An exciting little update on My St Kilda Tweed Project!

Back in July, during my visit to Scotland, I collected 30 kilograms of Soay fleece from Hilton Hill Farm in Fife and 40 kilograms of Boreray fleece from Airy Farm on the island of Stronsay in Orkney.

Most of that wool was delivered to The Border Mill to be spun into yarn for the first length of St Kilda tweed I intend to weave on the island in 2027.

However, I also gave my wonderful collaborator, Cecilia Charlton, 5 kilograms of each breed's fleece.

Cecilia is undertaking the enormous task of preparing and hand-spinning this wool for the second length of tweed that I hope to weave during our four-week stay on St Kilda next May and June.

And now the transformation has begun!

Cecilia has been busy washing and carding the fleeces, and she has kindly sent me these fascinating photographs showing the process so far.

One interesting discovery was just how much lanolin was present in the Soay fleeces — considerably more than in the Boreray.

The photographs also reveal the remarkable differences between these two ancient breeds of sheep. The Soay has a comparatively short staple, while the Boreray produces some beautifully long fibres.

And just look at those wonderful natural colours!

Cecilia tells me that the wool from both breeds is absolutely beautiful once carded.

With her PhD studies currently demanding much of her time, Cecilia hopes to begin spinning in late December or early January.

Once that work is underway, I hope to share a much more detailed account of the entire process, from raw fleece to hand-spun yarn.

For now, I thought you might enjoy this little glimpse behind the scenes.

Every handful of wool brings us another step closer to recreating a cloth that has not been woven on St Kilda since the evacuation of its inhabitants in 1930.

And what makes this particularly special is that we are working with the same two breeds of sheep traditionally associated with St Kilda tweed — Boreray for the warp and Soay for the weft.

My thanks, as always, to Cecilia for her extraordinary contribution to this project and for sharing these lovely photographs.

The journey continues!