Shropshire wool has an established reputation as a good quality hand-knitting yarn, and is described by the British Wool Marketing Board as “Fine with a pleasantly soft handle and almost free from kemp and grey and black fibres”. The staple length is typically between 10 to 15cm and Shropshire wool has a Quality Count of 54s to 56s.

Over the past year, Lyn has experimented with dyeing Shropshire wool from the Alderton Flock, using natural pigments mostly from plants.  The wool of purebred Shropshires is white and she has found that it takes colour extremely well, which has inspired her to use a range of natural dyes that do not require mordants.  Mordants are metallic salts which the wool is boiled with before dyeing – so it’s more environmentally friendly not to use these.

Using the famous medieval dye root, madder, Lyn has been able to create a range of colours extending from a dry-bracken red brown, through flaming orange-reds and wine colours to pale, subtle pinks. 

Green walnut hulls and walnut shells have created a pleasing palate of browns. Birch bark has provided pale red browns, and buckthorn bark a range of lively red –yellows.  Beetroot has provided pale primrose yellow, and sloes a versatile pale pink-fawn. The only dyestuff which has required a mordant is the indigo, grown in a friend’s garden. 

Lyn shares dye recipes and notes on dyeing with friends in the Oxfordshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers.  Expert spinners from the Guild have been favourably impressed with the quality of Shropshire yarn, and Lyn has incorporated both handspun and machine spun Shropshire wool into woven pieces. She is always experimenting with new materials, so will add to the range of colours described above.

Although Shropshire wool is naturally white, the Alderton flock contains a small number of Shropshire cross Shetland sheep which produce grey and brown coloured fleeces.

Pippa prioritises breeding for high quality fleeces from the pure-bred Shropshires and has won several prizes for wool on the live animal in recent years. These include winning the Shropshire “Wool On The Hoof” classes at the Shropshire & West Mid Show in 2005. 2006 and 2007, and at the Stafford County Show in 2007, in each case judged by an expert from the British Wool Marketing Board. Sheep from the Alderton Flock were also awarded a special prize for the best wool quality of all Shropshires exhibited at the Three Counties Show, Malvern in 2007 by expert judges from Germany.