Lots of fleece, wool and new knitting yarns

Don't you just love this girl!



Following this year's shearing we now have lots of new fleece to sort through and deliver to the spinning mill for processing into knitting yarn. Two new local fleece additions to our Cornish Eco range this year are Texel from a Michaela's flock of Texel sheep at Nancledra and Charolais cross from Graham's flock at Troon and adding to our Eco UK range of knitting wool will be Shropshire and Coloured Merino. We also have the 2010 shearing from the Manx Loaghtan, Leicester Longwool, Portland, Lleyn and Jacob so that gives lots of new exciting choices over the coming months.





Also in the Cornish Wools Knit shop in the Gallery at Village Crafts we have an ever growing selection of well known knitting wool brands.

The new Sirdar Indie range is proving very popular both in the shop and online at www.cornishwools.co.uk. All the colours and patterns are available on our website for you to see and choose from.

New website address for Cornish Wools www.cornishwools.co.uk

Can I invite you to follow my 'News' blog on our new Cornish Wools website, there are lots of new and exciting things happening all the time and we are putting new products on to the site every day.

Here are a couple of images of our Gallery Knitting shop in Perranuthnoe, the home of Cornish Wools. We now have a large selection of both branded yarns and our very Cornish Eco range both in the Perranuthnoe shop and online for you to choose from.

Sirdar range of yarns Sirdar Crofter DK, Sirdar Escape, Sirdar Tweedie, Sirdar Eco, Sirdar Denim, Sirdar Baby Snuggly Bamboo and Sirdar Indie.

Knitting needles, Baby knitting patterns, Addi circular knitting needles and lots of other accessories.

http://cornishwools.co.uk

New online knitting shop for Cornish Wools

Just a few words to introduce our new online knitting shop. We have all manner of branded knitting yarns, knitting patterns and accessories for you to choose from. We are also introducing our own range of 100% Cornish knitting yarns from alpaca through to yarns made from the rare breed Manx Loaghtan, Portland together with Jacob, Lleyn, Leicester Longwool and many others. Check out our new website on http://www.cornishwools.co.uk

Cornish Wools - our knitting shop in Perranuthnoe

It's a hidden 'Gem'


Have you found us in Perranuthnoe yet?

We are currently stocking branded knitting yarns from Sirdar, Sublime, Lang, Alpaca Select, Bergere de France and Schopple Wolle and our range is growing every single day!! - or so it seems.

Lots and lots of accessories to boot! Addi and Pony knitting needles, stitch holders, cable needles, bodkins, and crochet hooks to name but a few. You really need to come and look to see it all.

'Sea Knits' our weekly Wednesday afternoon knitting group meets from 2pm to 4pm every week. Come and join us you will be most welcome.

Crazy yarn for knitting socks!

CRAZY ZAUBERBALL FROM
SCHOPPLE WOLLE

Just to show you how beautiful this yarn is, here are two of the crazy colour combinations available from our new Cornish Wools knitting shop online and in Perranuthnoe but do look at the other available colours which are just as lovely, really interesting and exciting to work with. The Crazy Zauberball yarn is made from 75% virgin wool and 25% nylon for strength and just one of the 100g balls will knit a pair of ladies socks. Needles recommended 2-3mm but do check your tension.








I am so wanting and literally itching to get going on knitting some socks with this fantastic yarn.



But before I get carried away (and it's not difficult) I must finish the Patchwork Cushion cover that I am currently working on, using our very own Cornish Wools Manx Loaghtan Aran and the Cushion pattern from the Sirdar Aran Knitting Pattern Booklet No:276. The cushion cover is looking so good with a sort of patchwork cable effect on the front and a moss stitch back and I do want to be able to put this into the shop when it is finished for all to see, so for the moment socks must wait!!

Here is a photo of the pattern book, the Manx aran yarn and my knitting!








But if I was to begin some socks or if me rabbiting on has made you think about knitting some and hopefully with the Crazy Zauberball then you must have some Addi needles to knit them on. Check out our online knitting shop at www.cornishwools.co.uk and feel free to look and choose.

The Cornish Wools knitting shop online is due to be launched on Wednesday 14th July - fingers crossed and all being well!!!

Sunny Perranuthnoe

It is such a beautiful morning here in Perranuthnoe, already warm with a hazy sunshine making the leaves on the trees shimmer - Lovely!


