So, as promised I had a discussion with the suppliers of Debbie Bliss regarding the fibre content of the yarns and was very surprised by the outcome of the conversation. I spoke directly to a director of the company and I asked about the guidance notes issued by the Government Department for Business Innovation and Skills. In particular I asked them that if you were allowed to call a wool Shetland Wool then surely you could use the term Merino Wool as it was just used to clarify the fact the wool came from a Merino sheep. The response was staggering to say the least. I was told that the term merino was only a descriptive word used to describe the fineness of a wool and there was no such thing as a Merino Sheep. I challenged them on this point and was told that I knew nothing about wool or sheep and they would not discuss the matter with me any further.

On this revelation I thought I would do more digging as I was sure there was a Merino Sheep and so I then spoke to the suppliers of Catherine Earnshaw, and the suppliers of Wendy and Twilleys. Both of these companies confirmed to me that there was a Merino Sheep and that their Merino Wool was made from the fleece of the Merino Sheep. I also verified this on the internet however I did find one interesting point and that is in the USA the term merino is loosely used as a descriptive term to decribe the fineness of wool. The reason for changing the description in Europe is that this is not acceptable as it can lead to a mis-representation of where the wool originated. If you would like more information on Merino Sheep please visit Wikipedia here.

I hope this is clear for everyone to understand and is one of the reasons why we will no longer be stocking Debbie Bliss as we think the yarns do not represent good value for money. You can however pick up our remaining stock of Debbie Bliss Yarns at a massive discount making them much better value for money, it is painful for us to do this is we have had to pay a high price for them and so will be taking very little profit, just enough to cover our costs but feel it is only fair on our customers that they pay a fair price.

If you do want a high quality genuine Extra Fine Merino Wool then we would recommend Catherine Earnshaw Softest Italian Merino.