Love.Yarn.Shop.

Whilst hand spinners have always enjoyed spinning yarn from just one breed of sheep, larger spinneries have been developing Breed specific yarns. My first encounter was in England at the Yarntopia event in London. There I met Blacker Yarns, who have their standby’s—Blue Faced Leicester, Gotland, Jacob, and Shetland—but also have limited edition rare breeds, like Hill Radnor and Oxford Down. Cultivating breed specific yarns has been a growing interest in the United States. Right now I carry American Shetland from Montana and Colorado, Navajo Ramouillet, Cormo from Wyoming, Merino from Virginia, and Jacob from Vermont, so I was happy with Katie Sullivan of Bobolink Yarns in Vermont contacted me to carry the Breed specific yarns she is producing from local, mainly meat farms who do not use their wool: Cheviot, Coopworth, Clun Forest, and Romney. Katie is also interested in capturing wool which is going in the dump. She has upcycled mill ends from Darn Tough Socks that she has spun and dyed into beautiful and vibrant lace weight yarn. In addition, she is interested in figuring out how to put to use wool that is not appropriate for spinning but can be used for other purposes: mulching, soaking up spills, heat-resistant fabrics, etc. She will be speaking at the shop on Friday, March 11th, at 5:00 when we’ll be able to knit with some of her yarns. Join us!