May Hill Wool

May Hill Wool

Beautiful, soft double knitting wool from Nell Credland's flock of Gotlands, Blue faced Leicester and Shetland sheep, grazing beside May Hill.

An insight from Nell: Our breeds of sheep are chosen for the best quality wool. We started our wool enterprise with Gotlands, purchased for their beautiful grey curls and because they have a mysteriously bright attitude. A few years later we introduced some Brown Blue Leicester ewes and ram to the flock . The next ram we purchased was a prize-winning Shetland (colour grey katmoget), along with some ewes, to give us even more shades and texture. We now have a selection of quality yarns and tops spun at the Natural Fibre Centre in Cornwall, some of which we dye to get subtle moorland shades. Our yarns are spun as double knitting. The carded wool felts well and we keep some fleeces back for hand spinning or just for their curls .

We are a bit crazy about real wool! Tolkein said of the magic Elven Cloak in Lord of the Rings: ”It will serve you well, light to wear or cool enough at need”. This is very true! Wool breathes and insulates. Snow will sit on a sheep for days until there is warmer weather. Garments made from wool do not need to be washed very often – just aired.