It is an early start today as the launching of our website draws ever nearer, for weeks I have been saying that it will only be another 2 or 3 weeks before 'lift off' but I don't think I ever realised just how much work there is to getting everything on to the website. So many photos and lots of text to compose but we really are getting there and soon you will be able to experience the Cornish Wools online shop with its amazing selection of knitting wool, accessories, spinning and weaving equipment and our chosen selection of Cornish crafts.




New into the Cornish Wools shop this week, especially for spinners and straight from the Mill I have some wonderfully soft pencil roving and bags of tops blended with local Leicester Longwool - it's exciting because this is my first venture in to into the world of roving and tops! And soon we will be working in our dye workshop to give you some of this wool naturally dyed which will be available in the Perranuthnoe shop and also online.

We are also eagerly awaiting our order of the amazingly vibrant and exciting to knit Schoppel Wolle and a new range of buttons to compliment your knitting projects - so watch this space and I will let you all know when the new products arrive in the shop, online and in the knitting gallery at Village Crafts.

It's that time of the year again!

Summer is on its way and its time for the sheep to be sheared once again. They must be really happy to be rid of all that thick fleece, it just has to be so hot, its like wearing your winter coat in Summer.

Here we are on Trewince Farm, the shearer is expertly taking off the fleece and the girls are removing the grotty daggy bits and then rolling it up and bagging it so that it can go off to Cornish Wools for sorting etc. It's quite a process, all in all but we get there.




So this year we will be producing an even larger selection of fleece into knitting wool. Lleyn and Jacob from the Roseland Peninsula, Manx Loughton, Leicester Longwool and Portland from the Lizard and possibly Texel from Nancledra and Crossbreed Southdown from Troon. Not to mention more of the Merino from Yvonne Hoskins in Gloucestershire (at the moment I just cannot find any Merino in Cornwall).

On the website front - we are really winning and it's beginning to look something like! Our online shop is filling up with lots of wonderful balls of wool and accessories together with knitting needles and patterns. I have also so decided to include a few local craft items which you might like to see and perhaps buy!

It's now down to tidying up the whole thing making sure the photos are the best we can do and getting lots of helpful information on there to ensure you have everything you need.

New in the Knit Gallery at Cornish Wools this week is Bergere de France Coton Fifty a beautifully soft 4ply knitting and crochet cotton yarn in some really beautiful shades, from traditional cream through to vibrant aquamarine blue and hot pink. Yummy!!

Finally I am so happy to tell you that we are now producing our very own hand painted and dyed yarn. This will be for sale in the Knit Gallery in Perranuthnoe an also on the website. Cornish Artisan will be the brand name and already we have produced some really stunning colour mixes together with subtle solid colours and then zingy hot shades for the more adventurous knitter. We have set up our very own Dye Workshop in the Piggery behind our craft shop Village Crafts and the Knit Gallery at Cornish Wools, to be found at Lynfield Craft Centre, Perranuthnoe near Penzance. We are producing naturally dyed yarns with very subtle colours and also hand painted yarns with muted colour variations. Currently we are using a 100% Lleyn DK for the dyed yarns but next on the list is some of the Merino 4ply sock wool which has 10% nylon added for strength.

So just watch this space - this is only just the beginning.......

Our new website - we're getting there!

Building a new website is a lengthy and quite tedious process, there seems to be endless decisions on the general look of the site, whether it is eye catching and most importantly efficient and easy to use. Then there are the endless array of photos needed to support the stock for sale. Still it is good news because we are getting there, slowly but surely. I just love our new 'look' and design - I am sure you will be impressed when you see it too.

For the moment we have a holding page showing our new Cornish Wools logo,contact details and there is a link to the blog where you will be able to find out what is happening at Cornish Wools.

Right now, in the Cornish Wools gallery shop our selection of knitting wools is continuing to grow. We currently stock, Sirdar Crofter DK, Sirdar Eco DK, Sirdar Escape DK, Lang Merino DK, Lang Superfine Alpaca, Lang Mille Colori. And then there is the gorgeously soft Sublime Cashmere merino silk aran which is currently featured in this week's 'Peoples Friend' where the latest knitting pattern is a man's jumper.

