Spinning a yarn
One of the last manufacturers standing in New Zealand
One of the last surviving yarn spinning plants in the country had the odds stacked against it during Covid, but a silver lining was found in the most unlikely place – an unpaid order.
Wild Earth Yarns founders Graham and Jacqui McLaughlin saw the writing on the wall when the country went into lockdown in 2020, having made rug yarn since 2010.
“The carpet industry was dying way back [in 2010],” Jacqui said.
“It was probably in lockdown we realised we needed to do something else.
“We thought we weren’t going to open our doors after that lockdown.”
In a round-about way, it turned out luck was on their side.
An order for 5000 balls of yarn had been completed by Wild Earth Yarns, but when it came time for payment, the client couldn’t afford it, the couple said.
They filled their garage with the balls, and with lockdown time on their hands, the McLaughlins and their daughter set to work.
“We hand-labelled all those balls through lockdown with our own label on them,” Jacqui said.
“That’s when we started online sales,” Graham added, “and we’ve grown from there.”
Graham’s passion for the wool industry has spanned more than 50 years, starting at Christchurch carpet factory Feltex when he was 18 in the early 1970s.
He became an engineering manager for a carpet yarn manufacturer in Christchurch and when the opportunity arose to buy a complete fibre processing plant in 2010, he took it on as a side hustle.
After four years of juggling his day job and working evenings at Wild Earth Yarns, he joined the business full time.
Over the years, Graham has collected machinery from various closures of plants across the country, enabling his business to be the only one in New Zealand to manage three spinning systems, including woollen spun yarn, semi worsted and worsted (the latter uses longer fibres and is denser, while the former makes use of shorter fibres too).
The wool is predominantly sourced from the South Island, including farms in North Canterbury, central South Island and Waimate’s Hanui Wool.
Everything was processed by the McLaughlins, “from the sheep’s back to the finished yarn,” Jacqui said.
“It’s a long process, but it’s quite rewarding.”
All the wool is scoured (washed) in Timaru to get rid of the natural grease, and unless it’s kept raw, it’s dyed in Oamaru before returning to the Christchurch plant for processing.
Mass producing spun wool was a dying art, Jacqui said, especially as New Zealand manufacturers were unable to compete with the prices of yarn being brought in from China.
“Labour costs, rent on buildings, it’s far more expensive than overseas.”
But she said the pandemic had also ignited a thirst to buy New Zealand-made products.
To ensure the knowledge was not lost, the McLaughlins had a “succession plan”, she said.
Their son, Blair, 23, began learning the ropes last year, she said, “so we can retire one day”.
“Blair is up for the challenge; he’s doing very well.”
Managing the machinery and understanding the industry was something that “only comes with years of knowledge”, Jacqui said.
“There’s not many people around who can maintain [the machinery] or know enough about the machines to set up another spinning mill.”
Graham is counting his blessings that Covid sparked a revival of knitting and buying Kiwi-made.
“It’s certainly been a passionate run for me. It’s been challenging, most definitely, it cost a fortune to set up, and it’s now paying its own way, finally.”
* Wild Earth Yarns is located at 11 Edison Place, Bromley, Christchurch.