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Acquisition of Weaving Looms

We are delighted to announce that we have acquired the Weaving Looms online retail business from Helen and John Brotherton.

We will be selling the full range of Toika Looms and weaving equipment including shuttles, stretchers, reeds and raddles. We will also be stocking Texsolv heddles, pegs and tie-up cord.

To help our customers plan their investment in a Toika loom we will be opening a second Toika Loom Studio here in Llangurig, where they can test-drive a countermarch or electronic dobby loom.

We will soon be merging the website for Weaving Looms with Weaving Yarn Limited, so yarn and equipment can be ordered together to save on postage costs.

If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to contact us or call on 03331 123453 during office hours.

Adrian & Grace.

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New Liina and Molla Colours

Suomen Lanka have added two more colours of cotton yarn to their collection:

Coffee (52) is a rich ground coffee colour and is available in the Liina range in 20/6, 20/12 and 20/18 NeC.

Carrot (45) is the colour of freshly pulled carrots and is part of the Molla range in 20/12 and 20/18 NeC.

These cotton string yarns are popular with weavers of rugs and Krokbragd, and are perfect for crochet too.

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Our pop-up shop is going to Ceredigion

We have been invited by the Ceredigion Guild of Weavers Spinners and Dyers to their Friendship Day on Saturday 13th July. We will be taking a range of yarns for our pop-up shop; if there is a yarn you would especially like to see then let us know and we will try to squeeze it into the van.

You don’t need to be a member to attend, all are warmly invited to visit.  

More information about location and pre-ordering to follow closer to the date.

We look forward to seeing you on the day!

Grace & Adrian.

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Collect from our premises

You can now collect your order from our premises in Llangurig, Mid Wales.

We know that won’t be convenient for most of you , but if you do live close or are going to be passing you can choose “Collection from our premises in Llangurig (by appointment only)” during checkout.

You can also arrange to view yarns before buying; just contact us to arrange a convenient time to visit appointment.

You may not know that we also own and operate Wye View Self Catering Cottages, and Weaving Yarn HQ is part of the same barn conversion of what was once a 19th century hill farm. Guests at Wye View can of course visit and discuss all things weaving yarn during their stay, and enjoy a discount on purchases.

We look forward to meeting some of you in person, but please remember to make an appointment!

Adrian & Grace.

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New Lanark Wool 4.8/2Nm has arrived!

A basket of New Lanark wool in a variety of colours wound onto cones.

We’re delighted to announce that we now stock the full ranges of New Lanark Spinning Co. Natural Undyed Yarn and New Lanark Collection. These 100% new wool yarns are spun to a 4.8/2 Nm count using 19th century machinery which is powered with renewable energy generated on site by a water-powered turbine, keeping environmental impact to a minimum.

The natural undyed range of seven colours is made by blending different colours of undyed sheep’s wool then carding and spinning it to produce a yarn with tonal variations.

The New Lanark Collection comprises 24 dyed colours, including solid colours, heather blends of different dyed shades, and some with nepps of different coloured fibre spun into them. The resulting colours are reminiscent of the Scottish countryside and are named accordingly.

Some colours were originally part of the the “Donegal Silk” range but are now spun in the same colours but with 100% wool.

Weavers should note that the yarn is blended and spun using an organic oil for lubrication. This will wash away when your cloth is wet finished.

We’re very pleased to be able to stock what was a very popular yarn for My Fine Weaving Yarn; it weaves well to produce a traditional wool cloth with good wear characteristics. We were able to secure some now discontinued colours:

These five colours are stocked on a “when it’s gone, it’s gone” basis as they are no longer manufactured, and we have discounted them to £10 a cone.

Technical

The 4.8/2 metric count is equivalent to a 3/2 NeC (cotton count) and a 9.3/2 NeS (Yorkshire Skein Weight). You can check other count equivalences using our Yarn Count Converter tool.

There are approximately 20WPI (wraps per inch).

Put up is 200g (approximately 480m) on a cone.

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We are one year old!

We took our first order in October 2022. The past year has been a huge learning experience for us, and we have honestly enjoyed every moment of it.

We took over a lot of stock from My Fine Weaving Yarn when we opened, and very quickly discovered that some yarns are very popular and had to restock. We invested in winding machinery, and we added yarns to our collection; Valley Yarns Cotton & Tencel™ and Brassard Bamboo for example. We were also able to grow our range of colours for many of our yarns; our 100% mulberry silk, Gist Yarn and Garnhuset Linen spring to mind.

