A simple shawl/scarf designed for handspun.

I live in the hills of Wales, around here the sheep have to be tough, they spend a lot of time up on the hills in all weather. However down in the valleys (cwm, pronounced coom, in Welsh) the sheep live a far more pampered life style. This pattern is inspired by the differences in sheep breeds, unsurprisingly the sheep breeds that live up on the hill have much rougher fleeces than the valley breeds.

As handspinners we can create textural difference out of the same breed of fleece by using different spinning techniques. Down in the valley is a softly spun woolen style single. Up on the hills is a much tougher worsted spun 2-ply. Wrapped around your neck this will do as good a job at keeping out all types of weathers as the hill sheep’s fleece, with the added bonus that it’s as beautifully soft as the valley sheep’s fleece.

You need 140m of worsted spun smooth yarn, and 70m of woolen spun fluffy yarn, or a commercial equivalent. The samples knitted for the pattern used Drops Alaska (2 skeins) and Drops Nepal (1 skein)

In the pattern published in Yarnmaker, Yarn 1 refers to your worsted spun, smooth textured yarn.