Description

Shetland fleece from our own sheep, (not carded or combed, so there may be some locks), packed in 10g cellophane bags. Shetland is a slightly firmer British alternative to Merino, so ideal for needle felting and can also be used for wet felting and other crafts.
This wool is from our own small flock of much loved Shetland sheep, who are conservation grazers for our community orchards and biodiverse chalk grassland. We are in conversion to organic status and will be able to certify our wool as organic in January, the flock has been kept to organic standards already for several years. We hand shear each sheep (which allows us to wait until the fleece is ready), the fleeces are then carefully sorted (plant matter removed) and lower grade wool separated for use as packing material. Each fleece is gently but thoroughly washed in well water and eco -friendly laundry liquid or wool scour and dried in the fresh air, before being picked with our antique wool swing picker and then either packed as a natural Shetland fleece colour (see separate listing) or naturally dyed by us at our small outside dye house in Oxfordshire, using well water and plant dyes, many of which are grown or gathered by us in a sustainable way from the organic Estate on which we are based. When we do use imported dyes we source these directly, or from a company with a strong ethical sourcing policy.
We have created our own unique names for some of the dyed colours as the natural variation in the fleece creates beautiful variegated colours that defy most of our attempts to match them to Pantone swatches!
If you would like larger quantities of a single colour, or fleece dyed to colours of your choice please get in touch, we are happy to dye to order whenever we can.
We have a policy of buying no new packaging material for use in posting out parcels, we re-use old packaging gathered from other local businesses, individuals and schools. We hope you will enjoy receiving your parcel, whatever shape and size it is, knowing that it has a little less impact on the environment.