The Hand Dyed Shetland fibre

I hadn’t spun with Shetland Fibre before but had worked with commercially spun Shetland Yarn a great deal over the years. Hand Spun Shetland was a total revelation, light, springy and beautifully soft.

After dyeing and washing the Shetland fibre along with a number of different fibres the Shetland was the first dry and literally spring back to life.

A test draft made me decide on a lace weight spin for this fibre as the fibres held together easily and drafted easily making it ideal for a lace weight spin.

Being non superwashed the fibres needed a little prep-ping before spinning. The fibre was teased out and then striped down the full length twice to create 4 new sections. Each of these were predrafted to help with the lace weight spin.

From the 100gs of fibre I spun 400 metres after plying. The yarn has now been knitted up into the Elevations Shawl.