Hilltop Cloud
  • About
    • Dugoed
  • Shop
    • Fibre
    • Tools
    • Handspun Yarn
    • Hand Turned Tools
    • Bags and Needle Cases
  • Fibre Clubs
    • Time Travellers Club >
      • TT Club Spinning Hints
    • Never Ending Gradient Club
    • Non-Wool Club
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Hilltop Cloud Community
  • Workshops
  • Shows
  • Spinning Hand Dyed Fibre
  • Packaging
  • Fibres
    • Bases
    • Gradient Packs
    • Tussah Silk
    • Silk Road
    • Nordic
    • Fibre Care
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • Garment Spinning
    • Flyers and Ratios
    • Skein Length
    • Plying Twist
    • Samples
  • Hand Dyed Warps
  • Accessibility
  • About
    • Dugoed
  • Shop
    • Fibre
    • Tools
    • Handspun Yarn
    • Hand Turned Tools
    • Bags and Needle Cases
  • Fibre Clubs
    • Time Travellers Club >
      • TT Club Spinning Hints
    • Never Ending Gradient Club
    • Non-Wool Club
  • Online Courses
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Hilltop Cloud Community
  • Workshops
  • Shows
  • Spinning Hand Dyed Fibre
  • Packaging
  • Fibres
    • Bases
    • Gradient Packs
    • Tussah Silk
    • Silk Road
    • Nordic
    • Fibre Care
  • Resources
    • Videos
    • Garment Spinning
    • Flyers and Ratios
    • Skein Length
    • Plying Twist
    • Samples
  • Hand Dyed Warps
  • Accessibility

Cambria

1/7/2017

 
Cambrian, not to be confused with Cumbria (home to Woolfest, Herdwick sheep, and English),  is an area in the central of Wales. Put bluntly, it's that bit in the middle. The bit that when you look at a map seems rather unpopulated, and doesn't have much by way of roads...
Picture
It's been described as the Green Desert of Wales (because of the lack of people and roads, not due to the rainfall!), and if you want to see the stars there's practically no light pollution. What we do have a lot of is sheep... one visitor from the US commented to me that she had no idea just how many sheep she'd see on an almost continual basis. 
I've always found it a real shame that I couldn't get more local wool... We don't have a farm ourselves, and whilst I know of ways I could source fleece, and have it processed I could never manage to do it on a scale where it made economic sense. 

However, there is now a CIC (Community Interest Company) who are doing just that. They're buying up the fine wool clip from farms in the Cambrian Mountains, and getting it processed in to yarn and combed top. The sheep they're using are known as Mules, a mule in this context is a crossbreed sheep. The upland sheep around here are Welsh Mountains, they're small, hardy, excellent mothers, and do well on the upland areas. However their fleece isn't very fine, and the lambs aren't quick growing, or large  enough for the modern meat market. So many farmers use a BFL Ram, and create a cross-breed. This gives the best of both worlds. For our purposes as spinners that means the fleece is much finer, longer, and far more useful for clothing. If you're careful about the fleeces you select, you can easily find fibre that looks like this. I've been in the Newtown Wool Marketing Board sorting depot a couple of times, and this sort of fleece is not unusual.
Picture
And the really good part... I now stock the wool top. And it's beautiful. 
Picture
I will of course be dyeing it in all my usual dyeing styles, but I also wanted to do something that linked the wool back to the landscape. So I've developed 5 colourway packs, called Colours of Cambria. For me, these are the accent colours of home, there's a Pinterest Board with some inspiration images, and the packs.
I need to get some more dyed up for the online shop, but hope to do that this week, when they're available you'll be able to find them here. 
​
We've had a bit of a chat in the Ravelry group recently about using up 100g chunks of fibre, but the nice thing about this wool is that you can also buy it as commercially spun yarn, in lots of colours and  in DK and Fingering weight. If you fancy getting some hand dyed yarn then my neighbours Wrigglefingers and Barber Black Sheep stock the base. 
I did some speed spinning and knitting to get a sample ready for Woolfest using one of the Colours of Cambria packs, together with 100g of the undyed fibre. 
Picture
and then turned it in to a Punctuated cowl. It's soft, but has good structure, it won't end up looking pilled and fluffy where it rubs against your coat. It certainly passed the Mum prickle test.
Picture
I hope you're going to enjoy working with something that comes from the place I call home... 
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    More
     BlogPosts

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Bees
    Chickens
    Countryside
    Dogs
    FO's
    KitILove
    Non Wool Club
    Rhinebeck
    Shop Talk
    Spinning
    Spinningwithapurpose
    SpoinnersAdvent
    Weaving

    RSS Feed

    follow us in feedly

Hilltop Cloud

Hilltop Cloud- Spin Different 

Beautiful fibre you'll love to work with. 
Established 2011 

VAT Reg- 209 4066 19
Dugoed Bach, Mallwyd, Machynlleth,
​ Powys, SY20 9HR
Subscribe to our 
​Email Newsletter
Join the Hilltop Cloud Mighty Network