What Happened at JAT – 2025

On the heels of our roundup post about what you've made in our yarns and fibre tops this year, I'm back with a type of post that I personally love reading (and I hope you do too!)

I really enjoy reading about the behind-the-scenes things that are happening in a business – and it's also a fun exercise to look back at the past year and see what we've  worked on for us Mill Folk. It can sometimes feel as if we're running from one launch and one spin to the next, so taking the time to think back about the past 12 months is a really wonderful reminder of what we've achieved this year!

January

In January, we launched four new Exmoor Sock colours – Oolypuggers, Heedy Peep, Hurdy and Pollywiggle. They perfectly complemented the existing shades, bringing the full range up to 22 colours.

Left to right: Oolypuggers, Heedy Peep, Hurdy and Pollywiggle

We also started the surveys for our Mill Open Weekend 2025 special in January! It was so much fun to develop our MOW yarn together with you. You started by choosing the fibre blend and colour palette and throughout the next few months, refined it until Mineralogy was born!

February

February needed warm, cosy yarn – hello grey winter weather – and so we launched a limited edition Aran weight called “Squish”! This was available in two colours; a light coral and a dark brick red, and Helena and Sonja each designed an accessory for it, the Peperomia Cowl and the Devon Redlands Hat. (Psst, we still have a little bit of Squish Light left – and it’s on Sale!)

It was also time for us to return to Farnham – we were an exhibitor at Unravel for the first time since 2020, and thoroughly enjoyed being back! (Mark your calendars for the next one in February 2026!)

Last, but very certainly not least, we also opened our test knit call for the Annual (issue five). It’s always so exciting when the Annual patterns – themed “Seaside Kitsch” this year – come to life in the hands of our test knitters!

March

March was filled with lots of MOW (Mill Open Weekend) things: Our MOW tickets went up on the website, and you helped us narrow down our MOW special! 

April

In April, our Annual (issue five) test knit wrapped up with oodles of gorgeous projects:

Left to right: Amanda's Saunton Sands Shawl, Elizabeth's Zarauz Tee and Marina's La Baule Shawl (all from the Annual, issue five)

We also made our way over to Wales for Wonderwool where we had a grand time!

May

May saw us putting together lots and lots of shade cards - we launched our biggest one to date, the full shade card for Knit by Numbers, and added new gradient kits at that!

Sonja, Martha, Sophie and Laura also braved the cold and did the photoshoot for the Annual (issue five) together with Sam, our photographer! Luckily, there were lots of blankets and flasks of hot tea:

June

We started June off with our Mill Open Weekend which was a smashing success! We love having you in South Molton every year, and this year was no different. From seeing what you made in our yarns to showing you our Mill, we had an absolute blast!

MOW also meant the first release of our MOW 2025 special which you helped design! Mineralogy is a beautiful special line of yarn and fibre tops, made up of 75% Corriedale, 17% Grey Exmoor Blueface and 8% Romney. We love the seven colours you picked and how they looked in the kits we put together!

July

In July, we hosted our Virtual Mill Open Weekend – it’s always wonderful to see so many faces from all over the world on our Zoom sessions!

We also put the finishing touches on the Annual (issue five) and got it ready for print!

August

August is usually a quieter month here at JAT - but not so in 2025, when there was a lot happening behind the scenes! We’d been working away on a new website for a good few months at that point, and because we really wanted to launch it in September, things kicked up a notch in August.

In addition to working on the website, we also opened the Annual (issue five) preorders and prepared everything for our big new range launch in September!

September

September started off with a double launch: The Annual (issue five) went live on the new website in the first week of the month!

Later in September, we went to Yarndale which also marked the official launch date of our latest range, Seafarer! This blend of 90% Devonian Wool and 10% Mulberry Silk had become a firm favourite when we started knitting with it, and it also turned out to be our best range launch yet!

October

October = Socktober here, and we dove into the joy of sock knitting by hosting our first KAL (knit along) in a little while, the Socktober KAL! Sonja and I had a grand time chatting with everyone over on Slack and in our bi-weekly Zoom calls, and lots of socks got finished. We can't wait to host it again in 2026!

We also launched the first kits in our new Seafarer yarn which were a massive hit with you! Especially Sonja’s Sleeveless Vest - such a wearable pattern!

We were meant to exhibit at our first-ever yarn show across the channel - Breidagen in the Netherlands - but due to the complexities of selling in person as a UK business, we sadly had to pull out. Luckily, the fabulous Ross of The Wee Yarn Company had lots of our bases in his glorious hand dyed colours available, and we were able to bring some of his dye magic to you with our collab!

November

Autumn and Winter are “curl up at home and craft / read / puzzle / natter” times for us, and what better time of the year than now to launch another jigsaw puzzle? The wonderful Katie Green illustrated the Mill for us way back when we launched the first issue of the Annual, and we worked with them to split that illustration in two and launched the first half as a puzzle at the beginning of November. We paired that launch with our Midwinter Special – "Figgy Pudding" on Devonia DK and fibre tops, which was so popular that it sold out in under a week!


We also started chatting about something that will accompany us in the first months of 2026: New Yarnadelic shades! We chose to complement the existing warmer tones of this range with a set of bright, punchy neons and calmer, darker colours. The first step of launching new colours is always an updated shade card which we launched alongside four tops colours for our Mill Members.

December

December started off with the launch of our first hand-dyed collaboration on Seafarer – Charlotte of Nervus Fibre worked her magic, creating two beautiful, moody colourways! Perfect time to add something a little special to the website that’s also Seafarer-related: Becca Thorne printed a limited edition of her Kraken linocuts on beautiful Nepalese lokta paper. 

We closed out the year by doing something we’d been wanting to do for a very long time: Bring you digital copies of the Annual! All back issues as well as the current one are now available as a downloadable PDF on our website and Ravelry. We’ve added a handful of Throwback Kits for good measure - one kit for each back issue!

Outlook 2026

We’re really looking forward to a bit of time off, some good food and cosy crafting over the holidays - and then we’ll be back in January for lots of exciting things to come in 2026!

January will start off with the nine new Yarnadelic shades, in February, we’ll have exciting new additions to the Devon Naturals range (Aran-weight and Bluefaced Leicester anyone?), and the spring will see a second weight being added to Seafarer. We’re also already looking forward to the Mill Open Weekend (tickets go on sale in January!) and the next issue of the Annual – and making yarn for us and other wonderful folks like Fruity Knitting!

Thank you all so much for supporting JAT throughout this past year. We hope that our yarns and fibre tops and sundries have brought you joy and put a smile on your face every once in a while, and that you’re looking forward to a few days of rest before the new year starts. See you all in 2026!