our new advent calendar is selling fast!
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All articles filed in sheep
Colour at the woolbrokers
a symphony of Shetland shades
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ooskit is coming
new yarn! tomorrow!
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Coracle
I’m really excited to reveal something which has been a long time in development and of which all of us at KDD are really proud – Coracle. Before I became a manufacturer of yarn and knitwear I was a consumer of both these things. And, as a consumer, I often found myself deeply troubled by…
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Drymen Show, 2019
Hello everyone, it’s Tom here popping in to tell you about my latest photographic assignment – the 2019 Drymen Show. In 2017, as part of a project for my darkroom and film photography course at City of Glasgow College I set about documenting – and celebrating – the people, the animals and the work involved…
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Light and lambs
Hello everyone, it’s Tom here. I thought I’d pop in to share some of my photos from our recent Hebridean trip to the isle of Berneray (Eilean Bhearnaraigh). As a photographer, I find the ever-changing weather and shifting quality of light in Scotland’s Western Isles really stimulating in my work. On this trip we were…
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Scottish Smallholder Festival
Last year I had the very great pleasure of meeting Rosemary Champion. As well as producing wonderful local yarn and meat from her own Rosedean Ryelands, Rosemary is a huge source of inspiration and advice to folk all over Scotland (and beyond) as The Accidental Smallholder. If you have any sort of interest in raising…
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Blidö weekend
What would your ideal weekend involve? Picking and eating delicious wild strawberries? Discovering a beautiful landscape on foot? And getting to spend some quality time with its inhabitants? (The Roslagsfår sheep are so sweet . . . as are their characterful piggy neighbours!) Visiting an exceptionally well cared-for wee museum and hearing all about island…
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Shade card sheep
As a small yarn producer, I am often asked whether I sell shade cards, but I’ve never been quite sure how to present them. When my dear pal Felix got married recently, some fabulous wool-wrapped sheep featured among her many woolly wedding favours. Those wee sheep rather took hold of my imagination and I just…
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sound and vision
My good friend Felicity Ford (aka Felix) is as enthusiastic as I am about Shetland and its wool industry. In 2013 (when she was patron of Shetland Wool Week) Felix worked on a number of field recordings for her important project, Listening to Shetland Wool. From the baas of lambs caught on the breeze, to…
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Uradale
One of the really fascinating aspects about our Shetland Oo project has been finding out more about what motivates Shetlanders who work with wool, and what really makes them tick, both personally and politically (because yes, in so many ways wool is political). Ronnie Eunson and Sue White of Uradale farm, near Scalloway, are particularly…
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Shetland Tannery
As part of our work researching and documenting Shetland Oo, this past August, Tom and I met Natalie Cairns-Ratter of the Shetland Tannery. I’d acquired several of Natalie’s beautiful sheepskins on earlier Shetland visits, and was intrigued to learn more about the tanning process, and how her company came about. Small-scale tanning was previously a…
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haps, sheep, and me
Hiya! It is I, Bruce. For weeks – nay months – pretty much all I have heard about is haps. Kate has been writing about them, and making a book about them, and apparently she now just can’t stop knitting them. Now, these haps are all well and good, but other exciting things have been…
Read MoreShetland days
It is Wool Week in Shetland, and I began it in this cottage out at Vementry. What a spot! It was lovely to take some time out to visit my friend Hazel Tindall. I just love the part of Shetland where Hazel lives, and it was a real privilege to potter about her garden, and…
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at Haworth Scouring
As we have discovered over the past few months, there is an awful lot to think about when designing and manufacturing a new yarn for hand knitting! There are many stages to consider, and many decisions to be made. It occurred to me that one of the processes that’s least visible to hand knitters is…
Read MoreBuachaille – coming soon!
We are getting very excited here, as we are anticipating a large woolly delivery, and it will soon be time to announce the launch of our new yarn. I thought it was time to tell you a little more about it. (my favourite sheep, from Colours of Shetland) I am a great advocate for using…
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