Shetland is a soft traditional British wool that is very easy to blend, either with other wool colours or with exotic fibres, in a hand carder or drum carder because of its shorter staple length.
Black is a difficult colour to get using natural dyes, if you want black yarn, the easiest solution is to start with wool from black sheep. You can then over dye it with madder or woad to get a black with great depth.
This wool felts quite quickly although not as quickly as Blue-faced Leicester. The felt is soft but with a hairy finish that adds contrast and texture to other wools. For an unusual background for embroidery try felting a thin layer of black Shetland wool with a thin layer of silk hankies on top.
Price
£2.65
You can buy these fibres for spinning and dyeing and many more;
Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) Wool Tops: BFL is a British wool that is highly prized for its similarity to mohair and for its attractive, silky, lustrous yarns. Blue-faced Leicester dyes very well and felts easily and quickly to a smooth, silky finish. This beautiful British fibre comes in natural cream, oatmeal and brown colours.
Shetland Wool Tops: Shetland is a soft traditional British wool that is very easy to blend either with other wool colours or with exotic fibres in a hand carder or drum carder because of its shorter staple length.
Shetland-Tussah silk 50% Blend: Feel & see the luxury of silk in this 50% Tussah silk blend with the added warmth & stretch of wool. Blends with less than 50% don’t look like silk. You need at least 50% to both feel and see the silk.