Expected into the shop on Tuesday next week will be our very first order of Bergere de France, we have splurged out rather on a vast selection of beautiful shades in the following yarns,Angel, Magic, Ideal, Ciboulette, Caline, Cotton Fifty and Jaspee. We have also ordered a selection of Magazines and knitting patterns and Baby knitting Kits to support all of these yarns. So on the Bergere de France front there will be lots to choose from later on next week.

Ethnic yarns are very much a favourite with our customers, we are currently stocking Sari Silk yarn, Banana fibre yarn, Sari Silk ribbon yarn all in lots of exciting colour ranges.

Our range of needles and knitting accessories continues to expand and shortly we will be stocking Knit Pro needles and lots of other knitting goodies.

So watch this space - our website will be up and running soon and if you can make a visit to our Cornish Wools Knitting Gallery in Perranuthnoe then it will be well worth making the trip. Bring your boots and the dog and while you are in this extremely beautiful corner of Cornwall you can not only treat yourself to some gorgeous yarn but you can take a walk along the coastal path with all its stunning views of St Michael's Mount and to the East Cudden Point and The Lizard.

So do come and find us in Perranuthnoe or give us a call if you have any yarn queries or if you would like to order yarn, we will be very pleased to hear from you.

So until next time - 'Happy knitting'

New Website for Cornish Wools

Fantastic news! - at long last we have been able to give the go ahead for our new website to be built. It will have an online shop and will hopefully be operational within the next 6 weeks. Everyone then will have the opportunity to buy our own locally produced Cornish Yarns, throws and scarves. We will also be offering a selection of other branded yarns, patterns and accessories.

If you have read my earlier blogs you will know that last year we sent our raw fleece off to the Natural Fibre Company to be processed and this year we have been working with the Halifax Spinning Mill near Goole. Our next batch of fleece will either go to The Cold Harbour Mill in Devon or to Farrlacey Mill in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, so that we can assess the quality of spinning from each Mill. Ideally I would like to keep the processing in Cornwall but we do need to try each of the Mills for quality and service.

So - to date we now have our Merino Sock Yarn ready for sale - it has 10% nylon added to it for strength. It is lovely and soft and a joy to knit with. It will shortly be in the Gallery Yarn Corner at Village Crafts, Perranuthnoe and when the website is up and running you will be able to buy it there too.

420kg bagged and ready for the Mill

It has been a very busy few days but now everything is ready for collection. Bev, Kev and I have been sorting, bagging and weighing loads and loads of raw sheep fleece in readiness for collection by the woollen mill.

We have sorted through all kinds of different fleece, Manx Loughton, Blue Faced Leicester, Portland, Lleyn and Jacob to name a few and now we have a huge pile of bags all tied up, weighed and marked 'Cornish Wools'. It is not an easy job, its heavy and very smelly and oily too (lots of lanolin in some of the fleece) but it is very satisfying to have finished all the preparation.

All we need to do now is wait - until it is all processed into knitting yarn. So watch this space for more new shortly.

Off to the Mill with a load of Merino fleece!!

One week ago after a long convoluted and exhausting journey 35 Merino fleeces were delivered to the Mill for processing. The mill is situated on an old airfield near Goole in East Yorkshire where the Halifax bomber planes were kept during the last war. The reason for making such a long journey was twofold, one reason was that as I am fairly new as a manufacturer of knitting yarns I am trying different mills to assess the finishing quality of the yarns.

The last batch of yarn processed was taken to the Natural Fibre Company in Launceston, much nearer to home and the journey to deliver the fleece to the mill was certainly a a lot easier. Secondly, as yet I am unable to find any Cornish farmers with Merino sheep so I it was necessary for me to visit Yvonne who farms and keeps a Merino flock near Lydney in Gloucestershire and pick up the fleeces I had purchased from her on my way up north. To make the whole thing easier I broke the journey and spent a few days with my family in Bolsover near Chesterfield. So certainly not the most straightforward of journeys but most definately a very interesting and enjoyable one.

Earlier today I called Paul one of the mill owners to find out how things were progressing and I am extremely pleased to report that now all the fleece has been carded (see photo above) to remove debris etc and the fibres are all laying the same way in readiness for spinning. However firstly before any spinning takes place it all needs to be washed, spun and then dried for 2 days in the drying room at the Mill. Then its all systems go towards the finished product. It is just so good and extremely pleasing to see the big machines working again after being sold off for scrap when the old yorkshire mills closed down. Recycling at its best!!