Description

Hand selected and thoroughly washed / scoured locks for spinners from our Soil Association certified Organic and blade shorn  small flock of much loved Shetland and Shetland x Gotland sheep, who are conservation grazers for our community orchards and biodiverse chalk grassland.
We have carefully chosen from our fibre flock some of the best fleeces for hand spinners, we then select out the most lustrous orderly and loose locks and wash them in rainwater and an environmentally friendly wool scouring detergent and dry them in the fresh air.  The locks can be quickly flicked open with a carder, hand or drum carded or combed and they will spin up beautifully. They are from fleeces shorn early in the year and have no ‘rise’ the natural weak point in the locks where the new Spring fleece grows through and the old fleece would once have broken away and shed naturally. This means you can card the fleece without causing any nepps and noils to form from the short length of wool below the rise. We have hand picked these locks to remove the small pieces of moss, dry grass and herbs that the sheep collect in their fleece during the year and we can say there is very little vegetable matter left, however it has been hand picked by people not carbonised using strong acids and there will be very occasional reminders of the sheep’s year, as you process and spin!

Sappho – is a sweet watchful 3/4 Shetland 1/4 Gotland ewe, who last year raised two beautiful ewe lambs. Her locks are about 10-12cm long unstretched and have a medium crimp and soft lustre. Sappho has a little grey in her fleece from her Gotland ancestry, so her locks vary from white through to pale grey and will spin up to make gorgeous next to skin garments

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.