Fawn Shetland Yarn 50g - DK

Gorgeous undyed semi-worsted spun yarn from our flock of super high welfare sheep at the homestead. This has been processed at a micro-mill who specialise in small batch yarns and fibres.

If you want to knit a #sophiescarf from @petiteknit then here’s the link, the pattern only needs 25g yarn so one skein should knit two! I used 4mm needles not 3.5mm.

https://www.petiteknit.com/en/products/sophie-scarf-06?variant=39839447777335

Semi worsted wool is great for knitting stranded (fair isle) and cable patterns due to the amazing stitch definition it gives. The yarn is spun to a standard DK weight giving it great versatility for your favourite patterns.

An incredible amount of work goes into creating a small batch of yarn.
- caring for the sheep year round, including winter feeding hay, shearing, foot care, worming etc.
- sorting through fleeces to remove grass, hay etc and any matted and soiled fibre.
- packing ad posting to the mill
- sorting and preparing the fibre
- washing (scouring) and drying the fibre
- picking and opening the fibre into ‘fluff’
- carding (combing wool out)
- gilling (turning carded wool into a long sausage.
- spinning (into a single-ply)
- plying (turning single ply into a finished weight yarn
- finishing into hand twisted skeins
- washing and drying for use.

As you can see there is a lot of work involved, in addition each machine at the mill is manually adjusted to suit the individual batch of fibre. And on top of all that, there is a greater percentage of waste for smaller batches of wool as there is a fixed loss per machine. Meaning that you receive back far less than you send to be processed.

All in all, these yarns are luxury, and designed to be turned into something truly special. They do not compare to commercially milled yarns which are often processed in China these days (that’s you Rowan)!!

Here is some info about the Mills’s eco-credentials - As the main input into the mill is wool, which is a renewable material and a carbon sink, we want to ensure that our processing also has as low a carbon footprint as possible. We have been awarded part funding by Low Carbon Dorset as part of the European Regional Development Fund for an Air Source Heat Pump to provide hot water and heating to the mill, and 16kWp of Solar PV to provide electricity. This will save 16.4 tonnes of CO2 a year, and provide 30kWp of new Renewable Energy capacity.