MOW Sessions: Sourcing & Spinning British Yarn

[@j1mmusj4mmus]

As someone who keeps sheep , sells to the British Wool Marketing Board, and is involved with processing small amounts of wool I found this very interesting, thanks for posting.

[@JohnArbonTextile]

chuffed to hear you enjoyed it. what kinda sheep do you keep?

[@j1mmusj4mmus]

@@JohnArbonTextile I have Friesland X Charollais X halfbreeds. My mother kept frieslands, I used her ram on some halfbreeds ( mule, Suffolk mule, white half-bred) and then bought a pedigree Charollais and some crossbred Charollais ewes. I then kept my own replacements. The wool is about 25micron medium fine. There is some variation in crimp, staple and fineness. I once washed as much as I could and took it to Robert J Southall who was working for The Natural Fibre Company then under Sue Blacker, they had just moved to Lampeter. He was able to spin my wool on mules in his mill. I am at the end of the two ply 150m/100g chunky yarn he produced for me. I spin on a wheel myself and have had some wool carded at Cold Harbour mill and by Paul Crook at Halifax Spinning Company. I have a few kgs of scoured wool in the shed, most goes to the British Wool Marketing Board. Do some knitting and weaving and sell some yarn. Might be interested in a contract to have wool carded and spun. NFC have quite a detailed website for these contracts with producers, but costs are obviously increasing and I need to be confident I can recoup what I spend. Thanks for asking 🐑👍🙂

[@sunnyw4148]

Really informative. Which the sounds were better so I could understand some of the comments by the panelists

[@JohnArbonTextile]

chuffed to hear you enjoyed it and yes, apologies for the sound being not ideal. We've got some mics for next year! hehehe