Arranmore, ‘Donegal heritage’

Inspired by the breathtaking scenery of Ireland’s Northern Headlands, The Fibre Co.’s newest yarn, Arranmore (Gaelic name: Árainn Mhór), is spun in a mill that traces its roots to the homespun tweed industry of 19th century County Donegal. What makes Arranmore stand out is its use of luxury fibres including fine merino wool blended with cashmere and silk, creating an authentic tweed yarn of the finest quality. And with a colour palette reminiscent of the wild Irish coastlands, this aran weight yarn was designed for makers appreciating the best of luxury and tradition.

Arranmore feels like a yarn we’ve been journeying to create since the early days of The Fibre Co.  We have a deep appreciation for textiles and have spent many years learning about processing fibre and how blends work together in order to achieve a unique colour palette across all of our ranges. So, when we turned our attention to a tweed yarn, we did so with a view to add to a rich heritage that already exists.

Many are familiar with Harris Tweed cloth that comes from the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.  There is also a Donegal Tweed cloth, woven in County Donegal, Ireland. The Donegal tweed is known for its flecked look derived from yarn that is spun by blending wool with nepps, small bits of tangled wool fibres.  We loved this rustic look of the Donegal tweed and decided to develop a luxury version of a traditional Donegal yarn working with expert woollen spinners in Kilcar.

To make Arranmore, the merino wool, cashmere and silk fibres are dyed separately. Some shades can have four or five colours of wool, but there is only one colour for the silk and cashmere in each shade of Arranmore. However, once you consider the nepps, there can be an additional four to six shades of wool. So with this unique luxury blend there can be a dozen or so colours if one counts the shades of the various individual fibres. Putting them all together to create an intended palette is not an easy task.

Our partners at the mill have a lot of experience working with blends of colours but when it came to adding the silk and cashmere, we had to go back to the drawing board. To do so we travelled to Donegal and worked with the mill’s colourist to choose shades for the nepps and silk, which proved to be the biggest challenge. Studying colours, choosing the fibres and the way they behave is what makes The Fibre Co. yarns so distinct and our partners were able to add their deep knowledge of the layering and milling process of tweed to achieve the palette you see today in Arranmore. As collaborative projects usually work out, the results are better than could have been achieved by any one soul and we are thrilled to present Arranmore to the world.

Arranmore comes in 100g twisted hanks with 160m / 175 yds.  Knitters can achieve a gauge or tension of between 14 and 17 stitches per 10cm / 4″ in stocking stitch / stockinette on 5.0 – 6.0mm / 8-10 US needles.  This luxury aran weight Dongeal tweed of 80% fine merino wool, 10% cashmere and 10% silk is available now via The Fibre Co. stockists.

We can’t wait to see what you make with Arranmore! Please share with us on social media @thefibrecompany using #madewiththefibreco.  Happy knitting!