Part 3 - The Wash

From the sheep in the field to the grading of its fleece, we've already learnt so much about British wool. But what happens next?

In the third chapter of our film series, we visit Standard Wool to discover how raw fleece is washed and prepared for the next stage of its journey.

Fresh from the sheep, wool is full of grass, dirt and everything else picked up along the way. Before it can be spun into yarn, it needs to be thoroughly cleaned.

It sounds simple enough, but as a small business, we've discovered that even washing wool comes with its challenges.

To get our wool processed, we needed around a tonne of it! That's rather a lot of wool when you're trying to make things on a small scale.

It's made us think about how smaller businesses might work together to access these processes, while keeping production local and traceable.

And that's what makes this journey so important to us. We're not just learning how wool becomes a cardigan. We're discovering the people, skills and processes behind every stage, and asking how we can do things better.

Watch Part 3 as we follow our wool through the wash and discover what it takes to turn a raw fleece into something ready for the next step.