So what do we have in the pipeline for the year ahead? Well, there are going to be some new product announcements, so keep an eye on the website or sign up to our newsletter. But we also want to hear from you, and what you want us to stock – drop us an email or complete the contact form.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your custom and for all the kind comments and feedback we have received over the past year. It has been a pleasure to hear from you, and even to meet some of you in person.

Grace & Adrian.

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New Postage Prices from 3rd April 2023

Royal Mail’s prices changed on the 3rd April 2023 and we have updated our postage prices accordingly. First class parcels are now a little cheaper, but second class parcels are a little more expensive.

Parcelforce prices have also changed, with express24 being a little cheaper and express48 more expensive.

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About our packaging

A stack of brown cardboard cartons, packed and ready to post.

We have received some positive comments about the packaging of the parcels we send out and questions about the environmental sustainability of the materials we use, so we are sharing our thinking on this subject.

We want the yarn that we post to be received in perfect condition, and there is a risk of the outermost windings of yarn being knocked off the spool or cone if the parcel doesn’t protect it from rough handling. For this reason we use mailing bags for only mini spools of silk and single spools of yarn – and in the latter case we wrap the spool with a cardboard collar to give it some protection from rough handling.

The rest of our orders are posted carboard cartons sized to take two, four, six or twelve typically sized spools, with some infill material to stop them rattling around.

Environmental sustainability

We want to minimise the environmental impact of the packaging materials we use.

  • Our cardboard cartons contain recycled material and can be either be used again, put with your cardboard recycling collection, or composted. We tear up cardboard and use it in our compost bin as “dry” layers between wet materials like kitchen waste and chicken manure.
  • We don’t use plastic parcel tape to seal our cartons, and instead use brown paper tape which can be recycled or composted in the same way as the cardboard it is stuck to.
  • We use two types of infill material. Brown paper is scrunched up and pushed into gaps around the yarn. It can be recycled or composted in the same way as our cardboard. We also use Greenlight Ecoflo biodegradable packing peanuts which offer a little bit more cushioning for the contents of our parcels. These are made from corn starch and are 100% biodegradable. Ecoflo complies with EN13432, is compostable at home, can be washed away in water, or sent with food waste for composting.
  • Our labels and packing slips are paper.
  • Our mailing bags are reusable and compostable.
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Digital Shade Cards

A small section of the digital shade card for Silk 20/2Nm.

We would love to be able to offer physical shade cards for sale, but none of our yarn manufacturers currently have stock! So until they are available again we’ve added digital shade cards to the shop as PDF downloads. These are high quality images of our yarns and whilst not ideal, they certainly make comparing colours on-screen a lot easier.

Digital shade cards are free, you just have to add them to the basket and checkout in the normal way – you will then receive a download link via email.

We hope that you find this useful.

Adrian & Grace.

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Royal Mail Group Industrial Action

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has announced they plan to call on their members who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters to take national strike action on the following dates:

Friday the 9th and Sunday 11th December
Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th December
Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th December

We are doing all that we can to post parcels promptly, including posting parcels at weekends, but orders placed before, during and after the strike days might be delayed. We would ask for your patience and understanding if your parcel is delayed by industrial action.

Depending on the service chosen, we may send you a tracking number sent with your despatch email, which is generated by Royal Mail as a means of identifying  the parcel once it is in their network.  It will only update when the package has been delivered or an attempt at delivery has been made. Once the parcel has been posted we can do nothing to influence when or how it is delivered.

Find out more about the strike action here.

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Weaving Yarn has launched!

We are delighted to announce the launch of our online shop at weavingyarn.co.uk

Earlier in 2022 the owners of My Fine Weaving Yarn decided to retire, but were anxious that their carefully curated range of high quality, repeatable weaving yarns should remain available to their loyal customers. They offered us the opportunity to continue their business and we jumped at the chance!

We – Adrian and Grace – have been working behind the scenes at My Fine Weaving Yarn since 2016, running the website. It’s great to be able to step out to centre stage and take Weaving Yarn forward as our new business venture. You can read more about our work and interests on the about us page.

Currently we have all of the Garnhuset yarn ranges previously stocked by My Fine Weaving Yarn, together with the 20/2Nm silks and selected Gist and Suomen Lanka yarns. We intend both to increase our selection of yarns and to widen the range of colours available in the existing stocked yarns.

You can read the official announcements from My Fine Weaving Yarn and Weaving Yarn Limited.

We would love to hear your feedback about our new website and suggestions for how we could improve it in future. Drop us an email or complete the contact form to get in touch!