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The more we raise, the more wool we can process, making for a greater income for the...
Help us spin our Single Flock Welsh Wool yarn!
Linlithgow, West Lothian, United Kingdom
Aim
After a difficult 2022, we need your help to continue production of our beloved single flock "Black and Blue" Welsh Wool yarn.
Dear Wool Connoisseurs,
Midwinter Yarns are looking for your help to continue production of our much-loved Black & Blue yarn.
For those of you who have come across this yarn at our yarn shows, you will know how proud we were of it: the finest Bluefaced Leicester wool sourced from a single flock in North Wales, spun to a gorgeous, bouncy DK weight and hand-dyed by ourselves here in Scotland.
A couple of years ago, in the midst of the first lockdown, you came out in force to help us get this yarn to a new mill and back into production. From that first Crowdfunder, we were able to continue unaided the year after as well as one more after that.
However, 2022 brought its own challenges, many of them falling specifically on small businesses - the realities of Brexit lost us virtually all European customers, and the cost of living crisis meant our customers were (understandably) more careful with spending, all while our own bills continued to rise.
Choices had to be made, and unfortunately, one of those choices was to not take on any fleeces from Mr Owen to send to mill. Black & Blue would have to wait for better times...
But then I received a text from North Wales with the traditional New Year's greetings and the question "How much of this wool would you like?". It turns out that he has been saving his best fleeces for us as all the same, waiting for sunnier days.
So we have beautiful Bluefaced Leicester fleeces just waiting to go to mill, and the previous batch of spun yarn is near enough all gone, so this is where we turn to you, our amazing friends, customers and supporters:
Will you help us by backing the lump sum needed to commit to having this wool spun?
This crowdfunder will provide the funds to cover processing 100kg of Welsh Bluefaced Leicester wool into yarn.
Through the system of rewards for pledges, you will be the first to receive the new yarn in a colour of your choice before it goes on public sale, and there will also be an exclusive colour for Crowdfunder supporters as well as some other little goodies and surprises.
Who we are:
Run by Swedish wool lover Estelle and her Welsh husband Mark, Midwinter Yarns is an online yarn shop based in Scotland primarily focused on working with small, independent producers to bring beautiful, natural fibre yarns of Scandinavian origins to the UK market. However, as half this little team is Welsh, we want to reflect that, as well as supporting Welsh farming and wool industry.
Why Black & Blue:
When we lived in Wales, we became aware of how little understanding there was amongst sheep farmers of the value of their wool to knitters, crocheters and other crafters. Wool was mainly considered a costly nuisance, with payment from the Wool Board barely covering the cost of shearing. Even Mr Owen, whose fleeces have won many awards for their quality, was surprised to hear our customers were so keen on the yarn made from his wool!
We wanted to help change that mindset, and show Welsh wool for the wonderful, sustainable, natural resource that it is. We obviously wanted a yarn that would be soft enough for hand knitting, and sought out a breeder with specific knowledge of Bluefaced Leicester sheep (aka the British Merino). We also wanted a yarn that would be beautiful both dyed and in its natural state, so Mr Owen has bred a small flock of Black Bluefaced Leicester sheep that he keeps just for us, and they make up 20% of the blend, hence the name Black & Blue.
The yarn will be expertly spun by a Welsh mill too, creating a truly Celtic yarn - grown and spun in Wales, hand dyed in Scotland!
Your Rewards:
The yarn we are proposing will be a DK weight made with 3 plies for durability. It will be hand dyed in semi-solid colours and presented in 100gr hanks. This year, we are also hoping to branch out into a finer 4ply weight, also hand dyed and in 100gr hanks
Contributors will be free to choose the colour of their rewards from our standard range, and there will also be a special Crowdfunder colour way exclusively available to you.
From the time that we raise sufficient funds to proceed with spinning, we expect the finished yarn to be available to us within 6 months, hopefully giving us and our contributors a lovely surprise come late summer, just in time to consider your autumn knitwear projects !
Postage for rewards is included for UK supporters, but please note that International postage will be invoiced at the time of shipping.
We do hope that you will join us on this journey, and appreciate any contribution that you may be able to make, big or small!
Estelle & Mark
This project successfully funded on 20th January 2023