Hi! Firstly thank you all for visiting our site and for supporting our small wool business, both myself and the flock are hugely grateful! My name is Jenny and I am so excited to reach all you like minded wool lovers and crafty people who (like me) want to know that the wool they use comes from happy, healthy sheep based in the UK.
Albany Wool began out of a love for sheep and their beautiful wool!..I began to crochet a couple of years ago, growing ever more interested in the different fibres and yarns that were available to crafters. I loved to work with 100% wool yarn but found it difficult to find out if the wool used to make the yarn was even from sheep living in the UK. It was also around this time I began to work at a friend’s sheep farm and fell in love with these beautiful animals with their amazing character and personality!
From this I decided I would start my own flock of wool sheep and process the fibre myself, producing yarns I could crochet with knowing the wool was produced by my own animals. I learned how to wash wool, how to pick and card the wool and finally how to spin it into yarn! Then to choose the right breed of sheep!…I decided on Shetland sheep, they are a small, Scottish native breed that produce a beautifully soft and fine fleece ideal for spinning…perfect! Then finally in September 2020, I was lucky to be able to start my little flock, choosing a breeder known for sheep that produce award winning fleece, I welcomed my 10 perfect Shetland girls to the farm and have loved every minute spent with them since! From the beginning I knew my sheep would be kept for their wool only, we do not send our animals for meat (we are all veggie at Albany Wool), they will live with us for their whole lives however long that may be (…I’m sure I read recently about a sheep who had reached the amazing age of 21!)
I have fallen more in love with wool every day, it is an amazing, versatile fibre that will naturally break down in the environment when no longer needed (unlike plastic/acrylic fibres). It provides warmth and protection to my sheep throughout the colder months and when the summer comes my girls are happy to be clipped and freed from their woolly jumpers, leaving me the fleece to play with!
It became clear that I was probably not the only crafter out there who wanted to know exactly where their wool came from, so I decided to create my small business, Albany Wool (named after our flock, the Albany Flock). If you would like to know where (and who!) your wool comes from please support us! Not only will your wool be ‘grown’ in the UK, you will know the name of the sheep your wool has come from and can keep track of their antics via our website or Facebook page! Be confident in the fact the wool you have purchased has come from a healthy, happy sheep who is a much loved part of our family!
Albany Wool 