Aug 17, 2018
Joy McMillan of The Knitting Goddess joins the show today to talk about how her business has moved towards sourcing solely British and some very local yarns. Topics discussed include the difference between British and British Overseas Territory when it comes to yarn, mislabelling of yarns, wanton misrepresentation of yarns as British and what you need to think about when doing a custom blend yarn.
History of The Knitting Goddess
The Knitting Goddess started around 13 years ago, and having
originally been a stockist of yarns from across the world, has
steadily moved to all British yarn offering. By this, Joy means
mainland Britain specifically, and she works hard with UK based
mills to source yarn as locally as possible even within the UK.
This includes having her own, custom yarn spun, One Farm Yarn, with
a total mileage from sheep to yarn of just 72 miles.
Overseas Territories
Joy and I discussed the difference between British and British
Overseas Territories when it comes to wool: specifically here, the
Falkland Islands. Whilst I am a huge fan of Falklands Merino
because it is great quality and the sheep are not dipped as there
are no pests, and there is no pollution, Joy is less keen. This is
not because it isn’t excellent quality, but because it has to
travel so far to be processed, which is inefficient. We discussed
the relative merit of opening a scouring plant in the Falklands and
how, if fleece has travelled so far, then why not use Merino from
Australia of New Zealand instead.
Whilst Joy is very keen to stay as local as possible, I am more
liberal in my yarn tastes, but I like to know where it is from and
as much of the story as possible, so I can make a good buying
decision. This brought us on to marketing and labelling of
yarn.
Misleading Marketing
This was a big focus of our discussion, probably because it is a
huge bugbear for a lot of people. Whilst it’s ok to make informed
choices to buy yarn from further afield, it’s not ok for companies
to try and pass off yarn as being from a certain place, when it
isn’t. Don’t give a yarn British branding when it is spun in Peru,
then be coy about it. That is not cool and devalues the British
cachet.
How Do You Find Out If A Yarn Is British (or Local?)
It can be hard to know where to go to look for information on where
a yarn is produced, from fleece source, to spinning and dyeing . It
is definitely not a habit of yarn companies to show this sort of
information, although consumers are becoming increasingly aware of
it and are asking the question, thanks in no small part to people
like Louise Scollay of Knit British and Felix Ford of Knitsonik and
their clear labelling campaign.
Joy recommends asking the mills who produce the yarn as a
first stop, but also that dyers and sellers need to make it their
business to find out where yarns are produced, if they don’t know
already.
Joy has a personal preference to buy from as close to home as possible, but advocates buying Falklands Merino (or anything else that is clearly labelled) as long as you actually get what you are buying. You know where it has come from and you have an awareness of the level of treatment of the animals and labour conditions in the supply chain, which allows informed choice. Basically, if you’re buying something super cheap from the other side of the world, somebody will have paid for it somewhere down the line.
British Yarn Has Value
The number of dishonest brands trying to piggyback the British yarn label indicates clearly that British yarn has value and that these brands need to be called out on their mislabelling. Simply putting a label on in the UK does not make it British yarn.
Support Local
Joy is such a fan of supporting local as there is a rich history of wool production in Yorkshire, which continues to this day. Although she is based in the affluent area of Harrogate, she is right next to West Yorkshire, which has a high unemployment rate and associated issues which come from that. Joy believes in making a difference to local business through her business, and this ambition dictates a lot of her business decisions, even down to moving spinning of her yarns to Yorkshire-based Laxton’s.
How to Design a Custom Spun Yarn
Joy has a number of custom and small run yarns under her belt,
and it’s an interesting subject to discuss. A lot of hand dyers buy
blank yarn that is already mass-spun and has specific qualities
designed for a more mass appeal product. J
Joy worked very closely with Laxton’s to develop her One Farm Yarn.
Creating a custom yarn is mildly terrifying because you don’t
actually know what you are going to get until the yarn comes back,
at which point, it’s too late to change it. She put a lot of trust
in Laxton’s to help her make the right decisions, and as the
company has incredibly experienced staff, which have worked in a
variety of places in the wool industry, they were perfectly placed
to advise and ensure success.
Spinners have more knowledge about how certain fleeces and spins
work together to produce the characteristics that a dyer wants in
their yarn.
Custom Spun Wool is the New Craft Beer
Joy and I compared the recent interest in craft beer to that of
more niche breed wools and small batch yarns. What would once have
been the preserve of bearded anoraks (real ale) is now super
hipster and called craft beer (the beards remain but are more
fashionably kempt). Has the same thing happened with yarn, and now
we’re moving away from the Fosters of yarn (merino) to something a
bit hoppy, with bite?
Listener Discount Code
Joy very kindly has offered 10% off to listeners of the show
with the code SHINYBEES10 until 17thSeptember 2018. Only one code
per order.
Find Joy Online
You can find Joy at www.theknittinggoddess.co.uk
Full shownotes for this episode are at www.shinybees.com/118
Music for this episode used with kind permission of Adam and the
Walter Boys, with ‘I Need a Drink’, available from iTunes