[SallyintNorth]

A heads-up that after the very successful Tour of British Fleece just completed, the same group of spinners are starting to put together a Highlands and Islands Fling for early 2016.

The premise will be to get hold of and spin the fleece of Scottish Highlands and Islands breeds, types and crosses of sheep.

The Fling will start on Burns' night and finish early March.  Spinners will be wanting to get fleece sourced, shared and washed before that.

On the off-chance that some of you may still have fleeces available, I thought I'd let you know.  If you are taking fleece to the Scottish Smallholder Show, it would be good to know what's going.

The idea behind these events is to spread the awareness and knowledge of our wonderful assortment of British sheep, with so many spinnable useful fleeces to choose from.  As the Aviva Tour of Britain is probably unlikely to ever have a stage on the Scottish Islands, the Fling is to enable the Island sheep to get the same exposure.

I shall x-post in Crafts & Sheep and, unusually, leave all threads open for comment, as there are at least three different angles of discussion!

[mowhaugh]

I've still got this years' shetland fleeces if they would be any good?  Also have some black cheviot left, although not really Highlands or Islands.

[SallyintNorth]

Shetland will most certainly be spun

There are several people would like more of the black Cheviot, it was a favourite on the Tour.  But yes, not really Highlands and Islands... although there are a lot of Cheviots on Shetland, and the Shetland x Cheviot is a good ewe. 

Are you going to the Smallholder Show?

[woollyjumper]

I have some Shetland fleeces available - mainly black  and katmoget although I also have a couple of moorit too. I am breeding with the aim of producing good quality fleece for spinning and hand crafts and have been successful showing fleeces in the last 3 years  - it is great to know that I am going on the right lines! I am happy to give you a call to discuss what you are looking for if you send me a PM. I will be going to the Smallholder show with sheep and fleeces next weekend so if you contact me before then I could bring extra fleeces with me. All fleeces can also be identified to individual sheep ( with names!) - photos or visits can be organised too!

[mowhaugh]

Shetland will most certainly be spun

There are several people would like more of the black Cheviot, it was a favourite on the Tour.  But yes, not really Highlands and Islands... although there are a lot of Cheviots on Shetland, and the Shetland x Cheviot is a good ewe. 

Are you going to the Smallholder Show?

unfortunately not, going for 3rd time lucky next year!

[SallyintNorth]

I have some Shetland fleeces available - mainly black  and katmoget although I also have a couple of moorit too. I am breeding with the aim of producing good quality fleece for spinning and hand crafts and have been successful showing fleeces in the last 3 years  - it is great to know that I am going on the right lines! I am happy to give you a call to discuss what you are looking for if you send me a PM. I will be going to the Smallholder show with sheep and fleeces next weekend so if you contact me before then I could bring extra fleeces with me. All fleeces can also be identified to individual sheep ( with names!) - photos or visits can be organised too!

Most of the people wanting fibre are on Ravelry - do you have a Ravelry account ?  I'll page you into the conversation over there, if so.

Otherwise, do you have a website, FB page, or somewhere people can contact you?

[BALLOCH]

I have  a facebook page  Fleece 4 ewe,i specialise in selling raw fleece but it comes ready sorted for use.I also sell washed fleece and washed and carded fleece for folk who havnt time to process there own.I have over 40 different rare breeds and x breeds.I was at the highland wool feast with a stall this year and have been selling on ebay for a few years and have very good feedback.Message if interested.I also spin,weave and felt.knit and crochet amongst just a few crafts.One of my favourite fleeces is the very traditional old fashion Scottish blackface which is sourced locally.

[SallyintNorth]

Ah, didn't realise Fleece 4 Ewe was you - I'll add that to the 'suppliers' list we've got.  Your ebay is already on there

Tell me more about this traditional Blackie you have...?

[Tighnaneun]

I have about 40kg of Hebridean fleeces, I have no idea what to do with them! I was planning to bring one to the Scottish Smallholder Show to show to Natural Fiber Co. to see if it was any good for being spun but should I bring the whole lot? First year having sheep and I love the idea of a Highlands and Islands spin..

