Ever since knitting the shawl from Elizabeth Lovick's Patterns for North Ronaldsay and other 4ply/fingering and Aran Yarns last year, I have periodically checked the North Ronaldsay Yarn site to see if they had any yarn available. Sheep on North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands, live on seaweed and their wool is spun and sold from a local mill. It is sought-after and sells quickly once released. Eventually I got lucky, and managed to buy two skeins of natural 2 ply North Ronaldsay yarn to try out.I got a friend to help me wind it into balls and found a pattern In Elizabeth Lovick's book that could be made with two balls. It is a pattern for a Striped Triangular Shawl by Elly Doyle, on page 86 of the Elizabeth Lovick book mentioned above.
The wool is surprisingly soft to work with and lovely on the hands. The pattern is straightforward, working from an initial 9 stitches outwards with the line on the needle becoming the straight top edge of the shawl.It has high lanolin content, so is lovely on my hands and carries a lanolin smell.
The wool is fairly evenly spun, but does have sections that are thicker or thinner. It is slightly heavier than an average two ply, each ply being a little thicker than the finest wool. It was easy to split - or even drop - a stitch. I suspect my knitting would have been a bit more smooth and even if I had I gone down 1-2 needle sizes.
The cast-off picot row was meant to be in the lighter main colour, but I ran out at the end of the last light colour band. I had plenty of the darker brown, so finished in that. I like the effect in the dark colour. This is the first time I've used the picot edge and I will certainly use it again.
I was pleased with the overall effect of the finished product.
It blocked nicely, the stocking stitch stretching out to a slightly open effect. I didn't have a recipient in mind when I made this, but liked the finished product enough to keep it.
It's been a fun exercise to try out some of this special wool.
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