Lifelong Yarns

A beautiful account of the wisdom - or otherwise - of sheep.

Look at this fabulous sweater knitted in our Yarns by Ingrid Gabriela ! Ingrid purchased yarn from us at Edinburgh Yarn Festival 2018 . What a lot of work has gone in since then . Thankyou for these photos Ingrid x

We are so happy with our new woollen spun yarn. Eildon is a 4 ply yarn, spun by the Natural Fibre company. We think it beautifully captures the colours of Autumn in this part of Scotland !

Our shepherdess talks about the environment she farms.

Today Lifelong Yarns had the privilege to be featured on the Fruity Knitting podcast . On the same episode was an interview with Norah Gaughan - safe to say we were a bit chuffed !
What I want to share with you is just how much work goes into preparing content for a podcast of this calibre. Discussions began literally months in advance, after meeting at EYF 2018. Andrea sent detailed instructions , developed no doubt after both good and bad previous experiences, as to how we ...should film our segments. We almost didn't get off the first level when I failed to source a video camera of suitable quality. All my family have switched to smartphones it seems ! Several visits to our fields of sheep ensued. Footage was garnered of me skirting fleeces on a beautiful summer's day. I relied heavily on my husband's tech expertise for all of this. And then a further Skype call with Andrea to discuss the content of my 'to camera' piece. She is a perfectionist, borne I think of her training as a classical singer. We discussed content , lighting , camera angles, sound recording and more.
Once I pressed that 'send' button on all my filming, I could relax. But for Andrea, the work had just begun as she began to edit pictures and sound and source relevant photographs to illuminate the segment for viewers.
I take my hat off to her and Andrew. I have watched the Fruity Knitting podacst from the start. At the beginning, the whole knitting podcast 'thing' seemed odd to me, I couldn't 'place' it in the media I was used to until then. Now , seeing each episode drop into my Inbox is a treat to be savoured . The show is genuinely geared to the serious knitter. Now I understand the work involved, I have felt compelled to become a Patron. So, if you are an avid fan of the Fruity Knitting, or any other podcast, I suggest you might consider doing the same thing. You'd miss it if it weren't there, wouldn't you?
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A big day indeed !

It is becoming an annual tradition here at Lifelong HQ , I think - to launch a new 4ply yarn in lovely autumnal colours. Our way of welcoming Autumn and the new knitting season. This year we have created something really special. Yes, I know all yarn is special:)...but this is a real departure for us. We wanted to have a woolen spun yarn, to offer our customers the opportunity to use Blackface fleece in a wider range of garments. There are very few mills offering to spin the ...yarn of third parties in this way in the UK. Certainly, our main mill, The Border Mill, are specialists in semi-worsted techniques and the majority of our yarns will continue to be spun this way, However, for our newly named Eildon yarn, we turned to the experts at The Natural Fibre Co.in Cornwall. This obviously incurs more yarn miles for this line of yarn than our usual 50 mile radius. We thought long and hard about this. But for our little company to be able to meet the demand from our customers we need to look a little further afield for capacity and expertise. Nonetheless we remain committed to sourcing all our Blackfeece fleece from the Scottish Borders, the historic home of the sheep and to having the bulk of our yarn spun there.
Our Eildon range can first be seen at the Perth Festival of Yarn this weekend. I've uploaded some peeks of the three colourways, Soft Brown,Ochre and Raspberry. Wait till you see them in 'real life' !
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We sent the fleece of these wonderful animals to the mills at the start of June and now are excitedly receiving back our yarn . Do have a look at our shop ( link above ) to peruse the new stock - if you have been waiting for your favourite yarn to arrive , it might be there ! There will be more shop updates over the coming weeks.

Fascinating account by the shepherdess at Baddinsgill of the risks sheeps' fleece can pose to the animals themselves !

There are lots of woolly tasks to be done - shearing is beginning at Baddinsgill again , fleeces need skirted and delivered to the Mill, but it’s hard to get on when there is a new distraction at Lifelong HQ. Meet Jenny , our new Border Collie pup 😊

https://www.lifelongyarns.com/blog…/… /5/3/spreading-the-love Spreading the love...In our latest blogpost we explain how the support our little biz has received in the last few months has allowed us to donate to the incredible Treesisters charity www.treesisters.org