[ThomasR]

I have a few bags of he wool if anybody wants it. free

[BALLOCH]

The traditional blackface is now becoming rare as it is the long fibre one,it was once used for matress stuffing amongst othere things.Farmers have altered the breed to shorten the fleece as the long old fashion one parts down the back bone in wet weather apparently.It has a long staple upto 10 inches and is wool like at the base and more hair like at the ends.It spins easy but not really soft,it needle felts easy and makes good cores and makes great peg loom rugs .There is a pic of a rug on my facebook page.I just like it ,it washes up nice too.It could die out in the future,and the wool board does not get many sheets of this nowadays.

[SallyintNorth]

That's fascinating.  We've spun generic 'Scottish Blackface' and the very regional Hexham Blackface on the Tour of British Fleece - and they are almost chalk and cheese, although you can see the remnants of the SB in the HB.

This led to discussion about the types of Scottish Blackface - given your location, yours would be Perth type, I think?  We've got some Lanark type on order, and are also planning a trip to the Sorting Depot at Galashiels.  I went there last year and made notes about Lanark type and Perth type Blackie fleeces - it'll be interesting to get my hands on some of each type this time.

I could write pages... 

[SallyintNorth]

I have about 40kg of Hebridean fleeces, I have no idea what to do with them! I was planning to bring one to the Scottish Smallholder Show to show to Natural Fiber Co. to see if it was any good for being spun but should I bring the whole lot? First year having sheep and I love the idea of a Highlands and Islands spin..

If NFCo think it's worth processing, it might be worth getting them to do that, and then sell some of the rovings - many of the Flingers like to have some of their fibre pre-processed, and rovings from one farm is so much nicer to spin than generic tops from one of the mainstream suppliers.  (So if yours is nice and you can afford it, it might be a good plan to send them 20kgs+, so they can do one run that's all your fleece.  Otherwise, if it gets mixed up with fleece from other flock-keepers, it would still be nice, I'm sure, but wouldn't have that added attraction of being single flock.)

If Sue thinks it's ok to process, then it's certainly spinnable, so you could decide to keep some back to sell as fleece.  Heb is a tricky one, in that a good Heb fleece is an utter delight, but it's a very difficult one to get in good spinnable condition - they are often clipped late and may have part-felted on the sheep's backs, and they are also extremely prone to felting in storage - any heat, for instance if they are in an airy shed but under a skylight, and they'll felt in the polypropylene sack.  (Ask me how I know...  )

[Tighnaneun]

I have about 40kg of Hebridean fleeces, I have no idea what to do with them! I was planning to bring one to the Scottish Smallholder Show to show to Natural Fiber Co. to see if it was any good for being spun but should I bring the whole lot? First year having sheep and I love the idea of a Highlands and Islands spin..

If NFCo think it's worth processing, it might be worth getting them to do that, and then sell some of the rovings - many of the Flingers like to have some of their fibre pre-processed, and rovings from one farm is so much nicer to spin than generic tops from one of the mainstream suppliers.  (So if yours is nice and you can afford it, it might be a good plan to send them 20kgs+, so they can do one run that's all your fleece.  Otherwise, if it gets mixed up with fleece from other flock-keepers, it would still be nice, I'm sure, but wouldn't have that added attraction of being single flock.)

If Sue thinks it's ok to process, then it's certainly spinnable, so you could decide to keep some back to sell as fleece.  Heb is a tricky one, in that a good Heb fleece is an utter delight, but it's a very difficult one to get in good spinnable condition - they are often clipped late and may have part-felted on the sheep's backs, and they are also extremely prone to felting in storage - any heat, for instance if they are in an airy shed but under a skylight, and they'll felt in the polypropylene sack.  (Ask me how I know...  )

We had a few of those felty ones, we wet-felted the back of them, washed them lightly, brushed them and made "vegan" sheepskins! They're really great and hold together nicely.

All the felty clumpy ones we have put to one side, the remaining 40kg is in two sacks the NFCo sent me waiting to go. (I'll have to check them now!! Eep!) I'll take some down to the SSS and see what Sue says

[SallyintNorth]

Great !  Let us know how you get on