Earlier this year, South West England Fibreshed and Liflad received a micro bursary from our Fibershed umbrella organisation in the U.S. to scope and model infrastructure to better enable the small scale local fibre and dye processing that is needed to support bioregional textile production in South West England. One thing led to another – as happens with research projects – and the latter half of the project saw us taking a deep dive instead into scoping out the feasibility of developing a regional yarn For more detail on the earlier half of the project and survey results collated from SWE Fibreshed members please see the full report here. 

In short, a regional yarn that aggregates fibre from producers across the South West would address multiple challenges highlighted by SWEF members- cost of processing, minimum volume requirements and access to market, to name a few.   By aggregating small volumes of fibre from multiple producers we can work with and support our existing mills and processing infrastructure and maximise efficiencies of scale while maintaining  and celebrating a collective provenance.

We conducted five in depth conversations with key stakeholders – British Wool, Yarnconsult, Natural Fiber Company, Rampisham Mill and Laura Sansone as well as several shorter conversations with a handful of machine knitters and also utilised two case studies to highlight aspirational projects in other regions – Uistwool in the Outer Hebrides and Filature de Niaux in France. 

Key takeaways

• British Wool can now assure traceability of fleece to farm (not previously offered) through a QR code tagging system, a service which is offered at a premium of (£0.50 / fleece on top of auction price, and working with minimum volume of 350kg.
• They offer a standalone grading service at a price of  £0.25/kg for anyone wanting to achieve consistency of fleece quality to a specific grade or combination of grades, even with fleece not originating from BW registered member farms. This includes license to use the Shepherd’s Crook Mark for a fee of £300/year. 
• There is viability and reason in aggregating fleece from multiple producers and combining breeds but it must be the right combinations for the right end purpose – producing a machine knitting yarn will restrict us much more than  a hand-knitting yarn so will entirely depend on having an adequate supply of fleece from appropriate breeds to begin with.
• Mills can provide recommendations for how best to proceed with aggregated fibre in terms of percentage blends of different grades and/or breeds, as well as best processing and yarn types, in order to make the most of fleece qualities while minimising wastage. However not all small scale mills are able to blend different fibres to high consistency. 
• There may be scope to make two yarns – one that answers demand for a high end machine knitting yarn (for example,)  and the other a more collective, community-supported initiative which celebrates a greater diversity of breeds and has character – probably which changes year on year. 
• There would need to be a means of measuring input fleece quality in an aggregated system to ensure best possible output. 
• Efficiency of interdependence can be matched for efficiencies of scale! By working together and streamlining our bioregional systems for fibre production and processing we can bring costs down – rather than through exhausting and exploiting people and planet. 

Next steps

• Profile the fibre resource
  • Among interested SWEF members we are finding Shetland/Romney and lustre breeds to be common across the region as well as Dorset and Devon type breeds. We have requested fibre samples from interested producers which we will aggregate and share with engaged experts for input on processing to maximise characteristics and quality of the fibre. 
• Engage designers and small brands
• Formulate proposal for structure and governance of the cooperative system
• Modelling how regional infrastructure could be better supported to deliver regional resource 

Further funding and project continuation

SWEF has secured an additional small grant from Farming the Future, specifically related to Field Building and within that, Networks of Supply. This will allow SWEF to continue developing an scoping viability of this project in advance of shearing 2025.