Woolcount Ltd

Woollen Spinners at Brecon

How many of you when seeing a lovely ball of wool ever stop to wonder how many hours of work have gone into its production?

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Robi Mandley would be the person to tell you. Robi farms on The Black Mountains in Herefordshire, and runs a flock of Polwarth sheep and 120 Angora goats.

A lifelong knitter and textile enthusiast she set up 'The Goat Company' fifteen years ago producing designer knitwear, fabrics, throws, yarns, accessories and mohair socks, all from her own prize winning flock.

The company grew steadily and now has customers all over the world.

Robi says "the ethos of the company was to have complete control 'from grass to garment', an almost unique situation. Knowing that if what went onto the grass was not right, my fibre for the following year would not be right and this would affect all the goods I wanted to produce."

About eighteen months ago the firm that had been spinning the company's yarns closed down, leaving Robi with a real dilemma - where to get the processing done? After taking such care to produce the best raw fleece possible, the implications to the business of having it spoiled by poor processing was daunting. So, after months of consultation and deliberation, she took the bull by the horns and set up her own spinning mill, Woolcount Ltd.

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With the assistance of mill manager Robert Southall, a carding and spinning technician with fourteen years experience, they sourced machinery and then a premises in Brecon, Powys and launched the company.

"It was a big risk," says Robi, "but I knew of many others in the same position as myself. Because I had been producing textiles for years, I had a vast network of contacts, and once word spread the work came piling in."

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Woolcount serves a niche market. As a small contract spinner they operate between the big mills who will only process tons, and the mini mills who can only process tiny amounts.

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They scour, card and spin the fleece into knitting and weaving yarns. The minimum amount is 25kgs and they guarantee to return only your own yarn to you.

Much of the work is with rare and native breeds but they also spin alpaca, Llama, mohair etc. and are certified organic processors. With links to weavers, dyers and garment manufacturers and with Robi's experience in this field, they can offer advice through all these areas.

Robi says, "because I've fallen in most of the potholes there are over the years, I'm happy to try and guide our customers to producing quality products, thus adding value to their wool. With wool prices so poor, its vital we work to maintain and popularise the many varied types of wool produced in this country, and help keep these flocks going. The public has now started to demand natural fibres and as with their food they want to know the wools come from animals that were well cared for, and with the disappearance of most of the woolshops, good wools are hard to find."

Woolcount will shortly be adding a links page to their website for anyone wanting to access wools from these breeds.

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Robi can be contacted by telephone on 01873 860590,
by email info@woolcount.co.uk
or see the website at www.woolcount.co.uk

In our next issue we will be following a fleece from shearing through the various stages of production.