Hay making is one of the seminal moments of the farming year, it's a tick in the calendar, and it shows we're ready for winter. Here's the first in a series chatting about our hay making, introducing you to some of the species in the meadow.
We at Garthenor love to welcome new friends, make new connections and enjoy visitors to our Mill in Cardigan. Recently we had the opportunity to meet and greet visitors from Austria; offering a show and tell of our process at Garthenor, sharing our ethos and values face to face, working our machines, and opening our mill shop for some shopping.
We love the seemingly infinite shades of grey which can be found scattered across the bay at Ceibwr. From very pale sandstone to darker slate pebbles, the beach truly has every grey you can imagine. This week we took our grey shades out for a trip to the coast and colour matched them to Ceibwr so you can bring a little bit of the wild Welsh coastline into your home.
The secret of spinning. Did you know there are actually two completely different ways of spinning yarn? This arose from the inherent differences in staple length from a sheep’s fleece. Longer fibres go through a process called worsted spinning, whereas shorter fibres go through a process called woollen spinning.
This week we’re comparing Cairngorm and Number 1 - a laceweight match made in heaven. They’re spun to the exact same specifications, but Cairngorm is dyed and Number 1 isn’t.
Max knits for all. He’s a creative, passionate about colourwork, and dedicated to putting the fun in knitting. Last month he released his latest pattern, the Gradient Descent Shawl, knitted up in our Preseli yarn. Read all about Max’s inspiration, journey, and motivation here.
This morning we’re running our electric machines in the Mill, which we drove 40 miles to get to, in a petrol car. What a shambles. Luckily we’ve offset double the carbon we’ve produced through a non-profit called Ecologi. Ecologi is an organisation which creates impactful climate solutions by planting trees and supporting carbon reduction projects.
We plant a tree for every single skein sold on our website and at shows, and we just crossed a massive milestone. 25,000 trees planted all over the world, all thanks to you.
A new season has rolled around and it's time to whip out the warmer knits. It doesn’t feel like a moment has passed since I wrote about spring knitting way back when I joined the team in March, but here we are! The sun is shining and my favourite time of year is upon us - bring on beach sunsets, salty hair, and sand between my toes. Keep up with the trends with Garthenor this summer with these shades…
Shearing is arguably the most important day of the year for us as fibre growers, it's the day that marks the ticking along of the farming calendar. We're writing a series of blog posts on all things shearing, this time around it's time to look at grading.
A clean, creamy white. The name Rigging was inspired by old sailing ships - the weathered white ropes of the rigging perfectly encapsulate this undyed shade. Not as harsh as bleached, artificial white.
