The English language is strewn with words from our illustrious textile industry. It’s a lot better to be on tenterhooks, whilst someone spins a good yarn than to be fleeced by a shoddily dressed rag and bone man. The fast fashion world pulls the wool over our eyes as they stitch us up with sweatshop sewn plastic threads. The more you look, the more you find textile terms woven into conversation. However, this is not a post about textile lexicography but the fascinating story of shoddy; the original recycling of woollen yarns.

Last year we all went on an illuminating trip to Huddersfield, the epicentre of the industrial revolution. We met Dr John Parkinson and his newly built shoddy machine. Dr John is a most colourful character, a fount of information, and an expert on the rag trade. His early working life involved working with rag merchants for the then slightly frowned upon shoddy manufacturers.

Shoddy was a way of putting wool waste back into the supply chain and dates back to the 1800’s. The mills of the time were continually spinning valuable wool and weaving cloth, the scale of production was huge and England was supplying half the world. Inevitably there were left over yarns and pieces of wool, so rather than throwing these away a machine was devised that shredded the waste back into wool fibres allowing them to be re-spun with fresh new wool. This was common practice for the big mills and made perfect sense. Talk of the practice was swept under the carpet, so to speak, as the idea was born out of frugality rather than the sustainable angle which is so important today.

Initially Dr Parkinson’s desire to build the first new shoddy machine for decades came from a passion and belief that it was a necessary thing to do. He says that if everyone in the country bought a jumper made with recycled yarns it would save 371 million gallons of water, enough electricity to power a small town and vast amounts of dye chemicals.

John won a bid for funding an R&D project with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) in 2019. He was luckily enough to have the blueprints of an early shoddy machine and persuaded the original company to rebuild it. This was the first time in the 21st century that such a machine has been built in the country and being overjoyed by success after so many years of trying he named his company after a favourite phrase –

“It Is Never Over Until It Is Over”  –  IINOUIIO yarns was born.

In fact, John was so proud of the formation of his new company that he had the name tattooed on his arm along with the flower logo designed by his daughter.

As more people delight in wearing wool and valuing textiles in general, hopefully we will see more suitability within the industry. It must be remembered that our throwaway society is actually a recent blip and we should all follow the age old motto of the textile town of Ossett famous for it’s rag trade “’Inutile Utile Ex Arte” translated as “Useless things  made useful through art”.

We are waiting with excitement for a range of scarves we have designed using IINOUIIO recycled Cashmere yarns. Below are some of our CAD workings and we will let you know as soon as they are back from the weavers in Scotland.