3 surprising things we learned on a visit to Abraham Moon & Sons

We recently had the privilege of visiting our key supplier for a tour of their traditional Yorkshire mill. Definitely one of the highlights of our journey so far as online retailers – we generally don’t get out and about very often!

We learned so much about how their gorgeous throws are made, we thought we’d share some of the highlights here.

As a company, Abraham Moon & Sons make far more than just blankets – their fabrics are used in clothing, for upholstery, and much more, as well as the throws we know and love.

The mill is vast and we saw the whole journey of the product, from the wool arriving through the door, to reaching the warehouse as a wide range of finished products. We certainly reached our step count that day.

3 Surprising things we learned

• When you buy a throw which is ‘one colour’ – let’s say sage, for example – it’s not actually all one colour. We had imagined that the wool would simply be dyed a sage colour – but no. The colours are made by dying the wool into various shades, and then mixing multiple shades together. There can be up to 7 different coloured wools used to make each yarn. That certainly helps to explain the richness of the colours you’ll find in your throw. The image below shows the pre-mixed colours on the right and the resulting mix on the left.
  
• The sheer number of processes that the wool goes through to become the finished product is astounding. We actually lost count of the number of different machines we saw. Particularly surprising was the amount of work that goes into the finishing of the throws. What looked to us like a finished throw, actually still had several more processes to go through – the throws are washed, dried and pressed and this is when they really become very soft to the touch. The picture below shows a giant washing machine – maybe your own Bronte by Moon blanket passed through here?
  
• It was also really reassuring to see the amount of work that goes into quality assurance – we saw, for example, blankets being run across a lightbox, with a member of staff checking for any imperfections in the weave – you can see this pictured below. Products that don’t quite make the grade can sometimes be fixed, dyed or end up in the factory shop as seconds.
  

We’ll share more of what we’ve learned on this blog in future posts, along with some more of the photos we took on the day. There’s far more to a gorgeous throw than meets the eye!