Shilasdair Yarns

Shilasdair, the Skye yarn company for natural dyeing, natural fibres, natural beauty.

From the Rustic to the Contemporary - an overview of our Products.

For the Isle of Skye visitor Shilasdair offers a peep into the misty past, when natural dyeing of plaids and tartans was the only way of dyeing . Local plants – heathers and lichens and flowering perennials of cliff, meadow and bogland - were gathered, macerated, sometimes in urine, and boiled with the wool when they released their colours to the fibre.

We have done away with the urine and use some natural dyes from abroad such as madder, cochineal, logwood and indigo. But the rustic, traditional dyeing methods remain at the core and we celebrate them by utilizing the many shades we can still obtain from those local plants that are neither endangered nor protected. And to complement that ethic we use only Scottish wool fibre, design and blend a range of handspun yarns and sweaters, mostly handknitted, and display a supplementary range of self-coloured wools - soft silvery-pearl greys from our Gotlands, Hebridean black, and every shade between.

But there is nothing rustic about the feel and look of our handknit designer garments, or the vibrant ‘living’ colours of our dyed yarns and accessories such as felted hats and scarves, and natural dyed socks. And while Scottish wool predominates, there is more than a touch of luxury in the cashmere, angora, alpaca and silk blends chosen to complement the wool in our yarns and garments and the knit kits based upon them.