Products - Gongcrafts Natural Fibre Yarns

Botanical Yarns

We buy in quality and luxury undyed yarns which fit standard gauges of knitting yarns. All our suppliers provide traceable yarns, with the welfare of the animals a priority.

Yarns are dyed in small batches as our process is very much of a “domestic” nature. Laurence is a meticulous note-taker and all our colours are carefully recorded with samples and batch numbers so that they can be reproduced with a fair amount of accuracy.
Creating our botanically hand-dyed yarns is not a speedy process - beauty and reliability take time!
Many customers comment on the softness of our yarns and the ease with which they glide over the needles. The stitch definition is also well appreciated.

Raw Skeins

On arrival, each skein of yarn is carefully checked and re-tied appropriately for our dyeing process. The yarn is then soaked in our soft Highland water so that the fibres are ready to soak up the dye materials to come.

Dyeing

Yarns are dyed in small batches on our home range using either live plant material or plant extracts. To make our yarns as light-fast as possible, it may have to soak for 24 hours or more to absorb all the available dye.

Drying

Once the dyeing process is complete, we then leave the yarn to dry in the open air for 2 – 3 days before washing and rinsing thoroughly in our soft Highland water.

Skeins

When the yarn is dry, we hand-skein it using a swift.

Handspun Art Yarn

Our luxury, mixed fibre, hand-spun art yarns typically contain a mixture of 3 to 5 mixed dyed merino fleece, together with a selection from seaweed fibre, white or black bamboo, tencel (wood fibre), silk and other natural fibres.
We mix the colours on a hand drum carder with the inspiration coming from the land, sea & skyscapes of the Far North of Scotland, and sometimes places and faces we come across.
A special service that we offer: If you let us know 5 of your favourite colours in order of preference, we will create your own very personal colourway at no extra charge. Please contact us for further details.

Yarns are dyed in small batches as our process is very much of a “domestic” nature. Laurence is a meticulous note-taker and all our colours are carefully recorded with samples and batch numbers so that they can be reproduced with a fair amount of accuracy.
Creating our botanically hand-dyed yarns is not a speedy process - beauty and reliability take time!
Many customers comment on the softness of our yarns and the ease with which they glide over the needles. The stitch definition is also well appreciated.

Carding

The colour mixing is done on a hand drum carder with the inspiration coming from the land, sea, and skyscapes of the Far North of Scotland and sometimes people and places we meet or visit.

Colour Combing

When we are happy with a particular colour combination, we keep careful records of the amount of each colour used to reproduce the same colourway. By nature of the process used, we cannot guarantee two skeins will look exactly the same but as the colour proportions are the same the skeins will blend perfectly together.

Hand Spinning

The batts are then hand-spun into roughly 50g skeins. The batts are super soft and much used by wet and needle felting producers; as well as in our own handspun yarn.

Skeins

We are happy to make up bespoke skeins for customers too!
If you let us know 5 of your favourite colours we will be happy to mix, blend and spin a yarn for you which will be truly individual.

Batts

Our luxury mixed natural fibre batts typically weigh 50g and are produced on our hand drum carder.
The colourways follow the same categories as our hand-spun art yarns.
They are probably the softest things you'll ever touch!
They are much loved by hand-spinners and felters alike.

Special service that we offer:
If you let us know 5 of your favourite colours in order of preference, we will create your own very personal colourway at no extra charge. Please contact us for further details.

Colours

Lots of different colours to choose from.

Dye Recipe

Selected colours for our batt recipe.

Carding

Drum carder in action.

Batts Ready

The finished batt.

Accessories, Kits and Textiles

When time allows, Laurence likes to use her skills as a knitting and crochet designer to create products using our Gongcrafts yarns. Also, we both enjoy weaving and felting to create unique hand-crafted products.

These items will appear in our shop from time to time, some examples of which are shown below.

Boro Kits

Felted Items

Knitting Kits

Accessories