A few years ago, Julie was pregnant with her first child. She was busy crocheting baby things and was looking for a supplier of T-Shirt yarn. This is yarn that is made from remnants of T-Shirts, that would otherwise be incinerated or go to landfill. It’s cut into thin strands, knotted together, then wound onto a skein. It’s got an attractive chunky quality to it. It comes in whatever colours are surplus at the factory, so there’s a certain randomness to it as well, and some colours can be one-offs, never to be made again. There’s a playfulness to T-Shirt yarn. Anyway, Julie was trying to find a UK supplier of it, and there weren’t any. So her husband Geoff started looking around for suppliers and by the time their first child was born, they had also created a business called Jolly Good Yarn! As they were in beautiful rural Devon, the yarn colours were themed on the surrounding landscape and places.
Over the years, they added other sustainable yarns to their range:
100% recycled cotton macrame cord is made of surplus cotton. The cotton is gathered from remnants in the garment industry. It’s basically chopped into really fine particles. These are colour matched to get consistent colours. The fibre is then spun into new thread, woven into cord then wound onto balls. It’s quite a process, but it’s a genius way of using up hundreds of tons of surplus fabric that would otherwise go to landfill or be burned. There are no extra dyes, no water and no chemicals used in the process. It’s done as energy efficiently as possible.
The macrame cord is perfect for, well, macrame – but you can use it for other things too! Crochet, knitting, French knitting, weaving…. There’s an extensive range of colours. We stock the most popular ones on the Chimney Sheep site, but there are EVEN MORE on the Jolly Good Yarn site!
Eucalyptus yarn is a luxurious satiny yarn made of 100% eucalyptus-based Lyocell - a next-generation fibre derived from wood pulp using a closed-loop process that recycles water and solvents again and again, generating minimal waste. It's entirely plant-based, completely plastic-free, and compostable at end of life. It lends itself to all kinds of projects, but because of its sheen it can also be used as a sustainable gift ribbon. Of course we like trees to grow into gnarly ancient old things but eucalyptus is very rapid growing so it lends itself to being used as a sustainable source of fibre for materials such as plant-based Lyocel. It's grown in Portugal so it isn't being shipped across the planet.
Gorgeously soft yarn made out of recycled bottles. These come in a range of colours and feel just as soft and fluffy as they look! As you will be aware, a lot of our clothes are made of polyester and other plastic derived fibres. The plastic bottles are cleaned, melted down and spun into fine fibre that is then twisted into thick yarn. Again, this can be used for a whole range of craft projects.
Geoff grew the business over the years, and developed a loyal following of customers who love their expansive colour range and sustainability ethos. Then. Geoff spotted a book shop for sale. He’d been selling books online for a while, and found that his enthusiasm for books was greater than his enthusiasm for sustainable yarn. It was time for a change.
That’s where Chimney Sheep came along. We LOVE sustainable stuff, whatever it is, and we like to offer a broad range of sustainable products in one place so you don’t have to shop around and pay for postage at every site you visit. We’ve acquired the Jolly Good Yarn website, where the full range of colours and yarns are for sale. And the most popular colours and yarns are listed in our Projects and Crafts category.
Have a browse and sign up for the Jolly Good Yarn newsletters if you’re into crafty things. We’ll be adding more to the range and sending out free patterns + guides and whatnot as we go. Plus sometimes we get quite random stuff from the factories so these will go in the outlet category if you like a bargain!
