A few days ago, we launched our updated Heritage Collection - Number 1, 2, 3 and 4 - to the world, so it’s been a week of catching up with demand there, whilst also trying to fill the shelves a little too ahead of some Spring events. Let’s take a wander around the mill…

First up is Fish, our venerable and hard working Gillbox. He hasn’t really stopped all week, and he’s had quite the variety of fibres on him. First up was some finisher gilling (the final step before spinning) on some Hebridean destined to become Peppercorn in the Heritage Collection, then some Shieling - a blend of Hebridean, Romney and Lleyn to be spun into Gwlad. The purpose of the finisher gilling is to blend the fibre evenly, and also set the weight (thickness) of the sliver ready to move on to Florence, the spinning frame.

After these bouts of finisher gilling, Fish was kept busy with a large batch of Manx Loaghtan in the post-combing stage. After combing the short fibres and vegetable matter out of the sliver using Clint the Comb, the sliver is weak and uneven, so Fish is used to create an even and homogenous sliver. We usually gill this fibre twice before starting the finisher processes. I did manage to have a small catastrophe when one of the sacks we store the sliver in between processes split open, and mountains of freshly combed wool spilled across the mill floor, but luckily no fibre at all was wasted!

Over on Clint the Comb, the Manx Loaghtan I mentioned above worked its way through at the start of the week, and then a batch of Romney made its way through, which took most of the week. Romney is such a delightful fibre to comb, it’s long, smooth and strong, so presents the fewest challenges (usually!). This fibre has been set aside now ready to gill when a slot becomes available on Fish.

In the spinning room, Florence has been purring away spinning the Peppercorn and Shieling mentioned above. Since Christmas, I’ve made some tweaks to the way that she works, and it’s made such a huge difference to her output, both in terms of volume of yarn but also quality. I seemed to spend most of my Christmas break with my head in books about spinning, drafting principles, fibre control and twist, and it’s paid off!

Over on the twisting and winding side of the mill, Volti, our biggest two for one twister is still out of action as we prepare to reconfigure him to better suit our yarn. We’re still waiting on some parts to arrive for this, so all the twisting is happening on Volti Jr, the smaller of the pair. He’s coping admirably with the volume of yarn heading his way, and has been mostly trouble free, thankfully.

Che and Cambrian, our pair of skein winders have been non stop, winding the twisted yarn into 50 and 100g skeins ready for a rinse before labelling. This process is probably the most labour intensive in the mill, because each and every individual skein must be tied twice to prevent tangling. That makes for a lot of little ties during a shift!

Over in the packing room, we’ve been printing, cutting and applying all the labels to the fresh yarn. A couple of years ago we made a big investment into a Risograph printer to be able to print large sheets of the labels ourselves. It wasn’t the obvious choice, but it felt right for us. As a result, we get to use a special recycled paper blend sourced here in the UK, coupled with a vegetable based, 100% biodegradable ink.

The world of a spinning mill is one that works in delicate harmony. Everything must be in balance to work through effectively, and to be frank, it’s a balance we’re still learning. Some processes get ahead, some behind. But it’s a wonderful rhythm to learn.