Where do you buy your wool?

[Alice21]

As wool shops are so few and far between can anyone recommend a good yarn supplier on the net.

[AnnieAnna]

Are you talking real wool like what comes from sheep, and llamas....and silk worms and flax and nettles?
Not so sure about the net as they have been slow to catch up with technology but they do mail order and have an old fashioned catalogue:
The Hand Weavers Studio. for anyone near London - well worth a day out. It's an Alladin's Cave - for fibre freaks.
AnnieAnna

[removed10]

Well, in the USA I order from knitpicks.com, patternworks.com, and Halcyon Yarns...I get roving and so forth from various local people who raise their own sheep, angora goats, and llamas. Yep, right here in Texas.

Just fyi - believe it or not, Central Texas is BIG in wool and mohair production. There is a very OLD feed store family here in my little town that has for many many years sold wool and mohair to major fiber companies.

I did the sheep and angora goat thing - was going to produce my own wool and mohair to spin myself (I love spinning - have an Ashcraft wheel) and let me tell you, I never suffered so much!!! I coulod not find a shearer, so I did it by hand - ye gods there is nothing more back breaking...ooops it's almost dark due to storm cloud coverage ... gotta run give baby Toby Goat his bottle...finish this later...

[AnnieAnna]

I don't get it. I'm hearing on the radio that farmers are only getting 50p a fleece.....they can't get the shearers etc..... no ones buying etc.......but we can't get hold of real wool. NONE of my local shops stock wool. It's all acrylic. I have to pay £18 to go to London to buy the stuff and I only know of 2 traders and 1 shop selling woolen fabric within a 150 mile radius (Is Cosmic laughing at me thinking 150 miles is far away )
"There's no demand." Huh. paff and piffle.
I'm very demanding!
AnnieAnna

(Hmmmm Cosmic - have we found a hole in the market? )

[craftyfoxni]

my late father was a sheep shearer for many years, and i can remember as a child him doing it by hand with a large pair of what looked like scissors and then later on using electric machines and could do up to 200 + sheep in a very long day and the wool was much sought after but because of the manmade boom wool is used in so little now that it is not worth very much and this is why when i go to the wool shop that it costs me £5-6 for 50g and you can buy acrylic for £1.50 for 100g, wish i had of took up spinning all those years ago and stockpiles of handspun yarn

[Critchley]

I keep watching Ebay and do pick up bargains sometimes. I tend to buy first and then decide what to knit with it, not the other way round.

[indigo]

Hi i have bought a lot of wool off st helens market,very reasonable.

[beaderselbow]

The staff at Texere are really helpful have a look at their site

[The 8th Gem]

Stated crochet again about a month ago after oooh about 30+yrs
Like you l struggled to find a local wool shop eventually discovered limited range of Acrylics in a shop 9 miles away and one or two good shops 30miles away....too far to nip if you run out hehehe
Done a lot of experimenting and practising with acrylics don't like the way it squeaks when it or l get hot!!!

Did lots of on line research decided l wanted pure wool in a large range of colours found some great suppliers but all over the world.....but eventually found.....

Rowan DK pure super wash wool in 42 colours from a shop in Scotland order over £10 and the pp is free and the DK was cheaper here than any where else l'd found at £3.25 a 50grm ball

hope its ok to post a link to shop?....l'm sure it will be deleted if its not

PM me if it gets deleted before you see it
Don't know what you are looking for exactly but presume if the Rowan is cheaper here other wools will be too
link...

http://www.mcadirect.com/shop/index.php

[wharfedalewoolworks]

Hi,

There are lots of yarn sellers on the internet but it's difficult finding them as a lot of the good ones who do wool, alpaca, silk etc are small businesses and don't rank very high on Google etc searches.

Try Texere as someone has already suggested or if you're looking for hand dyed or handspun look at Folksy or Coriandr or one of the other handmade sellers sites such as Misi or DaWanda.

[Uriel Jane]

Hi

I buy a lot of my wool from charity shops either in packs, odd balls or handknitted cheap items that i can unpick and recycle.

Also do you have a local Poundstretchers, B & M, poundland, Wilkos, or an Abrakhan Fabrics....all do wool cheaply if you get there at the right time.

Ebay is a good one but try searching for a company called St John's Wools too.

Or can you access a local freecycle website...they are pretty useful for picking up oddments.

Hope I have helped a little

By for now

Mandy