Its here!!!

The yarn is here! Woohoo! A huge package came, completely stuffed with gorgeous skeins of yarn! Our yarn! From our lovely sheep!

There was much unpacking and loading of baskets and boxes, weighing of skeins and separating it out into piles. There may have been an almost instant winding of balls and grabbing of needles. 

And swatches have been knit! I am loving knitting with the yarn, getting to know it, blocking it, seeing how it behaves and changes...so much to explore! 

I am loving the grey in particular, it was so interesting to see what colour it would come out, mixing all these fleeces from different sheep together - a beautiful rich tweedy grey. 

Swatching continues as I enjoy getting to know my sheep in a different way. I have only ever spun yarn from them by hand before and having mill spun yarn is a totally different thing for me!

Thank you amazing sheep! 

Olannand and Haggis

The next issue of Olannand is out and you can read my sheep keeping diary here, which mostly talks about mud, rain and drains. (Because that's how we roll round here, rural glamour it ain't. I mean, look at Borealis up there - he is the (supposedly) white sheep...that fleece is going to need some serious washing.)

There are some nice patterns in this issue too - I have already added some to my knitting queue, and also a good article about tapestry weaving which I was pleased to see fellow Roscommoner Francis Crowe's beautiful work in.

In other sheep related news, if you live nearby you can come and sample some of our sheep on Friday, as we team up with the amazing Harmony Farm and Slow Food North West to make epic quantities of haggis for a Burns night in the local community hall. Haggis is traditionally made from the "pluck and lights" of a sheep, which is the heart, liver and lungs. We usually throw the tongue (which is particularly delicious) in for good measure. It was with great trepidation that we made our first Haggis last year and amazingly it is surprisingly tasty. So come on down if you fancy some awesome Haggis. There will be some music and poetry too. Details on the Slow Food website.

Woolly news

It is Wovember and the Wovember site is putting out some excellent stories, facts and photos about sheep and wool every day. I particularly loved this hilarious post about the antics of several tups. Perhaps it is only hilarious to other sheep owners but I think it really describes some of the ridiculousness that comes with owning any animals. And how can you not love an enormous ram called Bollocks? We should start a Bollocks fan club. Except that might go very wrong very fast with the internets being what it is. 

I will have an article in Wovember later in the month - the story of making our yarn and what's been behind that over the last few years.

In other very exciting news there is a new Irish online magazine coming out this month - Olann and. Olann is Irish for wool and it will promote Irish craft, in particular fibre crafts - knitting, spinning, crochet, weaving and dyeing. I will have a regular piece in the magazine - a diary about the trials and tribulations of keeping a small flock of sheep from a knitters perspective. I'm really looking forward to the magazine - it is the first of its kind and I would really love to see this project thrive!