Fleece & Fibre
At Marlfield Farm we have a flock of native primitive sheep which produce the most wonderful and interesting fleeces. We make every effort to ensure our fleeces are of high enough quality to sell directly to spinners and craftspeople.
Once the sheep have been sheared, each and every fleece is examined closely, their details recorded, and any debris removed. We then advertise the fleeces for sale on our sister site, Marlfield Yarn, which we launched in 2018. Sometimes we process our fleeces as well; washing and carding them, and sometimes we process batches of fleece into our very own single-farm yarn.
Since we started selling our fleece products online in 2018 it became increasingly apparent that other breeders would benefit from the ability to sell online too, so in 2020 Dan launched The Fleece Shop: an online marketplace for all sellers to use. We now sell our fleeces through this site.
Each breed produces a different type of fleece, and the fleece of each animal has it's own characteristics. Shetland fleeces are reknowned for being fine and soft and for the wide variety of colours and patterns. Boreray, Soay and North Ronaldsay fleeces all have a fine undercoat and a coarser outer coat. Fleeces of these three breeds are harder to come by because of the rarity of the breeds. North Ronaldsay fleeces come in a variety of colours and are especially popular for both spinning and making "living rugs". Boreray and Soay fleece is generally a little coarser, and is used for outer garments, furnishings and soft toys.
Heather loves to get creative with the sheep fleeces, and has learnt to prepare, spin and felt with wool. Sorting fleeces is a really enjoyable job; it's exciting to get your hands onto the fleeces to see how they have turned out; whose is soft, whose is crimpy, and which colours are the most appealing each year!
