The Wool Spinners & Scottish Yarn Festival

We've got a few strings to our bow and we're very proud to be able to make our products in our very own mill, but did you know that we actually have a dedicated spinning and yarn design service?

The Wool Spinners is our spinning branch and we work with all of our World of Wool fibres as well as fleeces produced by shepherds themselves.  That means we can produce a yarn from your own sheep fleeces, or we can create something from our vast stock to suit your needs.  We've worked with quite a few different brands and individuals on spinning projects to make sure they get exactly what they're looking for; one of these people is Eva from The Scottish Yarn Festival who got in touch when she was looking for something specific.

"I came across Wool Spinners when I was looking for some Scottish fibre to make our festival yarn.  I knew that I wanted the fleece to come from Scotland as that is an integral part of my brand and I wanted the yarn to have a strong identity.

We had a back and forth with emails and phone calls where we spent time coming up with a blend which would be soft enough for garments, but still maintain a good stitch definition when spun.  I also wanted the ability to have natural and dyed shades so that I could add more colours and expand the range in the future.  Once we had this ironed out we began working on the colours, using natural and dyed shades to achieve the final palette.  We actually spent time in the warehouse picking and weighing colours and blending them by hand until we achieved the tones that I was looking for.

After this it was just a case of waiting for the yarn to be spun! We'd already decided on two weights - 4ply and DK - and the skeins came to me twisted, batched and ready for labelling.  The batching is useful as sometimes my customers need additional skeins of a specific batch and this helps me to make sure they get the correct yarn.

Over the past 18 months my yarn brand has grown and it's been great to have someone at the end of the phone or email to run ideas past and share enthusiasm with.  One thing that has stuck out is the clarity of everything and how happy they are to explain how things work or why an idea might not be viable.  On a few occasions I've come up with ideas that I want to try and instead of jumping straight in, they've suggested how to test the water so that I'm also minimising risk.  This has let me introduce a couple of new yarn variations so that I can get feedback from my customers without the risk of having to invest in a huge amount of stock.

Its reassuring to be able to work with a company who care about your success as much as their own and work with you to produce something that can grow rather than just be a one-time flash in the pan product."

If you've got an idea you want to discuss or some fleece that you'd like turning into a yarn then drop us a line!  We're always spinning (we've got to keep our own yarns stocked!) and process all sheep breeds all year round.  We're happy to chat and can provide estimates over the phone and via email.