About Us
Opening Times
Why we did this:
The shop idea came from being total yarn addicts and wanting to spread the woolly love. We wanted to create our wool haven where people can find everything wool orientated from 10g of Shetland fleece for felting to some really swanky silk yarn. We provide advice, encouragement and somewhere where anyone can come and ask a question without feeling it is silly or a waste of our time. If you want help with a project that won't cooperate; we are here. If you want high quality ethical yarns; we are here. If you want something wool-related; we are here.
We both have a background in healing people and we both believe that wool-related crafts are a very good way of enabling people to heal themselves or cope with illness or bereavement and wool helps to bring people together to reduce isolation.
What we did before:
TERI: I had a business growing, processing and selling medicinal herbs, teaching how to make natural skin care products and practicing as a medical herbalist.
BECCA: I was a psychiatric nurse and I had, and still have, Alterknitive which is my creative outlet selling my patterns and handmade jewellery.
What we want our shop to be:
We truly want people to enjoy being in our shops and to have a lovely time choosing their purchases. We want to provide wonderful service the old fashioned way where everyone is treated to their own time whether they are buying one ball or enough for a jumper.
Exceptional products are important to us ethically as well as being top quality. We research our products to make sure that no one (including sheep) are harmed and that everyone gets a fair deal. In addition, we would like to think we have something for everyone’s budget.
We listen to our customers and where possible we give them what they want (but not acrylic!). We really love our shops, they are our happy place, and we want you to share our woolly happiness!
Our website is a little off-shoot; we hope it will draw you to our shop and give you a taste of the goodies on offer.
Shropshire Ply and why:
The idea for creating a local yarn started around 2014 and was mainly due to British fleece being undervalued as a product. So much yarn bought in this country is merino and or foreign imports when the whole economy of Britain was founded on the backs of sheep from the Middle Ages on. Britain has the greatest variety of sheep breeds and each fleece can be used for something whether carpets or vests. We decided to gather fleece from small local flocks so we would have enough to be spun into a commercial product.
This was a way of highlighting how wonderful Britain’s heritage of wool is and of using fleece that would otherwise be wasted. Our yarn is made from fleece from my sheep and other local fleeces. We select every single fleece for its particular characteristics; softness, bounce, crimp and strength. We also have a local Black Welsh Mountain blended with British alpaca giving a beautiful naturally coloured 4 ply yarn. We have it spun woolen so it is light, bouncy and gives great stitch definition. It is perfect for stranded knitting and works well for garments that require negative ease. 2016 is now sold out, but there is still 2018 with Welsh mule, 2019 with Dutch Spotted sheep fleece and 2020 with alpaca. Although the composition of our Shropshire Ply changes, none of the fleeces come from further away than 20 miles from us, it is still 100% British and hand dyed by us.
Our yarn is a traditional woollen spun yarn drawing on the knowledge of breeders, spinners and textile historians. It pulls together many things important to us like heritage, local produce, British yarn, supporting British industry and British farmers.