The Knitter - UK (2019-10)

JULIET AND John Miller,
who run The Border Mill,
have always taken
inspiration from the
Scottish countryside for
their yarns. Nestled in the
Lammermuir hills in the
Scottish Borders, John and Juliet’s spinning
mill produces a yarn range which includes
Alpaca Tweed and Alpaca Rose.
The colour palette for their newest yarn,
North Coast Tweed, reflects the wilder and
more remote landscapes of the far north of
Scotland, however. It all began with an
impromptu road trip, as Juliet explains:
“In September 2017 we bought a van to
help with fleece collection and taking
yarn to festivals, and decided on the spur of
the moment to use it for a trip around the
North Coast 500. This is a round-trip route
of about 500 miles, starting in Inverness
and looping round the coast of Caithness,
Sutherland and Wester Ross, taking in
John O’Groats, across to Cape Wrath,
and down to the Applecross Peninsula.
“We loaded up the van with our two
English Setter dogs, and hit the road for
what turned out to be an amazing trip.

Highland

adventures

A memorable road trip around the far north of Scotland inspired

the breathtaking colours of The Border Mill’s newest yarn

We were only away for a few days, but it

honestly felt as if we’d been out of this

world, the landscape was so incredible –

a blend of moonscape and Tolkein is the

best I can do to describe it.

“We came back from the trip with our

minds full of the gorgeous colours we’d

been immersed in, and immediately

headed to the mill to start playing with

fibre to try to recreate them in yarn. It took

a fair bit of trial and error to get the recipes

and some of the other technical aspects of

drafting and spinning the fibre, but we

loved the results. Gradually the colour

palette came together and we launched the

aran-weight North Coast Tweed at the

Perth Festival of Yarn in September last

year, followed by the 4ply yarn at this

year’s Edinburgh Yarn Festival.”

Artisan spinning

North Coast Tweed is spun from Shetland

wool, and is The Border Mill’s first yarn

not to include alpaca fibre. “We’re one of

the very few mini-mills in the UK small

enough to process an individual fleece from

a named animal. So most of our work has

been spinning for owners of alpacas, sheep,

and various other fleecey beasties,” says

Juliet. “But over the years, more and more

of our commissioned spinning has been for

owners of native and rare breed sheep, and

we’ve come to love the wonderful variety

of these fleeces and the different

characteristics of the yarns they produce.

“For North Coast Tweed, our first idea

was to use Cheviot wool, as that’s one of

the breeds you see everywhere along the

North Coast 500 route (on the verges, and

very frequently on the road itself!). But

There are 36 shades

in the North Coast

Tweed yarn range

The Knitter Issue 143