Sheepkin Rugs for our Self Catering on Orkney

Wishful thinking

I have always wanted a sheepskin rug. Mum once worked in a small factory/shop run by her close friend that made and sold sheepskin products. We often had beautiful warm sheepskin mittens in the house when I was little, but my love was the rug in front of the fireplace. I loved lying on that rug watching TV, or rolling myself up in it and dozing off. I have a vivid memory of losing a tooth in it’s creamy depths when I was about eight. I had rushed to tell mum and to make sure the Tooth Fairy would visit that night, stumbled in my haste and dropped the precious tooth on the rug. It promptly vanished. I searched for hours running my fingers through the soft silky fibres desperately trying to find the tooth. I only gave up when Dad reassured me that the Tooth Fairy was magic after all and would find it even if I couldn't.

When we moved to North Wald a few years ago and we took over the small holding the prospect of making my own Sheepskin rug began to slowly sneak up on me. Although we don’t actually keep sheep ourselves, yet, we do allow the neighbouring farm to graze their sheep in our fields. It crossed my mind that I might ask if I could get a skin from them when they next slaughtered a sheep for the freezer. I was not sure I would ever get round to it as I had no idea what I would do with one if I did get it. However, I did start to research on the internet how to make a raw skin into a fluffy beautiful rug. I began to be a bit put off. I had no intention of getting involved with the sort of chemicals involved in this process.

Then, suddenly, the next farm called and asked if I would like three skins as they had just slaughtered three sheep. Before even thinking about it I said yes. Was I mad!!!! They arrived via a bucket on the front of a tractor and we hauled them into the byre. There was an old small scaffolding section there and we hung the skins over them. What on earth now! I was on the internet in a flash and the first thing I needed to know was how to prepare them. Salt seemed to be the answer, so a quick call to hubby who later arrived home from work with a few kilos of salt in his possession. I spread each fleece out and roughly poured salt on them. With hind site I used far more than I needed but I didn't spread it to the edges nearly carefully enough.

This was only supposed to be for a couple of days but, day followed day and before I realised a couple of weeks had passed. I had however done a lot more research and decided how to proceed. I had ordered the necessary Alum from the web and bought salt and washing soda at the local supermarket. I began to imagine those rugs on the floor of the cottage and caravan. I did keep a check on them and they did not seem to be rotting or getting infested in anyway.

Relegated to the Toolshed

The next task was to scrape them to remove all the bits of “stuff” left clinging to the skin. Articles had indicated that this would be a long and arduous task. I did the first two on the kitchen table, after shaking off the excess salt outside. It didn't take as long as I thought it would but to be honest I don’t think I was thorough enough. I had to trim the skins quite drastically round the edges where I had not salted properly but otherwise they seemed well preserved. It took a variety of tools to scrape the skins. I tried serrated small knives, steak knives, big carving knives, and anything that I could hold comfortably while scraping. I eventually ended up using a paint scraper. This worked quite well. I had to do the next skin out in the tool shed as Hubby complained about the smell. I didn't mind the smell. It just smelt like uncooked lamb – which in essence it was.

Next I washed them. I managed to get each one in turn into the washing machine, only just, with a wool wash liquid on a cold wash. This removed a lot of the dirt on the wool. I then trimmed then again to remove some more. I then made up the tawing mix – not technically tanning but more environmentally friendly, and a method I was more comfortable with. They were then immersed in this the liquid and pushed right under. I did this in three large tubs but then decided that they were not properly covered so with a lot of help I tipped them into an empty wheelie bin. That was not easy and I regretted it as soon as I had done it as I knew it was going to be a real pain to get them back out. It did make it easier to stir them up every day. Again this was only supposed to be for a couple of weeks but ended up being a good few months.

Tawing

As anticipated, getting them out was no picnic and I ended up tipping the bin over and hoping for the best. At this point all my dreams of having Sheepskin rugs was cruelly taken from me as when I tried to manoeuvre the skins the wool just sloughed off the skins. I was left with a huge pile of wool and a three balls of slimy skin. At this point I nearly binned the lot in a fit of pique. I did stomp off into the house for a while leaving a strange pale pile in the yard.

After I calmed down I came back out and rescued the skins. I hosed everything down and put the wool to dry in the shed. The skins were washed again in the machine and laid out to dry in the porch. I was not sure I was going to salvage anything out of this at all. After a few days the skins began to change colour and texture and dry out. I spread some Neats-foot oil on them and left it to soak in. I did the same again a couple of days later. Meanwhile we were now in high summer and the porch got a lot of sunshine. It got far to hot and I think the skins dried too quickly. I had to spray some water on them to try and re-moisturize them, but because of the oil it didn't help much. Now summer is long past and the moisture in the porch has softened the skins again.

Leather?

It seems that it is not unusual for the wool to fall off the skins – it is all to do with the age of the lamb/sheep. We live and learn. I am still working on the skins but now I have what looks and feels like fine leather. Some of it is really pretty good and some not so good. I have to stretch it and pull it about as often as I can and it is slowly changing from an opaque yellow to white. The edges are not great and will need trimmed again but I have made leather and I am pretty chuffed with myself. Now all I have to do is figure out what I can do with it.



It looks like if I want those sheepskin rugs I will have to buy them.