As quite a few of you know, at Chester Wool, we spend a lot of time and consideration about where our materials are sourced and how biodegradable they are. We try to consider the balance between the necessities of nylon in garments like socks as it promotes longevity, and design yarns that may work as alternatives (see the previous blog post on the Eco sock yarns) but we also like to look beyond things like this and look at the overall picture of the entire life length of all of our products, and what happens to them at the end of their lives. Jen is an avid composter, and quite often composts ..read more

We had a long think about how to make some undyed eco sock yarns which contained a fibre which could replace Nylon, and an alternative to the Superwash bases. but that are easy care. We came up with two different blends which tick these boxes in different ways. Linen was used in both the blends as the strengthening fibre, it’s strong, extremely hard wearing, it won’t take acid dyes, but is in proportions that it doesn’t effect the colour update significantly. Type 49198 as pictured below is an Easy wash Alpaca blended with Nylon. 80% Superfine Alpaca Easy Wash, 20% Linen with 400m per 100g We ..read more

I love greys, they work so well on their own, or with as a background with pops of bright colour, I also love to mix them with naturally dyed colours adding them into a pallet to create an element of sophistication. Last summer whilst honing my natural dye skills, I experimented with using greys as undertones for natural dyes, creating extra colours which worked as shadows, it worked a treat and I was hooked, but what I loved more than anything were just the greys themselves, they were soft warm greys and they are really fun to make. Tannins and Iron when combined create greys, its easy to do ..read more

I thought a refresher of the uses of our special fabric was due. The fabric doesn’t exist anywhere else, it’s exclusive to us and it has so many uses. Its versatility means its an essential in your craft stash. The fabric is 100% superwash merino, (21.5 microns) with an even weave, it’s made specifically for dyeing and crafting. It’s a medium to heavy-weight fabric. Each Meter (100cm x 140cm) weighs approximately 340gms. It sucks up dye like a dream, and that’s where we will start. Superwash Fabric undyed. We recommend Acid dyes for this fabric. As the fabric soaks up dye very quickly, we sug ..read more

People often think of knitting or crochet when it comes to our yarns, but we have a vast array of yarns for dyeing which can be used for a lot of other purposes, the crux really though is what yarns are most suitable for each purpose? We get asked often which of our yarns would be suitable for embroidery, so I’ve tried and tested a few which I think would work the best for different applications, I will do a second blog post when I’ve tried a few more. To start simply, probably the most easily recommended is our Cotton lace, this yarn is NOT mercerized unlike a lot of other embroidery threads ..read more

The mill we work with support local communities in numerous ways. Some of these involve supporting smaller satellite businesses down to providing scholarships for education. For example, our mini skeins are produced at a small women owned company giving employment to women in the surrounding area. Our hand spun yarns are from women in the Highlands to supplement their income, and helps to support their families. The mill also have a school called the Mirasol school. The school is in a remote area of the highlands, and it took us about 7 hours to get there in a 4x4, it was an incredible journey ..read more

The fibre story so far, the fibres have been washed, dried, carded into sliver and then into rovings, these are then spun into a thick loosely twisted pencil roving ready for spinning: Ok, I love this next video, when we talk about air splices in the yarn this is what we mean. When the yarn breaks the machine grabs the end (I think it actually sucks it to find the end on the cone) and then pulls it down, pulls the other end up and puffs the air through both ends together to join them. I think sometimes people get quite upset about splices, and of course lots of them are not acceptable, but act ..read more

Shearing takes place once a year and fleeces collected, these go to be sorted. The fibre arrives in sacks ready for unpacking and sorting. The sorting is a highly skilled job, the fleeces are sorted for their natural colour (around 22 natural for alpaca) and micron (how fine it is), this is generally done by women because they are considered to have a better ability to distinguish the micron than men. This picture below shows the fleeces being sorted into different microns, sometimes with just 1 micron difference! Below, the fleeces are being sorted into colour, these sometimes then get blen ..read more

There are many places in the world to spin yarn, different mills spin different types of fibres and yarns, and normally specialise in something particular which makes them good at what they do, South African mills for example are known for their mohair spinning, Peru for their alpaca, Italy for their cashmere and Britain specialised in carpet spinning. People often ask why we don’t spin in the UK, and there are a whole host of reasons, but I think the number one reason we choose our mill in Peru is because of the strong bonds we have with them. For us relationships are the key to everything. W ..read more

I get asked a lot about the fibres we use, I love these questions because it makes me work harder at finding out about where things come from, and how things are sourced. I frequently get asked about bamboo. Bamboo is generally touted to be an eco fibre, which to be honest makes me a little uncomfortable. Yes, it's sustainable and grows quickly, but when it comes to processing, well, this is where I take issue with the eco stance. The processing of most of the bamboo you find in clothes and yarn is actually 'viscose bamboo' and takes a fair amount of chemical processing using the viscose proc ..read more