Today’s episode is mainly about wool and knitting, but the title stands as a good reminder that my views do often extend beyond this!

You can also listen on iTunes, the podcast app, or search your favourite podcatcher, if you prefer!

Shownotes

The words sh*t and piss are used a couple of times in this episode, and is *mostly* relation to my landlord mostly! This is in the first few minutes. I will mark this episode as explicit for those who need a sweary trigger warning!

| My views extend beyond craft. The content I decide for my social media and my podcast is up to me. You don’t pay to download episodes and you don’t pay to follow me on social media. My content, like speech and thought, is FREE. We can definitely disagree and we can definitely enter into a discussion, but unrelenting confirmation bias from the echo-chamber is not welcome. Do click unfollow an unsubscribe. As my good chum says – it’s not me, it’s you.

| In the Loop 10 – I recently went and presented a paper at In The Loop 10 Conference, at Winchester School of Art. I was not talking about British wool this time. I may share the paper with you another time. I cannot yet unpack the entire conference, but – as always with this conference – so much food for thought and so many great speakers. It was great to see, in particular, Linda Newington, Jessica Hemmings, Rose Sinclair and Zoe Fletcher. At some point the WSA hope to make the presentations available online. I will link to this when that is possible.

One of the best bits was visiting the Knitting Reference Library!

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PIG IN SHIT! #intheloop10 #knittingreferencelibrary

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| Caithness Croft from Beardy Chiel –  John Glen has created his own yarn using fleece from a local farm to him in Caithness.  I was delighted that John wanted me to try this out and what a lovely yarn it is. The breed content is Suffolk and BelTex. I’m partial to Suffolk, but rarely do you find it (named) on yarn labels. Beltex have a face only a mammy Beltex may love – they are primarily a meat sheep and look like the bruiser on the block. Both produce a lovely medium fleece and in this yarn they are a lovely match. The yarn has a lovely light lustre on it and immediately it reminded me of my Dad’s aran jumper – a nostalgic wool yarn that will stand up to a lot of wear. I am currently knitting a sock with the 50g skein that John kindly sent me to squish and I will report back on the wear!

It cost £12.50 for 50g /88m DK skein. The price tag makes it a considered purchase for me for large projects, but it will be great for mitts, hats and I think socks too! It is available exclusively from The Beardy Chiel website.

| Natures Shades Along – Thank you for your enthusiasm for our KAL! It is great to see all of the cast ons and WIPs in the group on Ravelry. There will be prizes announced very soon!

The cast off is 31st August – there will be another podcast before the end of the KAL. Prizes won’t be drawn until the end of September!

| STOP PRESS: North Atlantic Native sheep and Wool – Uist Wool is hosting the 8th annual conference. I am so looking forward to this! I am definitely going and if you are interested then you should definitely head on over to Uist Wool’s website .  This is not an knitting event, well, not exclusively.

The focus on the conference is shepherding, food and meat and also wool crafts. The North Atlantic Native Sheep group include breeds like Shetland, Hebridean, Gotland, North Ronaldsay, Manx, Icelandic, Soay, Boreray, etc and the conference bring together sheep and wool workers of the North Atlantic region to collectively discuss the difficulties facing native breed sheep today!

Will I see you there?

| Wool Exploration: Dorset Breeds

Hover over images for info.

Dorset Horn

A lovely plump wool, grippy, slight halo, looks like it will be great for colourwork, faint sheepy smell. Softer to the touch than it looks. Oldfashioned wool, like great vintage sweater wool.