Here at Whistlebare producing yarn is entirely a family affair.  Every stage of the process is in our hands from selecting the livestock to labelling the last skein of yarn.  When you buy natural yarn from Whistlebare you know that it has been produced with the utmost care; both for its quality and beauty, and its concern for animal welfare and environmental impact.

On our small family farm in North Northumberland we keep pedigree flocks of Angora Goats, for their fine mohair fleece and Wensleydale Sheep for their high lustre longwool.  Every attention is paid to our animals’ care from planting mixed swords of grass and herbs, keeping their hooves neatly trimmed, patrolling ‘maternity’ through the night at kidding / lambing time and housing them in thick straw beds through the cold winter months.  Any feed that is required in addition to that grown on the farm is sourced from our local mill.

Equal care is taken in the process of producing top quality natural yarns.  Our mohair and wensleydale fleeces are scoured, blended and worsted spun in Yorkshire.  The mill that we use is in its third generation of family ownership.  We ply our yarn into 4ply, double knit and aran weights and then return it to the farm to be dyed by hand.

Situated in rolling countryside near the Cheviot Hills and the wild coastline, much of the inspiration for our unique range of colours comes from the natural palette all around us.  There is a reason why you will not see our colours or yarns anywhere else: they are unique to us.

I hope that this website gives you a flavour of what we do as well as the opportunity to purchase our natural yarns online.  We also extend a warm welcome to come and visit our Studio@Whistlebare, where you can see the goats and sheep in the surrounding paddocks and sit and knit in front of the fire.

Alice