Who We Spin For & Our Wool Agent

OUR WOOL AGENT – ANDREW BOWMAN

Our production concept is simple – a return to old style manufacturing, sourcing raw fibre (locally wherever possible) and converting it in Britain into high quality, luxury yarns and fibre tops. To help bring this to life we work closely with Andrew Bowman of Wooltops. He is our Wool agent and sources many of the beautiful fibres we make into tops and yarns at our Mill.

Wooltops, set up by Andrew’s grandfather, has an established supply chain that is 100% committed to focusing on the traceability of its wool products. Sourcing from the UK whenever possible, the British Falkland Islands, and from selected farms around the world, Andrew gets to know the farmers he works with and their sheep farming techniques that produce (Mulesing-free) premium wool. Andrew works closely with spinning mills that share his ethos and enthusiasm (this is where we come in) so the passion shines through. Wooltops and John Arbon Textiles together, specialise in taking wool from the farm right through to the highest quality spun yarn.

Not only do we create and produce all our own yarns and tops, but we also commission spin for other woolly folk. Here is a list of a few of our regular customers. We are very proud of the yarn we spin for them and hope that you will like it too.

People we custom spin for and hand dyers who use our yarn bases

Aya Fibres

Bluebell Yarns

Bohei Yarn (Germany)

Cat and Sparrow UK

Daughter of a Shepherd
Rachel’s journey began with the 2015 clip of the Hebridean sheep who graze Escrick Park Estate, shepherded by her father, John Atkinson. With a firm commitment to using only 100% British wool from shepherds and producers within the UK, they aim to support all aspects of British manufacturing in their processing and production. We make her Heritage and Brume yarns.

Espace Tricot (Canada)

Felt Fusion

Gathered Sheep Yarns

Ginger Pink Yarns

Gullrock Fibres

The Knitting Goddess
An independent dyer of British knitting yarns, producing hand dyed yarns from British wool.  Their yarns are dyed in small batches, which means that every skein is unique and unrepeatable. Like us, Joy & Bobbie believe that there is something utterly satisfying about using yarns when you know exactly where the wool came from, where it was processed and where it was spun. Their wools are all sourced from UK flocks, and are processed, spun and dyed in the UK. We make their Be Reyt yarn.

Lucy Locket Land

Madame Guillotine (France)

Marie Wallin
Marie’s yarn is made from four different British sheep breeds: Bluefaced Leicester, Exmoor Blueface, Wensleydale and Zwartbles. The wool fibre from each breed adds a certain characteristic to the yarn… Bluefaced Leicester adds the beautiful softness, Exmoor Blueface adds the softness too but this sheep produces a white fleece therefore adding a ‘cleaness’ to the blended tops making for more successful dyeing. Wensleydale adds the strength and lustre and Zwartbles adds the bounce or springiness. We make her British Breeds range.

Mulberry Cottage Yarns (Germany)

Nellie and Eve
We make their West Country Collection 4ply and DK.

Nervus Fibre

RiverKnits

Skein Queen
A small independent artisan yarn dyeing business established in June 2007 by Debbie Orr and now run by Rachel Moutrie. Their dye studio is based in beautiful Berkshire, producing magnificent hand-dyed yarns for your perusal. They stock a variety of luxury bases and dye a wonderful rainbow of shades. We make their Voluptuous and Sonsie bases.

Tamayura Yarn (Japan)

Telling Yarns

Third Vault Yarns

Viola (Canada)
Many moons ago Emily Foden had a spell working at our Mill, so we have a lot of fondness for her. Plus her hand dyeing is magical – she creates wonderfully subtle colours in her studio in Mooresburg, Canada. We make her Shadow DK and Polwarth and Alpaca bases.

Wool Decanted

Wool Matters Fibre Co.

Arbon Socks
This part of our business was sold in 2018 and is now based in Somerset. They still produce the Stanbury Walkers and Exmoor Socks, but we no longer supply the yarn.