetland wool and knitting because I want to introduce you to a special family. They are alpacas from the Shetland Alpaca Farm in North Roe up here in the Shetland Isles. The farm is owned by a lovely couple who also keep Soay sheep. This is where my own Soays have come from. They are very well bred and cared for and all being well I am going up there tomorrow to take some photos of their Soay lambs, born very recently. Soay lambs are uber-cute!!
First let me show you some photos of their alpacas, some of which I added captions to. Here they are......

And for all women who have ever asked this question, here are some Soays......

Alpacas look very cuddly but are not too happy to have your arms flung round them. They are a little aloof, but are very pleased to step a little closer if you have something tasty in your pocket that they can have. Their fleeces are dense and soft and make excellent knitting wool. Colin and his wife Phill have recently had some of the fleece made into wool and now sell it from their website. If you would like to look at their site or buy the wool please "click on the baby alpaca" at the right hand side of my blog. There you can also see more photos, some with names attached. I've forgotten the names of the ones I put on here just now, although I know the "Queen of the Castle" is Tosca. She has quite a personality going on there. Well, they all do to be fair. They are really lovely animals. They haven't bred them this year but I think they hope to next year. Oh my! Loads of cute little alpacas. Baby alpacas are called "cria"

So I'll leave you to browse those photos again and maybe have a look at the Shetland Alpaca website. I think you'll find it interesting. I know the wool is gorgeous.
So, call back here soon. Comment, join, follow, whatever takes your fancy. You're always welcome at this blog!
Until next time, be creative and learn a new skill. Now, there's a challenge for you. And don't forget to tell me all about it!!

Fair Isle Jumper for Sale

Hi again folks!
For anyone following the progress of the shawl I am knitting in natural shades of Shetland wool, I am happy to report that I am almost finished the third quarter so it may not be too long before it's finished and on the stretcher. But I have several appointments this week that will very annoyingly keep me from my needles!!
However, I would like you to feast your eyes on this gorgeous HAND KNITTED Fair Isle jumper made by my very talented niece Victoria.



Victoria, who is also a brilliant artist, has an exceptional eye for colour blending as this beautiful garment shows. I have never actually seen these colours used together on a Fair Isle jumper before. It is finished to a high standard, both inside and out.
At Victoria's request I am offering this jumper for sale for the very reasonable price of £180. If you do an online search of HAND KNITTED Fair Isle jumpers you will see that they can sell for a much higher price. Machine knitted ones are cheaper for obvious reasons.

The measurements are as follows:-
Underarm to underarm (or as we say in Shetland "oxter to oxter") - 20 inches
Oxter to rib - 14 inches
Back of neck to rib - 26 inches
Oxter to cuff - 21 inches

Here's a closer look at the colours and pattern..........



And I love the way the rib, neck and cuffs are worked..........



The jumper can be sent to anywhere in the world but please contact me if you are interested in buying so I can let you know the postage and packaging cost for your country. And of course because this is a one-off garment it is being sold on a "first come first served" basis so the first person to email me will be given first offer.
Should you have any questions at all please email me by clicking on the sign at the top right hand side of my blog.
Please also let your friends and relatives see this jumper. Someone would LOVE it as a birthday present!! Or even a Valentine gift!
Catch up with you soon. Hopefully with photos of my shawl on the stretcher!
Thank you for popping by. Feel free to leave a comment to say you were here and follow to be kept up to date with all things "woolly Shetland"!
Until next time, keep on clicking!

A Winter Bargain

Forget all the winter sales! I never go to them anyway. I prefer to browse the charity shops and below is my latest winter woolly treasure!
A pure Shetland wool shawl-collared jumper for only £3.00.
I was so happy when I found this for my husband. He only ever really wears wool jumpers these days as he feels the cold a lot. ( And Shetland winters are unforgivably cold!!)
My apologies if the photo quality and lighting is not the best it could be. We are getting very few hours of daylight now and as we are also experiencing adverse weather conditions, everything looks dark and uninviting. But I hope you like the little fun arrangement I did with the jumper. I have a feeling though that my hubby won't be venturing out with his binoculars, even with the jumper on!!




The bottom photo is nearer to the actual colour of the jumper. It's a lovely coppery rust colour with various flecks through it. All in all a nice find and a great bargain. Back soon. Just off to get a little bird from the jaws of one of our cats!!!

Here's a photo of Madam Magda looking as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth! Don't be fooled!



Back soon!

Real Shetland Stories Competition

In October, during Shetland Wool Week, I entered a competition called "Real Shetland Stories". The idea was to write a short piece of 300 words or less which would tell how wool has been a part of your life.
Having a father and a grandfather who were both talented weavers I decided I would have a go at the competition.
Here is my short piece of writing, followed by a photo of both my father and grandfather.

