2026 marks an exciting new chapter for us. We are introducing several new rare and heritage breeds to our flock and are currently redeveloping our historic cow shed into The Ewe Loft—a unique hub dedicated to showcasing the value and beauty of our "living fleeces." Through collaboration with like-minded shepherds, smallholders and rare breed advocates, we are committed to raising awareness of these exceptional breeds and supporting their long-term conservation.
Exciting developments are already underway as we redevelop our much-needed new cow shed and Ewe Loft. This new space will allow us to bring all of our fibre products together under one roof, making production more efficient and helping us reduce our ever-growing waiting list.
The expanded workspace will enable us to create more of our popular "Cosy Without the Cruelty" rugs – beautifully crafted sheepskin-style rugs made from felted fleece, with no skins involved and the sheep very much alive and thriving. It will also give us greater capacity to produce our range of wool, fibre, soap, raw fleeces and other handcrafted products.
We're also delighted to be expanding our collaborations. Our shepherd friend Lucy is helping us increase our knitted stock, while our talented new friend Hil, who has completely fallen in love with the stunning Wensleydale locks, is designing a range of unique felting kits especially for us.
With so many exciting projects taking shape, 2026 is all about building and growing. By 2027, we hope to be sharing our passion for rare breeds, sustainable fibres and traditional crafts with even more people than ever before
"Delighted with the fleece and looking forward to spinning it. The service was excellent and delivery was quick. I especially like the fact that it is from a 'no kill flock' as this is very difficult to find".
"Such a lovely seller, went above and beyond to make this a special gift. really meaningful. Absolutely beautiful wool".
Since the loss of my very dear friend Caroline, and the move to the new smallholding in 2025, it has been a time of deep reflection. We are still connected to the old place — we continue to keep sheep there, although we are no longer involved in the day-to-day running of it — but this past year has made me think hard about what Crowkeldwick, and the whole Living Fleece Flock idea, is really all about.
So wool sales have been going so well, and I've been keeping in touch with a lot of our buyers, who are becoming our knitting friends ... so I've been thinking about setting up a newsletter in which I can start to share more news about what we are working on, more about our fleecy adventures, but also share some of the amazing things that people are making with our fleeces. The first one will hopefully be ready in March ... If you want to subscribe to our newsletter please email ewe@crowkeld.co.uk
We have been asked by lots of people who do not like using social media if we will start doing our blog updates like we did on our old website, so we have decided that we will bring back the blog, and do a short round up each month, looking back and looking forward. We hope that you enjoy these snapshots into our farming life.
So this is our first official new blog post. The last few months have been some what trying for most farmers and smallholders, the weather, politics, cost of living crisis continues, but I have heard more and more positive stories from young farmers, and more people wanting to work together on projects (watch this space for exciting things in 2026) for diversification, so this gives me great hope for the future. We now concentrate on a mostly fibre flock, working with some beautiful animals. This not only brings us great pleasure and peace, being outside in nature, working with our hands looking after them (the flock), but then also working with our hands again when we are crafting with their fibre. Being with the flock gives you time to think away from your phone and computer, really think about what is important in life, especially as you get older and start to loose friends. This year has been a year of great sadness and loss, but also one of new beginnings, new ideas and new projects. An amazing shepherd called Lucy in the depths of Scotland has come into my world. We have never met in person, but we now work together, chat lots over WhatsApp, she and her friend Eunice (of significant age, and who also grew up on a farm) now have started designing and knitting for me ... very soon in our on line shop we will have the Eunice range of hats, wrist warmers and much more ... I am also working with my good friend Helen at Gam Farm, we are planning some exciting things for 2026 starting in March. We think it's about time we shared our love of crafting with the world, and will be launching a series of Sunday workshops obviously using fleece. All of this would not be possible without the help of 'Shepherd Jen' who has well and truly got the sheep bug ...