New Venture: Walcot Yarns

Last summer I received a phone call and that phone call started a wonderful new venture for me: Walcot Yarns. On the other end of the phone was Sharon Spencer of Great British Yarns and she had an idea. Sharon and I had spoken a few times about potential collaborations but this particular time she had a concrete idea for us to work on. 

Now you might think it strange that owners of two different yarn shops in the same relatively small town would decide to work together. There is a lot of competition in this world of ours, the yarn world included and so I get the double take of our story of Walcot Yarns but I firmly believe in collaboration and working with good, smart people that complement my own skills and Sharon is absolutely one of those people.

So, for the last few months we have been working hard behind the scenes to launch Walcot Yarns and now the debut date is nearly upon us. We'll be debuting our first yarn and pattern collection at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival next week! Our first yarn Opus, is a truly lush blend of 70% Falkland Merino and 30% Baby Alpaca with a handle and loftiness more similar to cashmere than a typical merino/alpaca blend. 

 Opus is a versatile 4-ply weight with 325m to 100g, spun here in the UK and will be available in 11 shades initially. Nine of the 11 shades are over dyed on the natural Grey base, giving a rich smokey undertone to the color palette, something I love. For the launch at EYF next week we will have the two undyed shades of Splashed White and Grey available.

The first collection of patterns will also be launching next week, On the Surface: A Study in Texture contains eight patterns by four designers. Our own Amanda Jones has designed two stunning garments, Rachel C. Brown designed a Hat & Mitts set, Sharon created a simple cowl and beautiful shawl and last but not least Jo Smith designed two crochet shawls. We'll get to have all the samples here in the shop after EYF, so stop by and have a look if you get a chance.

If you want to hear a bit more about setting up a yarn business you can check out the interview I did with the Yarn in the City ladies on their podcast a couple of weeks ago. You can also follow our Walcot Yarns adventures over on our website.

We hope you enjoy Opus and the On the Surface collection as much as we do, we're really excited to finally show it you!

-Carmen