First-Ever Shetland Wool Blankets

Wool blankets are my passion and focus. I've been wanting to try different plied wools for the warp, and this Shetland two-ply is new to me.

The Bergå wool I talked about for one of my early blankets is very nice using a sett of 10 ends/inch, but it's hard to obtain now. I've been using a thicker two-ply at 8 epi but wanted something a little finer. This project uses a lighter-weight Shetland wool with a heathery or tweedy look that helps the colours blend well. I'm warping it at 12 epi. Not only will I weave with the warp wool, but I usually have various handspun wool, alpaca and blends on hand.

Choosing colours for these blankets was the hardest part - the palette is beautiful. I'm using two tweedy shades of brown - one is a reddy shade and the other is duller and greyer with a yellow tinge - along with charcoal and natural (white). I'm returning to what I call twill blocks, but making block changes within some of the colour stripes instead of always correlating the colour changes with the block structure.  Get it?

Thanks to Jane at Jane Stafford Textiles for her excellent service and then her assurance to get me started when I had some concerns about this new wool. Jane also has a great helpline on her website with good advice and specific answers to common questions.