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!!

As of right now the mill is waiting for my next batch of sheep fleece which after, sorting, scouring and carding will eventually be spun and turned into yarn. The decision is however, just what kind of yarn are we going to make with the fleece. It's really hard to decide how much of each aran, double knit and 4 ply to produce and then again what do we add to the merino fleece to give strength when processing it into sock yarn. Do I go with nylon or silk or for that fact any of the other alternative 'green' options such as bamboo or soya, its quite a puzzle.

However, before the fleece can be shipped off to the mill there is more sorting still to do and so currently some 250kg is waiting for me to find a nice dry couple of days to get out there to finish the sorting - mainly little bits of vegetation, straw and grotty daggy bits from around the bottom area!! Not a very nice job I must say but you do get used to it and if the weather's nice and the sun comes out then it can be quite a good job to be doing. In fact to be able to just sink my hands deep into the beautiful fleece is really very therapeutic - I suppose it is just that I am as close to nature as I can be at that moment and of course the lanolin is very good for my hands!



Next week I am off to collect the last batch of alpaca fleece for this year. First and better quality second cuts are what I am looking for to add to the batch of alpaca fleece which went off to the mill earlier in June. The alpacas were sheared in May 2009 and all live within a five mile radius of Perranuthnoe, Cornish Wools and Village Crafts.