Tease and Spin is situated in a traditional cottage in the heart of the Edale Valley in the beautiful English Peak District. The village is well known to walkers as the start of the popular Pennine Way trail and as an access point onto Kinder Scout, scene of the historic Mass Trespass in 1932.

Tease and Spin is dedicated to ensuring that traditional skills, such as the hand spinning and dyeing of wool, are not lost. Demand for cheap, mass produced goods has forced a decline in these skills in recent years. There is now a resurgence of interest, as the quality and uniqueness of handcrafted goods is being recognised.

Whitefaced Woodland sheep are a breed native to an area of the southern Pennines where the counties of Derbyshire, Lancashire and Yorkshire meet.

In the early 1970’s, numbers became critically low but a renewed interest in the breed has improved the situation and it is now questionable whether Whitefaced Woodland sheep can still be classed as a rare breed.

They are a large, hardy sheep, horned in both sexes and have a surprisingly good fleece for a hill breed - akin to the quality of a Derbyshire Gritstone fleece. With a good staple length of ten to fifteen centimetres and a count of 50-54, the fleece is ideal for novice spinners and suitable for handknitting, weaving and tapestry. The wool is very white when washed and readily takes up dyes, both commercial and natural plant dyes.

Britain’s wealth was founded on the wool trade, and to signify this, the Lord Chancellor sits on a wool sack in the House of  Lords. Dating back to the reign of Edward III (1327-1377), it was originally stuffed with English wool but today it is filled with wool from each of the Commonwealth countries, as a sign of unity.

Due to a rising demand for cheap, man made fibres, the availability of high quality wool on world markets, and changing lifestyles e.g. centrally heated houses, the price of British wool has fallen to an all time low. A wool producer can only expect to receive an average of about 40p per kilo for a fleece, barely enough to cover the cost of shearing. Wool has qualities vastly superior to those of man made fibres but because it felts easily (shrinks) when washed and cannot easily be machine washed, it has fallen out of favour in today’s society.