At the beginning of January, I posted about one of the days when spinners get together and celebrate the start of another year, Roc Day. I have to say I had great fun this year with my spinners’ guild and it was also quite productive too. I managed to spin a whole basketful of yarn ready for knitting into the rug I featured last week, the Ocean Currents Rug.
I was chatting with someone at that event and she was saying how much it had expanded her love of knitting to be able to spin her own yarn too. I agree – it really is a good feeling to be able to start with a fleece and end up with a sweater! I suppose if you were a farmer, you could even start by trimming Jemima's wool in one season and be warm and cozy with a lovely wool sweater by the end of the next!
However, not everyone wants to spin their own wool. It does, after all, take quite a time to prepare enough yardage for something sizeable and you may have to set to with dyepots and so on as well if you want a particular colour for your project.
I was chatting with someone at that event and she was saying how much it had expanded her love of knitting to be able to spin her own yarn too. I agree – it really is a good feeling to be able to start with a fleece and end up with a sweater! I suppose if you were a farmer, you could even start by trimming Jemima's wool in one season and be warm and cozy with a lovely wool sweater by the end of the next!
However, not everyone wants to spin their own wool. It does, after all, take quite a time to prepare enough yardage for something sizeable and you may have to set to with dyepots and so on as well if you want a particular colour for your project.
So I had a peruse through the wonderful pages of Etsy the other day and put together a photo of 16 different yarns I found, each one using the wool from a different breed of sheep! It just shows the range of yarns you can find easy in somewhere like Etsy. Here's the search I used, and of course you can tailor the filters for yourself, or just search for a single breed such as Shetland.
In the photo you can see the yarns that caught my attention. The sheep breeds here include:
Whew! What a range of fibres.
In the photo you can see the yarns that caught my attention. The sheep breeds here include:
- Black Welsh Mountain, Blue‐Faced Leicester, Bowmont, Corriedale, Falklands, Finn, Gotland, Icelandic, Jacob, Manx Loaghtan, Masham, Merino, Polwarth, Rambouillet, Romney & Wensleydale.
Whew! What a range of fibres.
Blue‐Faced Leicester is a particular favourite of mine and I used this in a recent pattern, the Sawston Cowl and Infinity Scarf. The yarn is soft, silky and has a lovely lustre to it. It just says "quality" when you see something made from this breed.
I also love Bowmont yarn and was very impressed with it when I last used it. It is one of the less well-known breeds, but is lovely and soft. Some while ago I wove a blanket from another of the breeds on this list, too, Polwarth, and that was one of the softest and warmest blankets I have ever made.
I also love Bowmont yarn and was very impressed with it when I last used it. It is one of the less well-known breeds, but is lovely and soft. Some while ago I wove a blanket from another of the breeds on this list, too, Polwarth, and that was one of the softest and warmest blankets I have ever made.
I did make to sure to include my favourite "go to" fibre, Corriedale, in the photo as it is such a lovely yarn to knit with. It has a longer staple than merino but still having many characteristics of that breed. I wrote about that in an earlier blogpost too, so please click here to see some photos of Corriedale sheep.
The wool come in beautiful natural colours as you can see in the Rare Earth Rug pictured above, but it also takes dyes beautifully, too.
And of course that isn't even an exhaustive list of sheep breeds available. Try typing the name of another breed and 'Handspun' into the Etsy search box and see what comes up!
Until next time – Happy Knitting!
Moira
The wool come in beautiful natural colours as you can see in the Rare Earth Rug pictured above, but it also takes dyes beautifully, too.
And of course that isn't even an exhaustive list of sheep breeds available. Try typing the name of another breed and 'Handspun' into the Etsy search box and see what comes up!
Until next time – Happy Knitting!
Moira
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