The Amazing Benefits of Wool
An informative project in collaboration with local illustrator Julie Dennison Hi, I’m Terri, a knitwear designer under the name Terri Laura, but I’m also a Shetlander who grew up on a family croft. Then I got married and moved 30 minutes further north on a croft with a family of my own. Wool in its […]
Book Excerpt: Raw Material: Working Wool in the West, by Stephany Wilkes
Raw Material: Working Wool in the West takes readers through the state of American wool as we follow author Stephany Wilkes through the process of becoming a certified sheep shearer. Along the way, we meet people along the wool supply chain and learn about the challenges faced by wool growers and processors. Alternating between humor, […]
The Making of Bee-Croft Yarn
Greenland and Sheep’s Wool: An introduction to a modern woolen word in the Arctic
Greenland may be one of the last places you would imagine cultivating its own wool culture, but in the southern tip of this Arctic nation, the close-knit group of Inuit sheep farmers are taking steps to turn their small-scale home productions into a more cohesive and commercially-viable textile industry. Sheep in Greenland The revival of […]
Family Fiber Farming: Raising Sheep and Children
I’ve had a fascination with farm life from a young age. As soon as I could get my hands on a tiny square of land, I was gardening. I adored James Herriot books and the idea of country life. Yet I grew up living in some of the largest cities in the world. My husband […]
Crossbreeding Sheep
‘Cross-breeding sheep gives you hairy fleeces.’ So someone told me long ago, but my response is ‘only if you use hairy sheep.’ Many modern breeds are a result of crossbreeding in the past. For example, the Bluefaced Leicester in England, the Corriedales bred in New Zealand to be a hardier version of a Merino, and […]