June Lynn, Bilby Yarns, has spent a lifetime in the wool industry

After spending more than 40 years in the industry, she is no stranger to the world of textiles and sure knows how to spin a yarn.

Ms Lynn grew up along the outskirts of Perth with her family, spending time on her uncle's properties at Boddington, Gidgegannup and having her father grow up in Piawaning.

After admitting she was never much of a city girl, she decided to move to Nhulunbuy, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in 1981 with her husband Colin.

The Territory's slower pace and isolation encouraged Ms Lynn to join the local textiles and craft group.

The group insisted she make a rug on arrival, for her new home.

After spending time with the group and completing her rug, using the tapestry weaving method, Ms Lynn said that is what inspired her to get more involved.

"By the time I was done, I was hooked," Ms Lynn said.

"It was hard to get the hang of using the loom, I'm left-handed so it was a bit awkward, I basically learnt everything back to front."

From then on, making rugs was the new normal.

In 1985 when a job opportunity came up in Karratha, Ms Lynn moved with her husband and two-year-old son David.

She began a new adventure doing a daily post office mail run for Ansett air freight to collect from Karratha, to Roebourne, then Wickham and back.

"Moving from the tropics to Karratha was a big change," she said.

Pursuing her craft interest, Ms Lynn joined a local spinners and weavers group where she purchased a foot loom and continued weaving rugs.

"I learnt a lot in Karratha, expanded my knowledge on dressing the loom, making patterns and working out the correct spacing I needed but there was still so much to learn," she said.

In the meantime Ms Lynn buried herself in research on various yarns, their thicknesses and what they were useful for.

She was encouraged when colour sampling to choose the most outrageous options to weave with, to learn which colours match and which don't.

"Wool had really grabbed me, weaving wise," Ms Lynn said.

"I loved it because it was so easily manipulated and has properties that the others lack, meaning it can be used for so many things."

In 1988, Ms Lynn's husband Colin, was given a job opportunity he couldn't refuse, and reluctantly, she and her son David made the move back to Perth.

"We loved the north, I was adamant to stay, but life always seems to have another plan," she said.

Not long after moving back down to Perth, Ms Lynn continued to weave and spin and accepted an opportunity to co-ordinate the Yarn room for the Handweavers Spinners & Dyers Guild of WA.

This provided the perfect opportunity to source her materials from WA and expand her wool research.

After being the co-ordinator for three years, she was approached by two women whom she had befriended, asking if she had ever considered doing her own Western Australian yarn for weavers.

"At this point I thought, well it looks like I'm going to be a manufacturer," Ms Lynn said.

"I doubted myself big time, it was pretty scary, I was reassured by fellow weavers that this was not a lack of knowledge but simply a lack of confidence."

From that day forward she opened up her home and became the city wool depot for Melanian Sheep Breeders Society in WA.

She converted her garage and living room into a suitable place for the wool bales to be stored.

The following years saw Ms Lynn purchasing her first four bales of Western Australian wool, from Arthur River.

READ MORE:

From there, she would travel interstate visiting the scouring and processing factories to emphasise her needs, as all work is done under contracts.

"I honestly don't think you've lived unless you've worked in a wool shed, taken in the smell and been dumped in the middle of a wool pile," Ms Lynn said.

During intrastate farm visits she was able to work with the classers Ray and Frank and became very familiar with the classing process.

Ms Lynn liked a seed-free, long staple medium crimp with minimal grease fleece, which she managed to produce a 77 per cent yield from.

Her relationships with breeders strengthened, she was able to encourage them to improve their breeding programs and cull stock with rough wool in order to breed solid colours that had a softer handle.

In 1994, Ms Lynn proudly made her first run of pure WA naturally-coloured wool yarn.

As an interest for weaving and spinning lessons increased, she realised that operating from home was no longer an option.

"I was growing outwards not upwards, my aim was to keep evolving, and that just wasn't happening at home," Ms Lynn said.

"Women getting business loans was difficult, so personal assets were relinquished to finance the next 10 bales of wool from WA wool growers."

Ms Lynn admits that she "had wool coming out of my ears".

In 2006, she was able to upsize from her home to a Myaree store to see if she had what it took to run a business.

With an approval for a six-month lease she bought an old computer, learned how to use it and set up her own books.

Ms Lynn began knitting wool bands to use as allergen testers so that customers could use them to test if they were allergic to specific wool types.

After being in the Myaree store for two years, a summer storm saw Ms Lynn's new shop calf-deep in water, flooded archives and her extra stock saturated.

"The insurance company was not liable for the lost goods," she said.

"It looked like I was done and dusted, it was time to move on and find something else.

"I originally wanted to sell everything off and give up, my customers were devastated."

Soon after, an accident on the roadside on Harrison Street in Willagee prompted Ms Lynn to pull into a small row of shops.

In the window of the first shop she saw was a small advertisement saying it was for rent.

"I was back on, this was the perfect opportunity," Ms Lynn said.

Her son, David organised a group of friends to help him move the enormous amount of wool and equipment into the new location.

That store now proudly wears the name Bilby Yarns.

The meaning behind the name encompasses Ms Lynn's life, constantly running around and not getting much sleep.

"Knitters and wool shops were becoming endangered, so we called ourselves Bilby Yarns, because they are becoming extinct too," she said.

On the COVID-19 front wool availability hasn't changed.

"I source all my fleeces from WA so I just used to travel in and out of lockdowns to get them, I travel 14 times a year," she said.

Prior to COVID Ms Lynn was supplying goods interstate and internationally, to Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Indonesia, Singapore, Ireland and America.

Rather than closing over the COVID-19 period, she tried a different approach, by using the click and collect method, as well as posting through the orders she received from customers.

"It was very successful," she said.

Another successful aspect to the business has been the capability to fix broken or damaged spinning wheels.

Ms Lynn is the WA agent for Ashford wheels and looms.

"We used to just fix the spin wheels in-store, over time we have shifted to teaching clients how to service their own spin wheels so they can do it themselves," she said.

"Everyone comes in with a story to tell, I love helping people, usually they just need a suggestion or a different perspective and they're off again."

Ms Lynn used to visit local schools to educate them on the endless amount of things you can do with wool, as well as giving educational speeches to wool users.

"I still want to educate people on the wool industry and the beautiful properties of pure wool, it's an amazing fibre," Ms Lynn said.

She makes a conscious effort to attend the Perth Royal Show annually, to share her knowledge with the public, of where natural wool fibres come from and how they grow.

Ms Lynn now operates from her store three days a week, accompanied by the volunteers who work for her.

"All my volunteers bring an area of expertise to the table, they all have different styles of knitting and spinning so we can all contribute something and we have learned a lot from one another," she said.

"We all enjoy enabling new woolly creations by the many talented craftspeople who visit the store."

Although she loves extra fine wool, Ms Lynn describes her ideal wool as "22-24 micron, six inches long with a soft handle and not necessarily white".

"Ms Lynn uses wool exclusively from the Melanian sheep breeders and from a few select WA Merino woolgrowers.

The Melanian Sheep Breeders Society members vary from farm-to-farm throughout WA but consistently breed Merino cross, superfine Merino, Corriedale, Corriedale-Merino cross and Border Leicester-Merino cross.

Ms Lynn loves to use the society to source her more natural coloured wool types.

Within the Bilby Yarns store there is no shortage of beautiful products, including garments, rugs, raw fleece, washed wool tops, hand spun yarns, yarns ranging from 1ply-20ply, cotton, silk, wool dyes and knitted items.

Ms Lynn provides unbleached natural yarns on the shelves, so that people can go home and dye it themselves to make it into "their own masterpieces."