The Pandemic Blanket Series

The Pandemic Blanket Series


After the nine eleven attacks that rocked and shocked the world, I did a series of blankets: security blankets, medicine blankets, and love blankets. It has been many years since I made a blanket, but during the Covid isolation period, I found myself once again, interested in blankets. As we all quarantined and cocooned, I begin to crave the soft enfolding comfort of the gentle and warm hand woven wool blanket.

This year I have been in love with the Shetland breed of sheep. If you have seen one Shetland sheep, one fleece, as they say, well, you have seen one Shetland! The Shetland is an primitive breed, small in size, and big in personality. They are very pet like. They apparently came in more colors and patterns than any other breed. 

As with many primitive breeds, they are not suited to factory use because of the lack of uniformity, and this is one of the reasons they are particularly endearing to me. Some have a double coat, with a soft downy undercoat, as well as the stronger guard hairs; others have a single coat. 


There is a wide variety of types of fur on the different parts of the fleece as well, with some soft or coarse, and some long or short, plus color variations. The color will even transform from one season to another. All, on a single sheep!


 I spin one amazing fleece in which you can clearly see the lamb was born dark blue gray, but then turned white: the first inch next to skin was dark, then changes abruptly to white! At shearing time, this one would have appeared dark on the outside, but was white under that! I learn that this is the trait from which the original tweeds were made.

Some roo: the coat comes off all by itself in the spring, either it falls off in pieces, or all at once with a little brushing or combing. This makes a very soft yarn, as there are no cut edges on the hairs. 




So, as the shows and fairs begin to be cancelled due to the pandemic, I begin to look to online sources for raw fleeces to spin. First I call a Shetland sheep farmer I know in my own neighborhood.  I visit her farm and buy five beautiful Shetland fleeces. Each one is so unique. I am intrigued. Most spin right off the locks, with no need to card it first. The fleeces of a Shetland tend to be small, often, only a pound or two. It is usually not very heavy with lanolin, though.




I also find some heritage Shetland fleeces in the land where my ancestry DNA test reveals some of my ancestors are from. Packages arrive by mail from Northern Europe. So exciting!


It turns out that due to importation restrictions, Shetland sheep can’t just trot onto a plane or boat and move into a farm in the US. Breeders must go to Europe get some semen from a Shetland, and then back breed, for several generations, to the Shetland, by successive mixing with some other breed off sheep that are already here. This fact has led to some interesting diversity that has been introduced to the Shetland name here in the States. It is no wonder they are considered pretty much a different breed from the European strains. 

So as I buy online, I find a very wide variety of traits in the fleeces. Some are curly, some are straight, some very soft, others not so much. My favorite ones lately have been ones that have little ringlets so tight you could curl one around a toothpick. I spin these in a way that keeps the ringlets and features them.


The yarn I spin is loose and fluffy; “woolen” style. I weave squares on a CinDWood potholder style loom; diagonal pattern, not square. The results are loose and fluffy. 

Soon I have piles and heaps of squares. The blankets require many, many squares, depending on the size of the squares. I join the larger squares together by pulling the side loops together into one another. This method requires no extra yarn, but does add a little bit of warping, as the squares tighten at the join. 
I join the smaller squares by actually sewing them together with external matching yarn, using a figure 8 shaped stitch.

I dye over both the dark and light fleece colors. The colors I dye over white are bright and pure. Some of these, I dye lightly, to produce pastel colors. With the naturally dark fleeces, of course, the colors come out in darker shades, and with less dye, the duller shades.

Next it is time for my color compositions. This is the really fun part. Every creative production is, as they say, ninetynine percent perspiration, and one percent inspiration. This would be the inspiration part. 

The first six blankets are monochromatic. Controlling the color is tough. I am so tempted to add more colors, to go full rainbow, even! But I hold my fire. Between the many shades and pure colors and pastels, plus the whites, grays and blacks, there is plenty enough diversity to work with.




But finally, on blanket seven, I can’t hold back any longer: