When designing a yarn, the usual approach for most yarn companies is to start with the finished product and work backwards. What meterage are we after? How about the number of plies? Will it be soft of rustic? We’ve always done things quite differently here at Garthenor Organic, with what we call our Fibre Forward approach.

In this method, we start imagining the yarn right from the grading table. As the raw, greasy wool is unpacked from huge sacks, dancing its way through Sally’s skilled hands, it speaks to us. It tells us what it wants to become. That’s how the core idea of all our yarns come about.

With the relaunch of our Heritage Collection of Number 1, 2, 3 and 4, we had to approach the process somewhat differently. We had in mind what the fibre could be, but also wanted to capture the philosophy of the Heritage Collection, and what it had been in the past. In some form or another, Number 2 and Number 3 (the sportweight and DK members of the family) have been on our shelves since our founding over 25 years ago, so paying homage to these classic yarns whilst also reimagining them to be spun under our own roof? Now that’s a challenge.

It began with fibre. We’ve always loved small batch, heritage and undyed wools for these types of yarns, and so that felt like safe footing to begin. First, a handful of shades of Shetland fleeces, meticulously colour sorted during grading to be able to create the perfect blends. These grades contain wool from our own flock of Shetland sheep from Garthenor Farm, so are extra close to our hearts. Next, a couple of firm favourites in the mill: Lleyn and Hebridean. We’ve worked with these wools in Gwlad, our worsted weight base, so I was familiar with how they respond to the intricacies of our classic machinery. Finally, a rare breed that’s most treasured for spinners: Manx Loaghtan. Originally from the Isle of Man, this caramel toned wool is soft and bouncy, though often a little shorter than would usually be selected for worsted spinning. A challenge.

Whilst working these glorious fibres through the dozen or so processes in making yarn, a plan was starting to form. Sally and I studied how they reacted on the machines, how the fibres blended and danced their way through carding, combing and gilling, gradually becoming a truly sumptuous collection of sliver ready for spinning.

We’d done lots of calculating to find the “optimum” yarn specifications, but ultimately it came down to lots of tweaking and adjusting right on the mill floor. When we first started planning the actual spinning, I’d actually planned to produce the Heritage Collection as a semi worsted set of yarns, rather than fully worsted. In a semi worsted yarn, we’d skip the combing step where all the short fibres are removed, and the idea is that it does sit part way between woollen and worsted. The former is known for being bouncy, lofty and airy, and the latter for being smooth, drapey and defined. The very first samples of semi worsted spinning looked good, but when trying to scale up, it wasn’t what we’d hoped for. The unevenness of the sliver made a lumpy bumpy yarn, full of neps (small balls of fibre) - very much not capturing the philosophy of our previous yarns. Back to the drawing board. It would have to be a worsted spun offering instead.

When it came to spinning this new worsted sliver, we initially started with very similar specifications to our previous collections - a relatively loose twist to capture the bounce of the woollen spun loftiness. Now though, it’s all worsted spun, so it didn’t quite work. It didn’t have that same liveliness and excitement. My first thought was to reduce the twist, to let even more air in, but this actually took it further away from our idea. Not quite back to the drawing board at this point, but certainly time to think. With some experimenting, I settled on twisting slightly tighter than anticipated. These changes are almost imperceptible - we aren’t transforming the Heritage Collection from being loose and bouncy to tight and rustic, they’re adjustments of just a few twists per metre of yarn, tweaks to capture the characteristics we’re after, and pay homage to the fibre.

The effect of slightly increasing the twist in a worsted spun yarn is to create more of a coiled spring effect, where the natural crimp and liveliness that’s present in the fibre pushes outwards on the walls of the yarn, creating cavities in the very core of the yarn that trap air. This airiness is more a challenge with worsted spinning, and it takes a lot of experimenting and tweaking to get just right.

In summary, designing the Heritage Collection was a tricky one, capturing what the yarn should be, not just what the label says. But I couldn’t be prouder of what we’ve achieved, and I can’t wait to show you more of this stunning selection of certified organic, climate positive yarn spun in Wales.