Thickthorne Llamas

09/04/2026

The 'Buddleia yarn, the hanks are approx 168 grams and 181 grams....you never know how much is on the bobbins until the yarn is plied and weighed.

I had to start the preparation from scratch, as I discovered, belatedly, that I had run out of roving to spin. So I needed to wash and drum card the wool first, but it was very nice to spin.

08/04/2026

It's been a busy season, which is obviously very pleasing, and also a great incentive to replenish the stock in the gallery.
The electric spinner has been working steadily on producing more Gotland knitting yarn.
The latest addition is two generous hanks of Gotland ""Buddleia" yarn, which has always been very popular. I like it best when it turns out reddish-purple, which certainly happened this time.

06/03/2026

18/11/2025

Two handspun skeins of Gotland "Sea Mist" yarn added to the Gallery.
The yarn had been spun for a while before I was able to dye it. My dye 'station' is an old cowshed, situated near some tall, very mature, trees, so I wasn't keen to spend much time down there after we had those wild winds.

This colour looks grey, but it's overdyed with the dye formula which I've always used for Sea Mist. However, I think I made the dye solution a little weaker than usual.....

28/07/2025

Four of the better fleeces. Much of my time has been spent sorting wool over the last two months, so now I can clean up the woolshed and catch up on other jobs.
But I enjoy handling the wool, so it's no problem.

28/07/2025

Some of my Gotland fleeces, waiting to be packed into a wool pack, to send to Japan. This all happened last week.

18/07/2025

Yes, this is a finished skein of handspun Guanaco yarn, and no, it hasn't taken me?? months to spin it since my last post 😊. But yes, the dehairing machine did break down, although thankfully it managed to dehair about 700 grams of fibre first, which gave me a goodly amount of fibre for spinning.

Although the machine has been fixed for a while now, I've been sorting Gotland fleeces to send to my overseas market, so this has had to take priority over the spinning.

And in the meantime, the weaving loom is waiting, too.....

03/06/2025

The first batch of dehaired Guanaco fibre. I'm able to spin from this, so will post a photo of the knitting yarn when I've finished spinning it.

PS Although the dehairing machine did indeed break down before I could put any more fibre through it, I switched projects for a few weeks. I needed to thread up the weaving loom (which took ages) but now my Other Half has fixed the dehairer, I can go back to it, whenever....

21/03/2025

Just washed 700 grams, and spread it out to dry.
It was previously sorted, so all I need to do next is wash some more batches, dry them, and put them through the dehairing machine. This process delivers a 'cloud' of fibre, which I'll be able to spin without carding it.

Fingers crossed that the machine doesn't break down..... it's old and has a mind of its own. (Like its owner!)

21/03/2025

Starting right at the beginning, to construct some more knitting/weaving yarn for the Gallery.
Sadly, the mill in the Hawkes Bay is no longer operating, and I'm needing to process all my own yarn.... They had to return all the growers' fibre, prior to selling the business.

We didn't shear any llamas this season, as I have more than enough fibre to deal with at present.
This bag has 3kg of Guanaco fibre, which was returned.