Our Sheep

We moved onto our croft in 2013 and the following year did a 4 month voyage to Shetland and the Orkney Islands working with artists and scientists.  During this voyage we encountered some beautiful spotty and multicoloured sheep.  So charmed, I set up a conversation with the farmer and later that year I drove to Aberdeen to greet 10 ewes and 1 ram, Pirata, off the Shetland ferry.

It was always my idea to keep each fleece seperate and named to then make hats, jumpers even.  It wasn’t until I met Alison of Chasing the Dawn that my dream became a reality.

Alison spins and knits, creating her own designs. Whether she was on oil rigs in the Artic Circle, traversing mountains in the Lake District or tackling climbs in Belgium, for over 30 years Alison always had her knitting with her.

10 years ago, she traded crochet lessons with spinning lessons on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, and from then on she has been in love with using traditional and sustainable methods to create beautiful woolen clothing.

She washes the raw wool Selkie fleeces in a tin bath not dissimilar to the traditional ones used 100 years ago. The wool is then carded, and spun before  being knit into Sgurr hats and scarfs. Each Sgurr design comes straight from Alison’s life experiences, and great loves in the world.

Since she first made me a teacosy we have been imagining what is possible. Last year, I bought Beasley, an old Shetland Ram who gave us some beautiful dark lambs for our flock. Alison has been busy all winter with last year’s wool and now has some beautiful hats and scarfs from Ranger, Storm and Cutie.  We have named our collaboration Sgurr and you can now buy your favourite sheep’s wool and wearables.

Sgurr Beanies etc

Click the images to find out more…