What does traceability mean for us?

1.  We can tell you about provenance:

In the year 25/26 we are selling only yarn made from fleeces from the following farms and holdings:

Koru Lammermuir (us) (Shetland)

Ewingston  - 1.5 miles away (Shetland)

Inglisfield - 2.5 miles away (Shetland)

Sunnyside - 4 miles away (Shetland)

In the year 26/27 we are selling only yarn made from fleeces from the following farms/holdings:

Koru Lammermuir (us) (Shetland)

Inglisfield - 2.5 miles away (Shetland)

Sunnyside - 4 miles away (Shetland)

Aikeyside Farm - 0.75 miles away (Shetland/Lleyn X)

Stobshiel Farm - 1.5 miles away (Cheviot)

Balloan Farm (Lairg) - 230 miles away but the fleeces were luscious and we couldn't resist (Cheviot)

The band on every skein  of yarn will tell you which flocks contributed to that skein.  If it is solely from our flock we would be able to tell you the names of the individual sheep who contributed.

The alpaca used in our Achness Yarn comes from a holding in Northumberland (about 90 miles away)

2.  We can tell you about our processes:

We collect and grade the fleeces ourselves and clean them of vegetable matter (vm) or clarty bits by hand before bagging them by breed and colour and weighing each bag.

We then decide on what types of yarn we require at the end of the process and work out how many bags or how much of each bag will be needed for each separate batch of yarn.  This can be a challenge as much of the initial weight sent away is lost during the scouring process

We currently work with three spinning mills:  two are based in Yorkshire and one is based in Cornwall.  There is not currently an option for us to get our required weights and quantities spun closer to home.

The yarn is either wool or worsted-spun to our specifications and returned to us in hanks.

The yarn which is worsted-spun needs to be hand-washed here before we sell it.  The wool-spun yarn can generally go straight for sale.

The yarns are either sold in their natural shades, or are hand-dyed in small batches by me.