Beaker Button Blog

Some of you will know that I've always wanted my own sheep, which I can produce a yarn from to sell in the shop. Unfortunately I'm mildly allergic to lanolin, which makes owning sheep tricky as you can imagine. However, I had to great fortune to get to know Elizabeth of Warrenfield Farm, which is just down the road from Beaker Button, in the Clatfords. Elizabeth has a delightful flock of Hampshire Down sheep and I've been using her fleece for years to teach spinning with. It's soft, springy and wonderful to work with. This year we've gone into partnership to produce Beaker Button Warrenfield Sock yarn. It's going to be a soft and springy sock yarn in 100g skeins spun at the Natural Fibre Co. in Launceston. Cornwall. I was lucky enough to be given a tour of the factory on Monday when we delivered the fleece so I thought I'd share some of the photos with you. For those of you who are wondering part 2 is going to be all about dyeing the skeins when they'r...

I taught myself a new skill today so I thought I'd share it with you all.  Of course I'm probably doing it all wrong but it worked for me.  I've tried blending on our wild carder but could never get a nice smooth batt to spin with.  I've realised that blending fibre using a carder works much better and takes very little work.  The photos are in order below.  It was fun trying to take them one handed.  Big thanks to the Boy for helping. 1. Pick your fibre.  I used  commercially dyed and carded merino tops 2. Pull off small amounts.  I used 2 colours as a base and 4 more as accents.  The ratio was about 2 - 1 base colour to accent.  I wasn't too precise about this however.  I was more interested in getting a nice random mix. 3. Lay the carder on your knee. 4. Taking the end of the first base colour in one hand comb it through the carder starting at the edge.  I held the fibre at the end so that the teeth on t...