West Yorkshire Spinners

Just thought I'd post a little bit about my favourite British yarn company, West Yorkshire Spinners.

When I opened my wool shop back in 2012, I found this company and began to stock their products. Back then there was only a handful of yarns to choose from, but I loved their Bluefaced Leicester Roving and the Aire Valley Fusions Aran and always kept some on the shelf. Since then, WYS has gone from strength to strength and now produce a much wider range of yarns (I'm sure we are all aware of and have probably knitted with their fantastic Signature 4 ply). Everything is produced in their own factory in Yorkshire, with fibre sourced mainly from the UK - a huge plus for me as I love to buy British where I can.

One of the Signature 4 Ply ranges

Another plus for me is that everyone I deal with from Julie the Rep, or anyone else in the factory or office is so helpful, chatty and appreciative of their customers, even when the order is only a couple of patterns - good customer service is a must for me, and at WYS is it great..

Recently, I have bought in three new yarns from WYS - Exquisite Lace (it really is!), Wensleydale Gems (a range of the brightest, beautifullest 100% Wensleydale yarn) and Bo Peep Luxury Baby Yarn, and I have to say I cannot find anything but great things to say about each yarn. Pattern support is fabulous, with patterns for garments as well as smaller accessories all available. 

Exquisite Lace

Wensleydale Gems

I am eyeing up the Gems in Amber colour for a Jasmine shawl, once I've finished my latest pair of Signature socks!

Jasmine Shawl

If you are interested in any of these products, they are available at LoobyLou Yarns I also have the patterns for each yarn in stock too....!

Bo Peep Pattern Book (22 beautiful baby and toddler patterns)

I am such a fan of these yarns, if I ever had another bricks and mortar yarn shop then I would fill it with one of everything West Yorkshire Spinners makes - then everyone could have a try and see if they like it as much as I do.

I'm off now to finish my socks so I can get started on the shawl...never mind all the other unfinished projects I have, or all the spinning I need to do, I need to knit with Amber!!

Happy knitting everyone

Tina xx

From Shearing to Shawl....

The Three Amigos

Last year, I became the proud owner of three Alpacas and before I brought them home, I helped out with their shearing at Bird Farm Alpacas. I had great fun getting hands on with them, and to top it all I came away with their fleeces to process.

Daphers

I started with Daphne's fleece, and when I began to sort it, I found a fair amount of a lovely peachy beige fleece amongst the white - when she came to live with me I realised she had a golden patch on her back which had given me this lovely colour. So I picked it out and processed it separately, and ended up with a lovely big batt of honey coloured soft fluffy cloud.

My daughter helping to sort...

Once it was washed, dried and carded I spun it up as finely as I could (not easy for me!) but I ended up with 430 metres of almost 4 ply with a few bits of added texture. Enough for a fairly big shawl, not enough for a garment. I wanted something simple to show off the yarn and spent days searching for the right pattern but couldnt find anything that I felt was correct, or that I had enough meterage for. There was plenty of smaller patterns but I wanted to use every last bit of Daphne and not waste any!

The finished yarn

So in the end I just cast on three stitches and started to increase, then added some sections of yarn over knit two together followed by stocking stitch, and knitted until I ran out of yarn. And I am so pleased with the result - my Daphne Shawl. Simple but pretty, you can see the texture and colour of the yarn - and its so so soft. Daphne was a pleasure to work with and I'm sure she will be a pleasure to wear although I'm not trying it now with the little heatwave we are having!  I am sure she will be worn a lot in the winter though....

The finished Daphne Shawl

 So now I have Daphnes' white fleece ready to spin, and already have a request for a Daphne shawl in white so I had better get spinning I think!

Carding Daphnes white fleece

Ready for spinning!

 I hope you are ll enjoying the warmth at the moment, and hope you are not too hot to knit/crochet/spin etc. I've found a little shady spot in the garden that is perfect and is where I am off to now...

Happy making, and thanks for reading

Tina xx