Fibre Guide

Every piece begins with the yarn. The fibres below are the ones you'll find across the range — some on their own, some blended together for warmth, drape, or sheen. This guide is here so you know exactly what you're holding before it arrives.

Merino

The everyday backbone of the collection. Merino wool is prized for its fine, soft fibres — finer than standard wool — which makes it comfortable rather than scratchy. It's naturally elastic, breathable, and regulates temperature well, holding warmth without feeling heavy. Much of the merino used here comes from Bendigo Woollen Mills or is hand-dyed by Australian indie dyers, giving each colourway its own depth and character.

Baby Alpaca

Despite the name, "baby alpaca" refers to the fineness of the fibre, not the age of the animal — it's fibre from the first shearing, when the strands are at their finest and softest. It's warmer than wool for the same weight, has a gentle natural lustre, and contains no lanolin, which makes it a comfortable option for those sensitive to traditional wool. Alpaca appears here most often in luxury blends, where it adds softness and drape.

Mulberry Silk

The silk used in these blends comes from silkworms raised on mulberry leaves, producing long, continuous fibres that are unusually strong for their fineness. It's what gives certain yarns their subtle sheen — a soft lift in colour that becomes more noticeable in direct light. Silk also adds strength and a smooth hand to blended yarns, tempering the softness of fibres like alpaca or merino with a bit of structure.

Yak

A newer addition to the range, used in some of the finest blends. Yak down — the soft undercoat beneath the animal's coarser outer hair — is warm, light, and has a texture often compared to cashmere. It's a fibre suited to high-country climates, which makes sense of how insulating it is relative to its weight.

Cashmere

Combed from the soft undercoat of cashmere goats, this is one of the most luxurious fibres by reputation and by feel — exceptionally soft, light, and warm. In blends, even a small proportion of cashmere noticeably lifts the softness and drape of the finished yarn.

Camel

Camel fibre comes from the soft undercoat combed from Bactrian camels during their natural moult, rather than sheared. It's warm without being heavy, has a naturally soft hand, and carries a warm, slightly heathered tone that's difficult to replicate with dye alone — many camel yarns are left close to their natural colour for exactly this reason. It's also notably durable for such a soft fibre, holding its shape well over time.

Linen

Linen is spun from the fibres of the flax plant, making it a plant-based fibre rather than an animal one — a different character entirely from the wools and downs above. It's cool to the touch, breathable, and becomes softer with wear and washing rather than wearing out, which is part of why linen textiles have such a long history of lasting well. It also takes dye and holds crisp stitch definition beautifully, making it a good match for detailed lace work where you want the pattern to stay sharp.

I've been following someone online documenting her linen dress from planting the flax right through to the finished garment, and it's been humbling to watch. It's easy to forget, reaching for a skein, just how much stands behind a single thread — flax pulled, retted, spun, all before it ever reaches a hook or a bobbin.

Cotton

Cotton is the other plant-based fibre in the range, spun from the fluffy fibres surrounding cotton seeds, and it's used a little differently depending on the craft. Crochet pieces are worked in Australian cotton — reliable, crisp, and colourfast. For bobbin lace, I turn to Egyptian cotton instead, prized for its long fibres and fine, even quality, honed over thousands of years of cultivation and thread-making — a standard that's genuinely hard to match elsewhere. Both take dye beautifully and hold sharp stitch definition, making cotton a practical, hard-wearing choice for pieces meant to be handled often.

Confessions of a Yarn Enthusiast

I'll be honest — there's a small thrill every time a parcel of hand-dyed merino/silk or alpaca/silk/cashmere arrives. These aren't yarns you work with on autopilot. The silk blends have a way of sliding through your fingers that makes you slow down and pay attention, and the luxury blends hold colour in a way that feels almost unfair to plainer fibres — every colourway looks like it's been lit from within. Even after 25+ years with a hook or a lace pillow in hand, unwinding a new skein still feels a bit like Christmas morning. If a piece takes a little longer than expected, it's usually because I got distracted admiring the yarn.

Why Blends?

Many of the yarns used here combine two or three of these fibres — alpaca/silk/cashmere, or merino/silk/yak, for example. Blending plays to each fibre's strengths: silk for sheen and structure, alpaca or cashmere for softness and warmth, merino for elasticity and everyday resilience. The result is a yarn that behaves better in the finished piece than any one fibre would alone.

Every listing specifies the exact fibre content of that piece, along with care instructions specific to it.