The New England Knitters Shetland and New England Knitters Highland yarns are available as washed skeins and were developed especially for knitters. The majority of knitting yarns on the market today are spun first and then skein dyed. During the dyeing process they achieve a degree of fulling or fluffing up that our dyed-in-the-wool yarns on cones do not have. We skein our New England Knitters Shetland and New England Highland yarns and then wash them to give them that special, softer knitting finish.