Every skein tells a story, and Bramble & Fleece begin theirs where the sheep are. This is a British wool brand spun in Baildon, West Yorkshire, by a mill that has been making yarn since 1907 — and in one of their ranges you can scan the ball band and trace the fleece in your hands back to the farm it came from.
We have brought the full collection into the shop: three yarn families, twenty-four of their own knitting patterns, and a palette built for colourwork. Here is who they are and why we wanted them.
Who are Bramble & Fleece?
Behind the name is Laxtons, a mill in Baildon that has been spinning natural fibre yarns for four generations. If you have knitted with our own Orry Yarn Merino DK, you have already knitted with yarn from the same spinners — which is part of why we trust what comes out of there.
Laxtons spent most of a century spinning for other people. In 2020 they put their own yarn into makers' hands for the first time under the name By Laxtons, and that collection has now grown up into Bramble & Fleece. The fibre is sourced within the UK and spun at the mill in Yorkshire, which is a shorter sentence than it sounds: very few yarns sold in Britain can claim both halves of it.
Fleece to finished yarn in under fifty miles
This is the fact that sold us on the brand. The Sheepsoft range travels a remarkably short distance from sheep to skein, and every leg of it happens in West Yorkshire.
| Stage | Where | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Bluefaced Leicester & Masham fleece | British flocks | — |
| Graded and sorted | British Wool Depot, Bradford | — |
| Washed and cleaned | Bradford | 2 miles |
| Dyed | Dye house, Huddersfield | 15 miles |
| Worsted spun and finished | Laxtons, Baildon | 20 miles |
Fewer than fifty miles, start to finish. For anyone who has tried to work out the actual footprint of a ball of wool, that is an unusually clear answer — and it is why Bramble & Fleece describe Sheepsoft as a hardworking yarn with a low carbon footprint rather than reaching for anything grander.
The three ranges
| Range | Fibre | Weights | Shades |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sheepsoft | British Bluefaced Leicester / Masham | 4 Ply, DK, Aran, Fibreknit | 15 heathered 4 in Aran, 5 in Fibreknit |
| Wooltrace | British Bluefaced Leicester (4 Ply) British Romney (DK) | 4 Ply, DK | 12 solid |
| Origin | Undyed: Bluefaced Leicester, Masham, Wensleydale, Gotland, Corriedale, mohair | Sock to Aran | 12 natural bases |
Sheepsoft
The signature yarn, and the one to reach for first. It blends luxuriously soft British Bluefaced Leicester with strong, durable Masham — and the clever part is that only the Bluefaced Leicester takes the dye. The Masham stays its natural colour and blends back in, which is what gives every shade that soft heathered depth rather than a flat solid. Long meterage too: 220m to a 50g hank in 4 Ply, 225m to 100g in DK.
Wooltrace
The range with a mission. Wooltrace supports the sustainability of British sheep farming by guaranteeing fair pay to the farmers and welfare standards for their flocks — and it proves it. Every hank carries a QR code that leads to Bramble & Fleece's Farm Finder, so you can trace the wool in your hands directly back to the farm it grew on. The 4 Ply is 100% British Bluefaced Leicester; the DK is 100% British Romney. Twelve rich solid shades, from Ecru through Dried Lime and Sunset to Claret and Perfect Navy.
Origin
Twelve undyed bases, gently spun to preserve the purity and softness of the fibre, designed for hand-dyeing or to be cherished exactly as they are. This is the one for dyers and for anyone who wants to knit a breed rather than a colour: Wensleydale with its glossy lustre, naturally silver-grey Gotland, springy Corriedale, and a Corriedale-mohair blend spun very fine.
What "traceable" actually means here
Traceability is a word that gets used loosely, so it is worth being precise. On a Wooltrace hank it means a specific thing: scan the QR code on the ball band, and the Farm Finder tells you which farm that wool came from. Not the country, not the region — the farm. Alongside it sits a commitment to fair payment for the grower and welfare standards for the flock.
All Bramble & Fleece wool yarns carry British Wool certification, and all of them are hand wash, dry flat. Do not tumble dry them, and do not bleach. They may be dry cleaned.
Why we have brought it in
We spend a lot of time looking for yarn that is genuinely different rather than simply new. Bramble & Fleece answers a question our customers ask us constantly and which we have never been able to answer as well as we would like: where does this actually come from?
It also arrives with something most yarn brands do not have — twenty-four of its own knitting patterns, written specifically for these yarns, with the exact shade and quantity named on every one. There is no substitution guesswork and no hunting for a pattern that suits. If you want to start somewhere small, the Sloe Snood is knit and rib and nothing else. If you want the showstopper, the Bracken Sweater is a seamless top-down cable with no sewing at all.
Shop the Bramble & Fleece collection
Three yarn ranges, twenty-four patterns, all spun in Yorkshire from British fibre.
Browse Bramble & FleeceKnitting one of the patterns? Everything on tension, blocking, sizing and care is in Bramble & Fleece pattern information. New to British breed wools? Our guide to yarn fibre types explains what to expect from each, and the yarn weights chart will help you match a Bramble & Fleece weight to a pattern you already own.