Wool has been part of the fabric of my family for generations. My grandfather worked a hand loom to weave pure Shetland wool rugs. This creative gene was obviously passed to my father, Adam Johnson from Levenwick, who himself was a very talented weaver of Shetland wool rugs. He worked exclusively in the natural, un-dyed colours of Shetland fleece and his designs were his own and instantly recognizable.
He weaved in Levenwick first of all, then was asked to go into Fair Isle where he also taught machine knitting. My father being a patient, softly spoken man as well as a gifted one was an ideal tutor of these Shetland traditions and he did much to educate people and pass these traditions on.
For a time he taught in Scotland, where he met my mother, and was asked to go to America to teach, but I think my mother decreed this was just ‘one pond too many’!!
She had agreed to move to Shetland and that was far enough!
In 1963 my parents moved to Sandness and my father took a job at Aurora Knitwear in Walls, owned by Lizzie Sutherland. There he dressed jumpers, a job he also enjoyed. Often he took jumpers home to dress. The crew necks had to have a thread run through them to keep the necks in the correct shape while the jumper was being dressed. That was my job! I still remember the cotton spools being kept in an old National Dried Milk container and I got tuppence a neck!! This still makes me smile to this day! I’m very proud of the inheritance left by my father and grandfather and would thread those necks for nothing if I could spend just a moment with both these talented, generous men.



My father weaving at the loom.




My grandfather weaving at the loom. Sadly I never met him.

I was delighted when I received a letter telling me I was one of 40 runners-up who would have their 'story' published in a book in 2012. The book will be an evocative record of life in Shetland in relation to wool and textiles and will be published by Shetland Heritage Publications.
I am very excited about that because it will mean that the talents of my father and grandfather will be recorded in print for generations to come. What better prize could I have?
But that was not all!!
I also received a pure Shetland wool travel rug in natural colours exactly like the one pictured below.



This rug is very special to me for 2 reasons.
1. I won it for writing about the weaving talents of my father and grandfather.
2. It is made in natural colours which my father used exclusively in his designs.
And now as I embark on my own personal journey with pure natural coloured Shetland wool I somehow feel very close to my father who is sadly no longer with us. But he is always with me in my creativity!

I do hope you have enjoyed reading this post and seeing the old photos of two very gifted men.

Feel free to comment or ask questions if you wish to. Or you can email me by clicking on the icon at top right.

Bye for now. Back soon!

Further Progress on my Shawl

Hi, just a quick update today after taking a couple of photos of my progress. I apologize for the pics not being completely blur free but I have a problem with my joints at the moment and I have a little difficulty holding the camera still. Yes, I should have used the tripod!! But I hope you like what you see nevertheless.




The borders are actually sewn together using herringbone stitch once the shawl is completed but I have 'butted' them up to meet each other just to give you the idea of how the colours come together. I'm off to do some more knitting! Back soon!

OO'VE BEEN FRAMED!!

Hi again.
For those reading this who may think the post title is a misprint, or a product of a tired brain, let me explain. In this blog post I'm going to share some of the photos I took when me and my sister visited Jamieson & Smith (The Wool Brokers) here in Shetland. The Shetland dialect word for wool is 'oo'. Plain and simple 'oo'. I could have called it 'Ewe've Been Framed' but there were no sheep inside the building so technically I would have misled you!! Now, joking apart, here are some photos........



No better place to start than with a teapot! This one has a nice Fair Isle cover to it. The pattern is available through J&S.


Spotlight on Pure Wool

I loved going into the wool shed because of the smell of the raw oily wool. It was the real deal! Straight from the sheep and ready for the next step.
Down a few steps from there we went into a part of the building that Oliver Henry, the director of J&S told us used to be the old Police Station many moons ago. He showed us the cell where they put the offenders. No moon shone in there! And we were on our best behaviour for the rest of our photo taking time!
Here are a few photos from that section of the building.....


A hand knitted lace hap draped over an old herring barrel with a photo of a Shetland herring station in the background. I will add a link at the side for those of you who would be interested to see more photos of the herring stations. You can also simply Google "Shetland herring stations".



Oliver told us that you will know pure Shetland wool by the 'wavy' look it has nearer the body. The photo below also shows pure Shetland wool, this time on the surface. I do believe I unintentionally captured some grass in the form it goes in one end and also in it's 'post-processed form'!! Oh well, this is raw wool at it's most organic!!



And something I hadn't seen before was this excellent quality pure wool carpeting made from Shetland wool.The photo below shows a mat made from the same carpeting with the 3 Vementry rams Logo on it. Vementry is a place in Shetland.






Just beside the carpeting was this lovely old rocking chair, probably made in Shetland too, complete with 2 hand knitted lace cushion covers on the cushions. I could have sat in it for a few minutes but I was frightened I missed something!



Some more photos now.....



A beautiful example of an all-over Fair Isle jumper in natural colours. Exquisite when seen in reality!




Snuggly!!!




Just a very small selection of the shades of wool available at Jamieson & Smith, The Wool Brokers, Shetland Isles.



Shawls in natural shades. I love these. They are a work of art and of huge talent. I aspire to produce work like this!




I couldn't resist photographing this old window half way up the stairs that had the wool cones on them. Although I couldn't get the whole window in because of the stair banister I was happy to include the spinning wheel ornament, the three little sheep in the middle and the old vase ( maybe full of spiders by now!!) I love quirky!!!




Fair Isle knitting in the natural un-dyed colours of Shetland wool. There are many very talented Fair Isle knitters on Shetland. I've knitted a little Fair Isle but at the moment I'm trying to master fine lace knitting. One thing at a time!!!




This is a Cockle Shell scarf knitted by Sandra Manson who also designs and knits garments in pure Shetland wool. She is always very welcoming when you enter the shop and has a great way of encouraging people to try something new. She has helped me a lot!!

Well, I'll leave you to have a look at those for now. My next post on here will be a photo of my shawl progress. Until then, stay crafty!!