I’ve finished two Bugiflooer Beanies for Shetland Wool Week. Both have now been blocked, so ready to go. I actually wish I had made both of them a bit larger/slouchier, as I look better in a beret style than a tight-fitting cap. No worries. They will do.
By comparison to many, knitting 2 was a small output. I saw many Shetland Wool Week Facebook page posts showing multiples of 4-6. It appears many of the makers decided they would make good gifts, or that they needed one to match each of the outfits they were packing to go to the event.
Here’s a photo from the opening event. In the center, in the lavender dress is Alison Rendall, the 2023 Patron of Wool Week and designer of the hat. Sadly, less than half of the attendees were able to be present at that event because of the size of the venue. As Wool Week has become more popular, event spaces to accommodate the large number attending have become more of a problem.
I have much more to say about the two weeks I spent in Shetland including Wool Week, but I’ll save most of that for another post.
Now on to a different project, and one that I got the yarn for this past March from Urudale Yarns. This is on its way to becoming a cowl, and I’m using a design for that yarn from Viveka Velupillai called Living Stones. The colors are based on the moss and lichen that grow in the area around Urudale Farm in the Shetland Islands. Some of those lichens are surprisingly brightly colored, which surprised me.
Uradale Farm is home to a large flock (400 ewes) of primitive Shetland sheep raised in a wholly organic setting. To be certified as such means that Farmer Ronnie Eunson cannot inoculate his sheep against disease, nor supplement their foraging off the land. It’s not an easy situation (for either him or the sheep), but the results speak for themselves. The yarns that come from this farm have a spectacular range of color (all natural dyes) that feature the depth of the natural morrit and grey used as a base for the same colors that are dyed from white fleece.
You can see what I mean here. The top row (right to left) is a strong yellow dyed over white, grey and morrit. The coloring of the undyed yarn is not reflected well in the photo at all, but you get the point.
This handling of color across the various natural fleece colors is an important feature of the yarn, and is unique to this farm. In particular the grey base is very subtle compared to the white base, while the morrit base is strongly flecked and has remarkable depth.
This is another yarn that gives me a great deal of pleasure to knit. It has the crisp, rustic feel I expect from Shetland yarns, and I’m pleased to say that the Wooly Thistle shop in Maine, a shop in Canada, as well as one in Germany and Sweden carry these yarns, so there are opportunities to find them outside the UK.
I’m enjoying knitting the Living Stones cowl, and am really thrilled that there will be quite a bit of the yarn left over for another project. I’m not convinced that a cowl is the best use for it — it feels pretty scratchy as I knit. I hope that washing and blocking will soften it enough to wear against my skin. [NOTE: Mine still hasn’t been washed and blocked, but I had several opportunities to handle pieces other knitters have made from this yarn, and I’m now convinced it only increases in softness as it is washed and worn.]
Uradale yarns are spun at the New Lanark Mill in mainland Scotland. The Mill was originally built for spinning cotton, opening in 1786. By 1799, it was the largest mill in Scotland, eventually employing more than 2,000 people. In 1800 Robert Owen (who had married mill owner David Dale’s daughter) became Managing Partner and made important changes and improvements to the business model. This included phasing out child labor, establishing progressive schools, and even running the local village store for the benefit of the people by buying in bulk and passing the savings on to the community.
Owen became internationally famous for his social reforms and New Lanark is considered the cradle of the cooperative movement. It remains a living community, and is listed as one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.
In addition to providing spinning and dying services for farmers like Ronnie Eunson New Lanark Spinning Company produces an extensive line of its own yarn for knitting and weaving. All of the 19th-century machinery is hydro-powered, and the Spinnery is an accredited member of the Soil Association for Organic Wool.
I include Urudale Yarns in the category of “Special Yarns;” those I really enjoy using and will clearly use again. In fact, I started a pair of fingerless mitts with the left-overs from the cowl, and expect I will still have enough for something else.
I have a real admiration for the work that Ronnie Eunson is doing and hope that his efforts will be rewarded by many members of the knitting community. With that said, this yarn will likely always be in limited supply because of the natural limitations of raising sheep and producing yarn organically. Take a look at the variety of rich colors of the dyed yarn here, and the undyed, natural colors here.
I have much more to say about Shetland as well as a week spent in the Hebrides, and will get to those as quickly as possible (I arrived home after midnight last night following a full 23 hours of travel, so I’m not working at top efficiency at the moment!).
Meanwhile….
make sure to fondle your fleece and yarn and take from that inspiration. As I’ve mentioned before, you always should let the fiber tell you what to do. We (in the northern hemisphere) are heading into full wool knitting season, and like me, I know you’ll have dozens of ideas. Craft on!