PANEL 88    Sheep Shearing

Wool was pulled or combed out of fleeces before sheep were sheared and as the animals shed winter wool, this could be relatively easy. But, as wool production intensified in the Middle Ages, fleeces had to be sheared in the spring clip, often before lambing if the weather was not too cold. Washing the wool was a significant part of the process and there is a Scots song that remembers oily or tarry oo, the word for wool:

 

Tarry Oo, Tarry Oo,

Tarry Oo is ill tae spin,

Caird it weel, caird it weel,

Caird it weel ere ye begin.

When ’tis cairded, row’d and spun,

Then the wark is halflins done,

But when woven, drest and clean,

It may be cleading for a queen.

 

Panel stitched by:

Pentland Stitches

Ali Cameron

Sara-Jayne Donaldson

Hilda Ibrahim

Angela E Lewis

Meg Macleod

Ann Mair

Carmel Ross

Stitched in:

Thurso, Dunnet, Caithness