Welcome To Adelaide Hills Yarn Co

Hello from Amanda & Diana, the creators of Adelaide Hills Yarn Co. & welcome to our very first blog - ever! We hope to bring you regular blogs of interesting information about our products as well as workshops, events & markets we have been to recently.

Many of you will be quite familiar with who we are & what we are about, but for those of you who don’t….please read on! We are a couple of Mum’s from the Adelaide Hills who started our little business because there was a distinct lack of certain yarns available in Australia. We run our little online business in amongst our part-time jobs & busy families.

HOW WE BEGAN

It all started when we were away on a girl’s weekend in February 2016. We were talking about the difficulty in sourcing certain yarns - one of them being t-shirt yarn (also known as trapillo, spaghetti or jersey yarn). Little was known about it at the time, however Amanda being the keen crocheter was trying to find some, but soon realised that there was little to none available in Australia. Sourcing it from overseas was prohibitively expensive & time consuming. So the offhand remark was…why don’t we import it ourselves? This could be a business opportunity right here!

And so it began….. countless hours of research, emails & phone calls. So finally in April 2016, we took a leap of faith & paid for our very first shipment of t-shirt yarn. In hindsight, we really had no idea what we were getting into & although our suppliers spoke English we quickly found challenges with the language & cultural differences. However on this crazy journey we changed, moulded & adapted to make things work. To say we have been on a steep learning curve would be quite an understatement!

T-SHIRT YARN - OUR FIRST SHIPMENT

We were a little disappointed with our first shipment - it was hard not to have expectations even though we had not done anything like this before. What we quickly realised is that t-shirt yarn is not a standard product - we received all sorts of colours, prints & textures. While initially frustrating this is exactly the reason that t-shirt yarn is fantastic! A totally recycled product using the leftover fabric from the textile industry - this is a product doing its part for environmental change. The fabric is salvaged & cut into strips & wound into a bobbin - the finished product is what you can see in our online store. It may have knots or stitches joining it together & general inconsistencies (differences in thickness) but this is the nature of the recycled t-shirt yarn. Our t-shirt yarn weighs between 650-800g & has about 120m of length in each bobbin.

T-SHIRT YARN USES

We have seen so many of our lovely customers respond so warmly to t-shirt yarn & embrace its uniqueness. We are continually inspired by the many talented crafters out there finding & creating new, gorgeous products to make from this yarn. As well as the ever popular baskets & rugs, we have seen creations like bags, clutches, poufs, keyrings, necklaces, teething rings, placemats, cushions & hanging baskets or pods. It is now becoming increasingly popular with Macrame enthusiasts too, so the possibilities are endless!

OUR OTHER YARNS

The success of the t-shirt yarn led us to believe that there was probably other types of yarn out there sorely needed in Australia. Next we introduced the ribbon yarn to our range. It is a soft, cotton based, flat yarn - hence the name - & is used for many of the same products as the t-shirt yarn. It is noticeably lighter - the bobbin weighs about 250g, minimum 80% cotton & has about 130m of length in each. We have also sourced a yarn we call pouf yarn - it is beautifully soft also, with a minimum 80% cotton but resembles a rope style which is about 5mm in diameter. It weighs about 250g & has about 90m in length on each bobbin.

The pouf rope is also becoming quite popular with macrame artists as it resembles a rope, but brings a softness & range of colours that some traditional ropes cannot! The beauty of both of these yarns (apart from those already mentioned) is that they come in a large range of more standardised colours. This is not the case with t-shirt yarn that is seasonal & varies immensely in colours according to what is available at any one time.

We hope to continue to source new products to add to our range so the creativity can continue to flow freely! Please follow us on Instagram or Facebook for further updates on what’s new or happening.

We thank you sincerely for taking the time to read our little blog. Please stay tuned for our next one!