Shetland wool blog

This month its about colour.....beautiful Burnt Orange mixed with some natural Shetland wool yarn for contrast. To enter you need to vote for your favourite colour combination from the two choices here; Shetland Halo yarn in Burnt Orange, with Burnt orange Angora/Qiviut yarn & Natural Moorit.  The second choice is this: Yarns as above with a contrast yarn of Natural Black Shetland wool. I opted for the Moorit combination to knit my cowl. The Angora/qiviut yarn & Shetland wool were dyed in the same pot, see the difference in shade how grey qiviut & Grey Angora rabbit fibre produce a much darker shade than the natural grey shetland wool ! To enlarge any picture to see detail click on it ! If you are allergic to Angora rabbit fibre then you better give this months giveaway a mis.  The Qiviut blend yarn is 50% Qiviut & 50% Angora rabbit.....makes wonderful soft knitwear with a distinctive halo, softer than Cashmere & warmer than Cashmere ! I w

The Two winners drawn at Random are:  Doville who loved the Grey smokering & Stephanie Berkman who loved the Fawn colour. congratualtions to you both & please contact me so i can get these beautiful smokerings mailed off to you ! cottageqiviut(at)outlookdotcom Next giveaway is yarn to knit a cowl with some special Angora/Qiviut blend yarn added to the mix !

                               Pure Shetland Wool Smokering ! Sorry for the delay announcing the yarn winner for the booties ( winner was Jennifer Thiele), been so busy & I'm finding it very difficult to keep up the blog entries due to my workload in the mill, the home & barns. Don't get a sit down till 8pm at night & by that time I'm pooped ! This month I have 2 of these up for grabs. The smokering is knit with worsted weight yarn, the one above is shown in Musket- I dont have any musket colour remaining but I do have Fawn, Black,  Light Grey & Shaela which are all equally lovely & soft.  All the knitting is done for you so you can gift it to a friend or keep it for yourself (I hope you will keep it for yourself )-though it will soon be Chrsitmas.... I started knitting these 2 years ago & they sell like hot cakes. The garment is long enough to cover your head & neck & it looks equally nice worn puddled down around your n

Winners from last months giveaway are: Jess & Margareter....I'm still waiting for you to contact me so i can mail you your yarns-cottagecraftangora(at)hotmail.com Its been a busy time here at the mill & the farm !  lots of knitting & yarn making going on. My new line of Retro sweaters are selling well & life is good....it's good to be busy & have every day FULL ! Worked out our breeding programme for the coming fall, selecting Rams to father next years lambs, splitting the ladies up into small breeding groups to be sure we get as many coloured lambs as possible. All my Ram lambs are sold & due to move out to their new homes next week. I will be sad to see them go after taking care of them since the day they were born ! Again this year I kept all my ewe lambs for future breeding. The Fall is almost upon us here. Each morning the house feels colder. YAY....its slipper time again ! I found a great pattern for knitted booties that I thoug

Hat, Hats, Hats....of the Month The winner of the red shawl from July giveaway Name drawn was ''InJuneau'' With Autumn just around the corner I'm knitting lots of hats & building musk ox knitwear stock for my Christmas sales that are approaching so fast ! I have a new Website www.absoluteshetland.websiteanimal.com  for all my Shetland yarns & knitwear so please check that out soon ! While browsing around the web I found a wonderful Youtuber who has really great Tutorial video's for all her hat patterns & her patterns so far have worked Beautifully with my light Worsted weight Shetland yarns ! Her name is Pleasesant seas- (will add links at the end of this post) Her instructions are very clear & so easy to understand, a very talented lady ! Patterns are included as a knit-along to the vid & in text form when you click on her links. One of my favourites is this one: Hat of the month for July 2014/the Little mermaid-Arie

The Red Shawl Day Out♥ I heard that we were getting a new yarn store earlier last year but got so bogged down with work that i totally forgot. So when i randomly found her store during a Google search ( must be FATE) i got so overwhelmed that i shopped online ( www.pashminacaprice.com  there 3 times in a single week & as if that was not enough to top it all i decided to go there on Friday so i could drink in the atmosphere Live & buy even more yarn ! As you can see from the photo, i was very excited. Very excited indeed with my armful of Phildar yarns. I suppose i got carried away because we did not have any GOOD yarn stores in our area until Pashmina Caprice came along & i have not been able to knit with Phildar for 20 +years & Natalie's Top Selling Brand is Phildar  Looks like i found my knit heaven.....as my husband says 'OH NO' ! Your probably wondering why i buy yarn when i own a mill.....that's what he is thinking. He being my Hu

Winners of the Shetland heather yarn kit are: Vanessa & Lmecoll......please contact me with your details !

Beautiful Heather ! After the dark long winter we have been through in North America we could all do with some much needed colour. The photo above is some very Beautiful heather found in the British Isles.  I don't know about you but that colour makes me smile & my Spirit Soar !   And here is the Shetland Heather lacy glove kit that is a Warm welcome on a fresh Spring morning ! Knit circular on 3.5mm's with all over lace stitches that add such a feminine touch to the open fingered gloves. 100% Organic Shetland wool is light & airy & Perfect for all seasons. There is something very comforting about pure organic wool yarn & Knitwear that you DO NOT get with crappy Acrylics. Crappy Acrylics are just a waste of knitting time. In no time at all knitwear looks shabby... like its been to hell & back so what do you do....put it in the garbage....more crappy land fill ! Wool on the other hand is well worth your knitting time & Healthier for you &

I am still waiting for Jody to contact me with her details....Jody won the Shetland Tundra yarn for the texting mitts.....still waiting jody, hope you are ok ! Been so busy have not had much time for blogging lately. The sheep are getting ready to lamb so I'm running between the mill & barn almost hourly ! Got to get the lambing pens ready for those cute little Bundles arriving.....any day now, all my girls have got bags(their making an udder) & before you know it they will be out on the pasture with lambs....if the snow EVER LEAVES !             This year we are increasing the turn out pasture & i can't wait to see them out on that Lush Grass, healthy & gaining weight. It really warms my heart to see animals having a great life ! This is the Shetland yarns we have made in the past week: Will be making more for the Frolic show in April, hope to see you there. No Give away this month for the shetland blog but i have a giveaway on the qiviut b

Shetland Tundra yarn 20% Qivut-musk ox down- 80 % Virgin Shetland wool. 50 Gram skeins, 3ply light worsted weight yarn perfect for all the cozy knits that can be worn close to the skin ! Its Amazing how soft the Shetland yarn is with only 20% Qiviut added & i Love to be the first spinner doing such yarn..... To enlarge any of the pictures simply click on them ! Lately i Have been knitting lots of sweaters & larger Projects thought it time to make some small items for a change ! The Texting mitts above are real easy to knit & knit up quite quickly. they have a Delicate Picot edge, circular knitting & knit in 2 sections with the Leafy cuff added at the end. You can make them in the Natural solid Black colour or as i have with a natural shade of  Fawn Shetland Tundra yarn for contrast. You Will Need : 1 skein of Shetland Tundra yarn, 1 set 3.00mm D.P.N's 1 pair straight 3.5mm needles, 3 stitch markers, waste yarn(for thumb gusset) Wool needle-sharp

Happy New Year ! Our 2 winners drawn at Randon are: Congratulations to Quilt Guru & Michele Brelia......please contact me so I can mail out your smokerings in your colour choice. Please check back for my next sheepy entry.....reversible Shetland wool hats knit from our Shetland Tundra yarn that contains 20% yummie qiviut