Spun with love and passion
Wool from the hills of the Lake District
Frankie has an arrangement with a local shepherd, paying more than the cost of production for each fleece. The wool is left to soak in warm water and soap for a number of hours to free the dirt, the bracken and the thorns that have caught as the sheep wandered the hills around her home in West Cumbria. Washing and rinsing the wool takes time, before it dries in the air, outside on the lawn in summer, around the house in winter (much to the despair of her husband Peter!).
Hand Pulled Process
The wool then needs to be pulled apart to the consistency of candyfloss, ready to be carded. Carding makes large rolled shapes, called batts, where the wool is open and aligned, ready for spinning.
Spin and spin
Frankie spins, allowing the wool to pull onto the spindle with a desired thickness of ply so the rugs have a strong and consistent pile.
Dyeing the Colours
The spun wool is twisted onto a niddy-noddy, which creates skeins, ready for dyeing. Using a range of colours, the skeins usually produce four or five balls at a time, and Frankie is ready to start a new rug.
Traditionally hand-pulled to perfection
The rugs she produces are pulled through jute hessian with a rug hook, and she only uses wool she has washed, carded, dyed and spun herself. The end result is a unique rug, unlike no other. Frankie gives each one a name to recall its origins on the Cumbrian fells.
A Heart-warming rug for any home
Any customerized design or some of the rugs in Frankie's personal collections are available for sale on request.