I knit a goat!

 I knit a goat recently.

I'm not kidding!  But this cute little fellow isn't just any old goat, he's a cashmere goat.  What's more, he's made of cashmere from goats raised in Scotland, from the only herd of cashmere goats in the country.  Whilst Scotland is famed for its cashmere, with mills in the Borders historically processing this luxury fibre, nowadays Asia is the primary source of these prized fleeces.  

That was until Jillian and Neil McEwan decided to raise cashmere goats on their family farm in Angus. 

"We introduced goats on the farm, specifically the South African Boer Goat and the Scottish Cashmere Goat breeds, for fibre production and their environmental benefits to our soils and nature. Goats have a low carbon footprint, produce the most luxurious Cashmere fibre and help to increase biodiversity." 

It's one thing nurturing animals to produce a beautiful coat but quite another to turn that into knitting wool or fibre to spin.   

"Every Spring, we ethically harvested our goats’ cashmere fibre, their winter undercoat, by hand combing, not shearing, to leave our goats with glossy new coats for the summer. Goats spend the summer months naturally casting their Cashmere undercoat, we are just giving them a helping hand."

Cashmere goats yield as little as 150g of raw cashmere a year, with removal of guard hairs reducing this by 50%, so there's probably only enough pure cashmere to knit a jumper for this wee fella!

To make a commercially viable yarn, the Lunan Bay cashmere is carefully blended with fleece from native Shetland sheep.  As soon as the first batch was released last autumn, I purchased a ball of the 10% Scottish Cashmere / 90% Scottish Shetland wool which arrived accompanied by this lovely note from Jillian. 

I knew I wanted to make fingerless mitts as I wear them every day in the cooler months.  Tucked into my haul from last year's Wool at Portsoy event, is a scrappy pack from hand dyer Erin at Henny Penny Makes.

Erin of Henny Penny Makes at Portsoy August 2022

I was also lucky enough to win a pattern of my choice from Sophie McKane once upon a time in a yarn related  Instagram giveaway.  Sophie's Sheep Shuffle Mitts seemed the perfect project to marry Jillian's Lunan Bay cashmere blend with Erin's colourful scrappy pack.

I knit throughout January and was delighted with the finished mitts.  I've been wearing them a lot!

But there was still a wee nugget of cashmere left....

Goat anatomy

Just enough to knit...

Fester the Goat pattern by Australian blogger Justjen

A goat!

Toys are notoriously fiddly to make, consisting of numerous pieces and endless ends.  The sewing up and stuffing can take longer than the knitting.  The eagle-eyed may have noticed I miscounted and made three ears (as well as two horns, a head, a tail, the body and an underbody) but I did achieve my aim to use every bit of the precious cashmere!

My plan was to present Jillian from Lunan Bay Farm with the tiny toy to display on her stand at the Scottish Wool Producer's Showcase, a wonderful event I attended in Perth last weekend.  The Showcase highlighted breeders, producers, smallholders and mills from all over Scotland who bring native wools and fibres to market with an emphasis on animal welfare and provenance.  Jillian gave a presentation about Lunan Bay Cashmere and I was thrilled to see my mittens appear on one of her slides!

It was only towards the end of the event that I could even approach Jillian's stall as it was so popular but I did spot a certain wee goat on display.

Lunan Bay Cashmere stand at The Scottish Wool Producers Showcase

I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to meet Jillian and learn about her farm and her goats as well as being able to knit something I cherish with her beautiful wool.

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