Spirit at four months growing into a handsome young man. Spirit at about a year old, and ready for a first shearing. I bought my first Spirit fleece in June 2025. It arrived from the Same Star Sheep Sanctuary in a bag labelled with Spirit’s name. I try to wash the fleeces as soon as possible, they do get a bit smelly. Some people spin ‘in the grease’ and wash after the fleece has been […]
Spirit came to The Same Star Sheep Sanctuary in 2022, only a few hours old and having been rejected by his mother. Tiny and freezing cold he was nurtured and he grew. He is one very lucky sheep, allowed to live out his natural life, adored and cosseted.
The fine quality of Egyptian linen has lead to much speculation of how it might have been made. It has been shown that splicing is the answer and not traditional draught spinning. I was keen to find out more details and I believe that even the experiments of a complete novice like me give some insight. Cat Lewis of Llieinwe kindly allowed me to use some of her flax for splicing experiments. Some was thicker, […]
Madder fermentation experiment 2 was much more successful than the last. I was perhaps a little over ambitious in deciding to go for purple using madder. This what I did. Experiment 2 : 22.6.24 3000ml. water + 50 grams wheat bran + 150 ml. sourdough starter + c.100 grams wool put in a plastic container. 27.6.24 140 grams madder added. I stirred the mix daily. While bubbles were continuous, when it slowed down, I added […]
We sometimes think that how we do things is the way it’s always been done. But sometimes it’s worth questioning that. The ancient Egyptians were able to weave very fine cloth up to 60 threads per centimetre! How did they do that? Was it by the way we do things, or did they use some other method?While it might be thought that it was the spinning and weaving methods that were necessary to achieve such […]
