The end of an era ......

(photo reproduced with kind permission of Andy Robinson)

At the weekend, my lovely friend, and wool supplier Andy Robinson, lost all of his current white wool stocks in a horrendous fire at his storage facility. At latest count, it comes to around 5 tonnes, if you include his discontinued stocks of Rowan Scottish Tweed.

That is one helluva lot of wool..... and a big blow for him, and all us Indies in the UK who depend on his awesome skillz as a Fixer ;)

But, despite it all, despite this huge event and its repercussions throughout the Woolly World, he put his own worries and shell shock to one side, and worked hard to make sure people have undyed yarns and fibres !! I recieved an order via the courier this morning, goodness knows where he *found* it all, but I have wool again, thanks to Mr Wool *grin*

What can I say, but thankyou, Andy. Your strength and consideration for others is second to none.

Amongst the stocks that were lost forever, were 4 of my staple base yarns, British Merino Aran, DK and Sock, and my Radiance Aran.

As these were all one-off spin runs, all he had, is all there is :(

The British Merino Yarns in particular were very special. A few years ago, he bought a huge amount of British Merino (as in the top 2% of the clip, therefore the finest) at auction, to celebrate his company HW Hammond being in the wool business for 150 years. This was then spun into the above yarns, and some being left as tops too, for handspinners.

Now, for me it's just the most amazing yarn. Outstanding quality, as those of you who have used it can testify to, being sturdy and soft all at the same time. It also takes colour in a wonderful, powdery way, a dream to dye for me, and you have to be really rough with it to harm it, which is right up my street ;) I am not a habitual wool boiler, but you know, I have known to be distracted once in a while!

So, this weeks shop update is all about my remaining stock of British Merino Aran. I had 600g of undyed yarn (plus a few 50g hanks for trims) left before the fire, so that has been dyed into my 3 favourite Babylonglegs colourways...

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