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March 2024 Newsletter
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Doesn't time fly? It is Spring already; buds on the trees, the daffodils were up just in time for St David's Day and there are already newborn
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lambs in the fields across the valley from us.
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In the last newsletter we announced that we would be stocking New Lanark wool; the first batch came and went very quickly, and before receiving our latest order we visited the New Lanark Mill to see the yarn being made. Read on to find out more about our trip.
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We've also got new products to tell you about and some pop-up shop dates for your diary.
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Contents
- A visit to the New Lanark Spinning Company.
- New! Valley Yarns Variegated Cotton 8/2 NeC.
- New! Valley Yarns Alpaca / Silk 14/2 Nm.
- New! rug warp.
- Back again, Jagger Spun Merino 18/2 NeK.
- New Silk and Suomen Lanka colours.
- New tools on our website.
- Guild dates for our pop-up shop.
- Feedback from customers.
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A visit to the New Lanark Spinning Company
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Earlier this month we spent a couple of days at New Lanark, which is on the River Clyde around 30 miles south-east of Glasgow. The first cotton mill was founded by David Dale and Richard Arkwright in 1785 and took advantage of water power from the Falls of Clyde. Although their partnership was dissolved after only a year, Dale continued to develop the site in partnership with his son in law Robert Owen, a mill manager born in Newtown, Mid Wales.
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Owen instituted a range of radical reforms aimed at improving the efficiency of the business and the moral fibre of its inhabitants. In addition to the mills the site boasted a school, housing for the mill workers, an infirmary and a shop run for the benefit of the community, a precursor to the Co-op movement.
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The mills continued to spin cotton up until the 1970s when the equipment was sold for scrap metal. The New Lanark Trust was formed in 1974 and restored the mill buildings and the Falls of Clyde above, and New Lanark is now recognised as a World Heritage site. If you have an interest in the history of the industrial revolution we would strongly recommend a visit!
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One of the mill buildings was re-equipped and now spins wool rather than cotton. Our yarn starts its journey as huge sacks of cleaned and (in some cases) dyed wool fibre from wool brokers. This is weighed and laid out by hand in layers with an organic vegetable lubricating oil and then fed into a "Fearnought" blending machine. It takes around eight hours to blend and "open" half a tonne of wool.
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The yarns in the "Naturals" collection are all blended using undyed wool from different breeds of sheep.
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The fibres are then carded by a huge machine and emerge as 28 strips of carded wool called "slubbings" which are rolled around a single giant bobbin, ready for spinning.
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Some of our yarns like Blue John and Kingfisher feature "nepps" which are small pieces of different coloured wool sprinkled over the fibres and incorporated during carding.
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The museum section of the mill demonstrates the spinning mules originally used at New Lanark. Our wool is spun on faster, more modern machinery to a 4.8 Nm (metric) count, and then folded to a two ply yarn on another machine and wound onto cones.
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The result is a 4.8/2 Nm woollen spun 100% wool yarn "in oil". For crochet and knitting the yarn would be wound into hanks and sent out for washing, but for weaving the residual oil lets the yarn move more smoothly on the loom and it is washed out when the cloth is wet finished.
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We stock New Lanark Spinning Co. wool in 32 gorgeous colours plus some discontinued lines. Put up is 200g on cones.
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New! Valley Yarns Variegated Cotton 8/2 NeC
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We were asked for this yarn as a special order, but once we saw it we fell in love with it and stocked the whole range!
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The yarn is space dyed in both tonal variations and "combo" colour combinations. It is not mercerised, which makes it ideal for baby blankets and other applications where a soft and absorbent cloth is required.
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It's in the super versatile 8/2 cotton count, so it is directly compatible with our Garnhuset Cotton, Brassard Bamboo, Valley Yarns Tencel™ and Garnhuset Cotton-Linen 22/2. Many will weave it on a neutral warp of Garhuset 8/2 cotton, but there is no reason why you shouldn't warp it too for a speckled multicolour effect. It's an easy way of adding colour interest to a plain weave on a rigid heddle loom, but you could incorporate texture too on a multi-shaft loom.
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We will upload a photo to our gallery as soon as we have a moment to try a test weave!
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Back again, Jagger Spun Merino 18/2 NeK
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The fibres in merino are much softer than ordinary sheep's wool, which makes this a great choice for scarves and other clothing intended for direct contact with skin.
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We have managed to secure a small stock of colours which are available immediately, but we intend to grow this over the coming months. If you see a colour that you would like that isn't in stock just request "Email me when it's back in stock" from the product's detail page and we will prioritise it on our next order.
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New! Rug Warp
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We now stock two cheap, strong rug warps: one by Garnhuset and the other by Lankava. They are both a 12/6 cotton count, natural (unbleached) and are perfect for Scandinavian rug projects. Put up is 100g on cone, and both are priced at £3.50
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New! Valley Yarns Alpaca-Silk 14/2 Nm
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We searched for a repeatable super-soft alpaca yarn last year, but supply issues from South American producers meant we had to put the project on hold. In the meantime, we tried this 80% alpaca / 20% silk blend from Valley Yarns. It has the softness you would expect from alpaca, and the silk adds strength to the yarn without compromising the handle and drape of the woven cloth. We love it and we think that you will too!
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Put up is a 100g cone and with a 14/2 metric count it is a similar thickness to our 8/2 cotton, so it may lend itself to some interesting mixtures of fibres.
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New Silk and Suomen Lanka colours
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Our friends at Suomen Lanka have also added Coffee (no. 52) to their Liina cotton twine range and Carrot (no. 45) to the Molla Mills line up. Stock should be arriving with us Monday 18th March. Rumour has it that peach and four more new colours are on their way in time for summer!
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New tools on our website
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A couple of new features we have added recently:
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(1) Do you find it difficult to compare yarns in different counts? The Count Chart lists all of our yarns from thickest to thinnest, and in addition to the counts it also shows wraps per inch (wpi), suggested setts and much more! You can find it on the "Yarns By Count" menu.
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(2) We are rolling out a swatch panel showing all of the colours available for each yarn. Just open up any colour of a product and you will see the swatch; it's clickable so you can quickly go to the product page of a colour that interests you.
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Guild dates for our pop-up shop
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Two dates for your diary when we will be opening our pop-up shop. Both are guild friendship days that are open to other weavers.
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Feedback from customers
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We love to hear what our customers think of our products. Margaret wrote "Just wanted to say thank you. The yarn and colours are gorgeous, website pix are very true to colour, and delivery really was next day. I’ve shared your details with my weaving group - there were lots of oohs over the gorgeous colours."
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We also get quite a few messages like this one from Jill: "What great service my parcel arrived this afternoon and only ordered yesterday. Thank you very much."
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Remember that if you order before 1pm Monday to Friday we will endeavour to post your parcel the same day!
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You can see some of our other customer feedback on social media; we're weavingyarnuk on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and Threads.
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Thank you for reading
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If you would like to get in touch you can send us email, phone, message us through social media or complete the contact form on our website. See you again soon!
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