We are head over heels in love with this very special yarn, and the amazing project that produces it!

Watch our IG Live with Wooldreamers for even more info on this amazing yarn and project.

Manchelopi is an airy unspun yarn produced entirely in the region of Castilla-La Mancha, a land rich with history, and the home of Wooldreamers.

This unique yarn was created to honour the Machega sheep, the breed native to the region and the source of famous Manchego cheese. This yarn is made with 100% Manchega wool.

Manchelopi’sunspun, twist-freestrands make this cheese a rare and high-qualityyarnwhichcreatesthe most wonderfully airy and characterful fabric when knit up.

Like it’s more famous unspun cousin Pltulopi, the ribbons of yarn off the “wheel”/cheese aremore delicate and easily pulled apart. Once knitthough, the yarn becomes strong, very hardwearing and durable, whilst magically maintaining its airiness and bounce.

Unlike Pltulopi, Manchelopi consists of two (untwisted) strands, so it’s not as fragile to handle, and you are actually able to carefully knit right off the “wheel/cheese” without the need to wind the yarn off first.

When you accidentally break the yarn, just rub it together in the palms of your hands to rejoin and you’ll never know the difference. This wonderful property means that you’ll like have no ends to darn in when adding/changing yarns – just splice together! Perfect for patterns where you’re chopping and changing yarns all the time.

Also, Manchega yarn is much, much softer. You can happily wear it right next to the skin with no itch or prickle!

Manchelopi will teach you the art of being relaxed with your knitting. So if you’re an intermediate knitter who tends to be a little tight, this yarn might be your perfect remedy for relaxed, meditative knitting.

The wool is about as unprocessed as you can get. It smells gorgeous, andyou’ll have to pick out the odd bit of straw. It has just the right amount of natural lanolin to sooth your skin, and the yarn hasn’t been smoothed down by chemicals so retains its amazing natural insulating and anti-bacterial properties.

Each giant 100g “cheese” holds a whole 230m of yarn, which technically makes it a DK, but we LOVE it on 5.0 – 6.5mm needles – somore of anAran/Worsted gauge (but with DK yardage – yay!).

(Note:Manchelopis comes double-stranded in one plate. They are knit as presentedin order to achieve aran/worsted gauge.)

If you’re an experienced knitter, you can even knit from one strand (wind up the other strand as you go) for a fingering/light DK weight yarn with 460m length on the cheese! It will be more delicate to knit with, but is very, very doable, and so worth it for the end result!

We think everyone should try this INCREDIBLE natural, traceable, family produced yarn!! The more we knit with it, the more we LOVE it!!

Some of our fav pattern ideas for this yarn (and check outourMiles Shirt-Jacket kitsand High Peak Sweater Kits!):

Sustainable Yarn with Social Awareness

Wooldreamers was created by the 4thGeneration of our Family Mill where the familywork withevery stage of wool: from the sheep to the yarn.

The Wooldreamers projectaimsto be part of the solution to the criticalproblemof Spanish wool being undervalued, and in some cases treated as waste

due to global market conditions.

Nowadays, our family mill coversall stages of Spanish wool production,right from shearing the sheep to spinning the yarn under the same roof. This means we are the only ones treating the wool from the very beginning. So we can guarantee the quality of yarn, with minimum carbon emissions AND we can guarantee thetraceabilityof our yarn from the sheep to your hands.

We have been working very closely withlocal Spanish farmers on theadoptionofpreferable techniques andsharing knowledgein order to produce the very best yarn, alwaysfocusing on animal welfare.
Aftermany years of prepwe launched our first collections, starting withDehesa de Barrera – 100% Spanish Merino Wool Yarn with full traceability(coming to Tribe soon!)

Oursecond collection wasManchelopi: A unique and soft unspun yarn made with Manchega Wool. The white and black woolcomes from 2 different flocks near our hometown. This yarn is so different and light. Everyone who tries it falls in love with it.And last but not least, we would like to share something that we are very committed to. In theplanning of each collection, we collaborate with people with disabilities at risk of social exclusion. People who deserve to be rewarded for the great work they do. They help us with thelabelling and braiding of our skeins.
So, tosum up, we are aproject that pays special attention to sustainability,helping farmers to continue caring for their flocks, supporting local wool, and showing solidarity with our vulnerable community.

@wooldreamers – Instagram