Top 25 British Yarn Producers

Where can you buy British yarn? Loads of places! Read on to find out who’s making yarn here. From local farms and hand-dyers, to large mills and commercial spinners, there’s a wealth of British yarn makers producing some amazing quality yarn.

Following on from a request via the website asking where they could buy British-made hand knitting yarn we put a call out on Instagram for people to recommend companies that make British yarn. We had a fantastic response…it appears that the British yarn scene is thriving.

Our aim was to put together a top 10 of British yarn producers, but there were so many fantastic ones to choose from that we went well over 20. If you know of any others then please mention them in the comments below and we’ll add them to this post.

One thing that we’d like to point out is the distinction between British wool and British-spun yarn. This article covers British spun yarn, i.e. the criteria was that the yarn was spun in Britain but might be from fibres that aren’t from the UK. However, the vast majority here, especially from the smaller companies, use local fibres from British sheep or Alpaca. If in doubt, always ask the yarn supplier to give more details about the provenance of their yarn.

Laxtons

Laxtons are specialist manufacturers of worsted and fancy yarns, not for hand knitting a high volume manufacturing. You’ll find them at our Meet the Manufacturer event.

Three Bears Yarn

Proudly producing quality yarns in Lancashire, England, through working with the quality textile manufacturers here in the UK. Dyeing all yarns in their Lancashire Dye House – Blackburn Yarn Dyers Ltd.

Town End Alpacas

Town End Alpacas produce British alpaca wools  and other UK alpaca blend knitting yarns from their farm in the Lake District.  They buy local fleece where possible and sort and blend the fibres on the farm.

Ardalanish Mill

The Ardalanish Mill on the Isle of Mull not only spins its own yarn but also weaves it into beautiful fabrics.

Black Isle Yarns

Natural and sustainable yarns from Scotland.

Blacker Yarns

Blacker Yarns produce a range of beautiful breed specific yarns made exclusively from British sheep, all spun in Cornwall. They are also one of the exhibitors at our Make it British Live! event.

Cambrian Wool

100% Welsh wool spun from the fleece of the of the Welsh Mule.

Countess Ablaze

Yarn-dyer based in Manchester with some stunning coloured wool.

Daughter of a Shepherd

100% British wool from shepherds and producers within the United Kingdom.

Eden Cottage Yarns

Beautiful hand-dyed yarns.

Garthenor

Certified organic knitting yarns from traditional British sheep.

Isle Yarns

Pure wool from the Isle of Purbeck.

J.C. Rennie & Co

Established in 1798, J.C. Rennie make beautiful woollen yarns for knitters and weavers. They’ll be exhibiting at our Meet the Manufacturer event in May.

Jamieson & Smith

Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool Brokers purchase Shetland wool from over 700 of Shetland’s crofters and farmers, and transform it into high-quality Shetland yarn.

Jamiesons of Shetland

Shetland wool and yarn suppliers.

John Arbon

Worsted spun luxury yarns and custom yarns for hand dyers and designers.

Kettle Yarn Co.

Hand-dyed British yarn from ethical mills.

Knockando Woolmill

Historic working district woolmill situated in Knockando, in the Spey valley, Scotland.

Lily Warne Wool

British wool from a Devon farm.

New Lanark Wool and Textiles

New Lanark Wool & Textiles is a small-scale producer of high quality Chunky, Aran, Double Knitting and Organic woollen yarn.

R.E. Dickie

Specialising in British and Rare Breeds Wool, manufactured on their premises in Halifax.

The Knitting Goddess

The Knitting Goddess is an independent dyer of British knitting yarns, producing hand dyed yarns from British wool.

Toft Alpaca

The Toft Alpaca shop sells British alpaca and luxury 100% wool yarn.

Uist Wool

Undyed yarns from the Outer Hebrides.

West Yorkshire Spinners

West Yorkshire Spinner’s yarn is reared, sheared and spun in Britain.

If you’re looking to buy from these British yarn producers you may want visit the Edinburgh Yarn Festival which happens in March. With over 100 exhibitors, many of which produce 100% British wool, it promises to be a great event for knitters.