It is mid-August, 2024 and I am traveling to Cardigan in West Wales to visit Jonny at Garthenor Organic. Two years have gone by since I was last here, as part of a UK tour of woollen mills I was undertaking for an article on the ‘Next Generation of British Woollen Mill Owners’.
So why have I gone back?
Well, Garthenor Organic is an interesting company. Started in 1999 by Sally (Jonny’s Mum), she was instrumental in setting up the organic wool standards that are now used globally. Before this work, there were no standards for organic wool and in 2003, Garthenor Organic became the first ever company to produce fully certified organic wool yarns with accreditation from the Soil Association.
Traceability from farm to yarn is their thing, and they have the paperwork to prove it. There is a lot of paperwork.
For the past couple of years, Jonny and Sally have been beavering away, setting up a worsted wool mill about an hour away from their farm. During my last visit, various bits of machinery were starting to fill up a massive warehouse space on an industrial estate. On this visit, I got to see some of the actual yarn production and that process is what I would like to share here.
Let’s see what lies behind the unassuming grey door that is the key to processing organic wool in Wales.
Wool Gathering
Organic wool needs organic sheep farmers. Over the years, Garthenor have worked closely with organic farmers across the UK with flocks of various breeds. The core breeds used in their yarns are Romney, Hebridean, Lleyn and Shetland.
Polwarth is another favoured sheep breed and that is organically farmed in the Falkland Islands. Jonny tells me that when he speaks to the Falklands farmers, they are proud to show off their sheep and have their fleeces come over to the UK for processing.
This is what 3 tonnes of unsorted sheep fleece looks like.
At any given time, there will be around 3 tonnes of fleeces at the mill, waiting to be processed and a further 6 or so up at the farm.
Once the fleeces are gathered in their raw form, they have to be sorted through. This generally involves picking out debris (vegetation, wire, poo!) and making sure the fleeces are of a high enough quality to send onto the next part of the process. There is no point in sending a heavily matted fleece off for scouring.
Scouring The Fleeces
Scouring is the part of the process that stops a lot of smaller shepherds from making their own yarns.
There are only a handful of scouring plants in the UK and the largest is at Howarth Scouring Company, West Yorkshire. They tend to have minimum tonnage requirements that are too high for individual small-scale farms, but viable for Garthenor because they accumulate batches from lots of farmers.
Because Garthenor is certified organic, all of their processors also have to handle their product to the same organic standards (GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard)). This standard covers animal welfare, chemical inputs, working conditions, and ethical standards.
The raw fleeces arrive at Howarth and are processed to remove excess dirt, dust and vegetable matter before their big wash. The fleeces go through a number washes to remove the wool grease (lanolin) and remaining debris.
The compressed bales take up a lot less space.
Then it’s onto drying, before the clean wool is compressed into bales that weight somewhere between 300-350kg. The scoured fibres are processed and baled according to sheep breed.
At this point, they are ready to head back to the mill in Wales.
Carding
The first part of actual mechanical processing at Garthenor’s mill is carding. This essential part of the system takes the scoured fibre and opens it up as it passes over a drum with some very pointed teeth. Think of it as a huge, version of a drum carder that a hand spinner might use.
Garthenor Organic is a worsted mill, which means that the wool is carded to start the process of aligning all of the fibres in one direction. This creates a long, continuous sliver of fibres.
Gilling & Combing
After carding comes gilling which brings eight slivers of fibre into one. With every pass through the gill box, the fibres move through a set of pins that help to line the fibres up in the same direction.
This is repeated at least twice more before the fibre is combed to remove short fibres and kemp (coarse fibres). No wastage here though! The short fibres are kept to one side and sold on their website as organic toy stuffing.
If a blend of sheep breed fibres is required for the finished yarn it is at this point that they are brought together. The fibre goes through the gill box a further four times, each time taking eight slivers and processing it down to one. This continued alignment of fibre is what makes worsted spun yarn so smooth, dense and lustrous.
It’s easy to see how this repeated part of the process creates a bottle neck in the system. No worries though, Jonny plans to add another four gill boxes to the line up!
Spinning
This is when the process really speeds up and you go from slow and steady to warp speed!
The beautifully aligned, drapey fibres are now what we recognise as a ‘top’, which means they are ready for spinning on a massive spinning frame. This machine pulls the top through, adding twist to make a single ply, with the spindles turning 5 – 10,000 times a minute!
The spinning frame also winds the yarn onto bobbins and the speed of the machine dictates the weight of the single ply. Different settings are used to make lace, 4ply, DK or chunky yarns – all on the one machine.
Plying & Skeining
The singles are wound from the bobbins onto cones so they can be placed on the plying machine to make actual plied yarn.
Once plied, the yarn is moved onto a skein winder where is it carefully measured into 50g or 100g skeins through the correct number of rotations.
If the yarn is to be left as an undyed, natural colour, then it can move straight through to the finished goods area, ready for labelling (they even print their own labels with vegetable-based inks).
However, if the skeins are to be dyed, then they head back off up to the north of England to the dye house, where again, all of their process have to be organic certified.
I asked Jonny if he sees a point where they are also dying the wool on site and he didn’t rule it out…
Where To Buy Garthenor Organic Yarn
You can buy direct from Garthenor Organic via their website. They also wholesale yarn to a number of Local Yarn Shops globally, to check to see if yours already stock their yarn.
I have worked with many of their yarn ranges over the years and can testify that it crochets and knits up beautifully. Unlike some heavily manufactured yarns, these ones are interesting and always a pleasure to work with.
Aloe Socks knitted with Snowdonia Sock
Positivity Spiral crochet cowl in Number 1 Lace
What’s Next for Garthenor Organic?
- On the 14th and 15th September 2024 they are opening the mill doors to the public. You can come and take a mill tour, just like I did! Tickets are £7.50 and you can get them here. If you missed this one, look out for one next year.
- In the foreseeable future, Jonny and Sally are working towards creating even more efficiencies in their mill process. By adding more gill boxes, they will drastically increase their processing capacity.
- In the mid-term, Jonny has an itch to also do some woollen spun processing at the mill. Unlike worsted wool, woollen spun fibres are in higgledy-piggledy directions. This makes the finished yarn light, airy, toothy and perfect for things like colour-work. I am very excited at the thought of organic woollen spun yarn.
Garthenor Organic Details
- Website: Garthenor Organic
- Instagram: @garthenor
