July Indie Shelf: Rosewood Wool

For July the Indie Shelf sees us with the beautiful naturally dyed Romney yarns of Rosewood Wool. You can find their online special gradients for sale now (while stocks last!)

How did Rosewood Wool begin?

We had the unique opportunity to buy a reasonable amount of Romney lambswool from a couple who bred their own small flock of sheep and had it processed here in New Zealand. They were retiring and we were lucky enough to be able to purchase their remaining wool.

We had bought wool from them over the years and had enjoyed the quality of their pure wool, and were excited at the prospect of being able to dye it ourselves and share it with others. We set about playing with colour. First with natural dyes, and then with more traditional wool dyes.

Tell us a bit about Romney Wool? 

It’s good honest wool that does as it’s told!

We’re delighted to be part of the resurgence of knitters appreciating pure untreated wool again and designers such as Kate Davies and Ysolda Teague are spearheading this and we are excited to see more people coming on-board to appreciate and see the true value of real wool.

Romney wool wears very well, the fibres bloom and fill after washing and this means your garment keeps you extra warm. Romney wool pills very little and softens with wear.

Can you tell us about the selection you've sent in for the Indie shelf 

 All the yarn we've sent to HRYC has been dyed using only plants, natural materials, and processes. Most of the wool has had a mordant used first to ensure the colour adheres to the wool fibres. Some processes don't require a mordant, such as indigo, and adhere through oxidisation. Each process is different and we have enjoyed each of them as we went along.

We have used indigo, cochineal, turmeric, dahlias, tansy, cabbage, onion skins, calendula, nasturtium, henna, avocado skins and pits and walnut.

Dyeing with natural materials and ground powders is a labour of love and an experience of aromas! Dyeing with the flowers was our favourite aroma.

We have really loved over-dyeing to bring about complex complementary colours that are just too good to be true.

We're very proud of our yarn and the results we have achieved.

And what about the online special you have designed for us in July?

We played around with this idea for a while to really create something special, that is ultimately very usable, and we really feel that with 150gm of 3 ply yarn you can make a decent sized garment. We got absolutely hooked on dyeing with indigo once we mastered the process, which was a journey in itself and took us quite a few times to get right.

We then focused on dyeing a range of gradients varying the depth of colour in indigo blue.  We've then created gradient sets from white through to the navy.

We look forward to seeing this good honest and very special wool winging its way to homes where it will be appreciated and enjoyed; worn and admired.

Thanks for having us.