British Wool For Spinning - Shetland

 I Like to promote British Wool and Rare Breed sheep's wool.  I am gradually adding more to the shop.  Here are a few Shetland wools we have in the shop.

Shetland from The Cotswolds

This is some lovely local Shetland from a local farm here in the Cotswolds.  I have used this wool quite a lot, It has been hand scoured and it is lovely and soft when spun.  It takes quite a lot of carding to get a really smooth fibre but is worth the effort. I do like working with hand processed fleece as you have much more variation of colour and I actually like a variation in texture too that is much harder to achieve with commercially processed wool.   It is in the shop now in 50 bags    Shetland Wool

Commercially Processed Shetland Top  

For less work, we also have lovely Shetland Mootit Top, ready to spin.  Commercially processed top lacks some of the character of hand processed fleece, but it is a lot less work.  It comes in a chain which you can just pull out gently to undo and start spinning.  You can find it in the shop here Moorit Shetland Top

Grey Shetland is another lovely wool and goes so well with the Moorit or the White, together they would make a beautifully warm jumper!  Grey Shetland Top

The White Shetland is also lovely to spin and is here White Shetland Top

Nostepinne - what it is and how to use it

A Nostepinne is a really handy tool for hand winding a centre pull ball of wool.  It is tapered one end, where you wind your ball, so you can slide it off easily and has a handle the other end.

A hand turned Nostepinne

These are a brilliant tool if you like to rewind commercial balls of wool to make it easier to knit from, or divide a ball into two small balls for sock knitting.   Also Ideal for spinners to wind balls from their skeins or hanks.

So how do you use it? well you will develop you own technique with practice, but the basic principal is quite simple.  I would suggest for beginners to tie the end around the handle to start with, just to stop it disappearing somewhere in the ball, never to be found again. Then wind round the centre of the tapered top part a few times until you a lump starting to form.  Once you have this to work over you need to start winding diagonally and as you wind turn the nostepinne in the other hand.  The method is not that easy to describe, much easier to demonstrate.

In the first photo you can see how I have tied the end around the handle and easy to undo knot is the best, it doesnt need to be tight.

Nelly - Inspecting my work as usual 

The video below shows the winding method 

When you have wound all your wool on you will have an oval shaped ball on your Nostepinne and its now ready to take off.  Untie the know around the handle and pull it off its as simple as that.  The strand on the outside can be tucked in under some of the other outside strands, to keep it tidy and the other end should unravel easily from the inside.

All done and ready to use

We have hand turned Nospetinnes in our shop here Hand Made Nostepinne we also have some Knitpro Nostepinnes here KnitPro