Processes

As British wool spinners we add value by processing quantities of fleece from 20 kilograms up to over a tonne or more. We tailor our services to meet your individual needs whether you are a crafter, a smallholder, an overseas customer or a large trade business

What Makes Us Unique

We offer Scour, Card, Woollen and Worsted spin and Dyeing all under one roof providing you with a convenient and efficient service and reducing our carbon footprint. We are experts in all aspects of the process of turning your raw fleece into high quality yarn and have worked on over 50 of the 60-plus breeds that make up the 33 million sheep in Britain today. As well as having customers based in the UK with rare and specialist breeds, we also process fibre for people in Germany, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, the United States and Australia.

We process individual batches - guaranteeing that you only get your own fibre returned in whatever form you have chosen and we tailor our services to meet your individual needs whether you are a crafter, a smallholder, an overseas customer or a large trade business. For environmental reasons we cannot process fibre treated with pesticides less than four months before the date of shearing.

We are also a development house and testing facility, working with experts from local, regional and national academic institutions using a variety of natural fibres and less well known materials blended with wool for a range of industries and customers.

Follow this link for a virtual tour of our mill based in Cornwall to find out more about us.

What We Do

We Sort, Scour and Card your fleece before Spinning it into your preferred finished form. It can be Pure or Blended and either Woollen or Worsted Spun and returned to you in Balls, Hanks or on Cones.

We have an inhouse dyeing facility: NFC Dyers who can match any colour you choose and provide a range of dyeing services

We are fully licensed by the Soil Association, and undertake Organic Processing on a biennial basis.

We can process directly from scoured fleece or tops.

Things To Consider Before Sending Your Fleece for Processing

What kind of yarn do you want and how do you plan to market it?

As a rough guide allow £60-100 per finished kilogram for knitting yarns, including VAT and carriage. The precise price depends on whether you choose woollen or worsted spinning and what format your yarn takes (cones, skeins or balls, with or without labels). Our minimum order of 20 kilograms will, after the fleece is scoured, generally yield an average weight of 10-15 kilograms so the total cost should fall between £600-1,500 depending upon many factors. If you plan to use your yarn for weaving, the yarn spinning will be cheaper, at around £600-800 for the minimum batch, but bear in mind that spinning and then weaving 50 metres of cloth with a traditional weaver will cost up to £2,000 overall, from which you will have enough to make about 20 throws or 100 scarves.

Follow this link for further Advice and Information about adding value to your fleece and ff you are considering processing your fibre for the first time take a look at our Case Studies to read about some of our other customers and their experiences. The Wool Journey, our Blacker Thoughts Blog provides more information to guide you through every stage from field to final product.

We are supporters of the Campaign for Wool, have Made in Cornwall accreditation and belong to several manufacturing and textile industry groups including UKFT, MAKE UK and Made in Britain. The British Wool Marketing Board is the monopoly purchaser of wool from flocks with four sheep or more, although there are exceptions for minority and rare breeds and for those who want to add value to their fleece.

We are always delighted to take enquiries so why not email or call us - we will be very happy to help!