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Shear Bliss: O'Brien Farm showcases knitting cycle from sheep to socks

Taking sheep's wool and turning it into something you can wear is an age-old practice, but Heritage N.L. and the Sheep Producers Association of N.L. are introducing the process to a new generation. O'Brien Farm in St. John's was bustling with excitement on May 17, as families gathered to watch demonstrations of sheep shearing, spinning yarn, and crafting items, at their Sheep to Socks event. Terra Barrett, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Program Planner at Heritage N.L., said Newfoundland and Labrador has a long history of keeping sheep — but on a smaller scale. "Traditionally families would have kept sheep for their own purposes, so for things like meat, but also for things like spinning," said Barrett. Barrett added these skills aren't practiced as much anymore. "So it'll be great to see them in action," she said. "It's a great way to showcase those traditional skills in a modern setting." Barrett says she was really surprised by the big turnout last year. "It was just amazing to see like all of the kids there see the sheep first hand … but then like walking around and kind of understanding more of the process," she said. 'Handspun yarn just feels magical' Emily Denief was a wool-spinning demonstrator at the event. She showed people how to take the raw wool – straight off the sheep's back — and spin it into wool on a large walking wheel. Denief says she has been knitting for a long time, but didn't always spin her own wool. "It came to the point where I wanted to start making more custom yarns to fit the projects that I wanted," she said. She said she started with dying her own yarn, and then started spinning it right from scratch. "That just made me love knitting so much more, honestly, because knitting with the handspun yarn just feels magical," said Denief. But she adds it's not easy to prepare wool for spinning. "I'm often asked if this is cheaper to make my own yarn. The answer is absolutely not," she said. "But it's so much more rewarding." Denief says not a lot of wool in N.L. gets converted into yarn because there is no mill in the province. Most people that she knows who work with local wool do it by hand. She said the rest ends up as waste, so she also recommends using raw sheep's wool in your garden as mulch. She says it retains moisture well and can work like a slow release fertilizer. But at the end of the day, knitting an item you can wear is her favourite thing to do with wool. "It's thick and thin, like it's rustic. There's bits that are not perfectly even and that just makes it feel like it's alive," she said.