What is "Worsted Spun"?

The beauty of Wensleydale Longwool lies in its length, fineness and the reflection of light along the smooth surface scales of each staple.

Traditional Woollen Spinning relies on carding and gilling short fibres to create a soft yarn and modern hi-tech machinery can produce excellent results, especially by blending fibres. However, the short ends can lie in more than one direction leading to

itching or abrasion of the wool.

Worsted Spinning was developed at the height of the textile industry in the North of England to handle the length and fineness of the Longwools without cutting the fibres short. It is a complex process.

Our top quality fleece is currently being processed by Diamond Fibres, a small scale Worsted Spinning Mill only 4 miles away in Sussex.
(They can handle up to from 4” – to 12” / 14” inches without cutting). All their operations are hands-on and the machinery is ‘set’ to match the individual fibre requirements.

Our Combed TOPS (which is 100%pure Wensleydale without any blending with other Longwool) results from: Sorting/Picking (2)/ Washing (2)/Carding/Gilling (3)/Back-Washing/Gilling (3) and finally Parallel Combing - in all 16 processes of opening, mixing, separating, stretching, combining and aligning – which is what gives the soft smoothness combined with tensile strength and lustre.

Add 2 more processes to create a Single Roving and 8 more to reach the final hanked yarn in your hands. When is all said and done it is a labour of love by all concerned from start to finish.

The results are in the stability of the fibre, its ability to retain stitch definition, the strength of its ‘snap’, the minimal ‘halo’ effect, its lack of abrasion or pilling, the warmth and weight of the finest yarn and its loft or the ‘life’ in its fibre.