Meet The Woolist
Zoe Fletcher’s detailed research is helping knitters,
designers and manufacturers to understand the wonderful,
unique properties of British sheep breeds
BRITAIN HAS 72 pure breeds of sheep,
and many of us will have knitted with
at least one of them – perhaps Bluefaced
Leicester, Shetland, Masham, Romney or
Jacob. Each breed has something unique
to offer to knitters, due to differences in
their fibre characteristics. So how does
anyone interested in using British breed-specific wool go
about choosing the right type for their knitting project?
This is Dr Zoe Fletcher’s mission: to inform knitters,
designers and yarn companies about the incredible
variety of sheep breeds in this country, and the special
properties their fleece has to offer. Zoe, aka The Woolist,
gained her PhD from Manchester School of Art in 2018,
specialising in British sheep and fibre qualities for
knitwear design. The results of her research were
presented at the Wool Research Station at this year’s
Edinburgh Yarn Festival, and her fascinating display
of British wools was a highlight for many showgoers.
Zoe’s doctoral research sprang from a genuine passion
for British wool. “I have always loved creating and making
things, and I studied textiles and fashion at undergraduate
level,” she explains. “I wanted to explore this further, so
moved down to study for my Masters degree at London
College of Fashion. Whilst there I focussed on finding outabout the journey of my raw materials – 100% wool is
great, but if I know what breed the wool is from, where
the sheep are raised and how the fleece is processed, I can
be more in control of the yarn and design outcome and
add another narrative to my designs.
“I worked in London for a few years for a few different
knitwear companies, but I began to feel disengaged from
the actual making process. I moved back up North to
work for a small alpaca cooperative who wanted to use
their fleece for knitwear, and to stabilise the alpaca yarn
we decided to add in a percentage of British wool. This
really started my adventure into sheep breeds.”
Zoe quickly recognised that while there is an amazing
variety of purebreed sheep reared across Britain, the bulk
of their fleece is combined in centralised depots and sold
with a loss of breed identity. She felt that if designers could
be made more aware of the individual characteristics of
purebred wool, they would be able to exploit these
properties in their designs. Zoe also believed that wool
producers had the potential to add value to their wool by
exploring individual breed variations - both their physical
characteristics, and their associations with local heritage.
“Understanding that each breed has different fleece
characteristics – such as colour, handle, fineness, and
staple length - means that you can then design with those1 Zoe’s beautifully presented samples
allow knitters to examine breed yarns
2 Her breed ‘toolkit’ includes yarn hanks,
fibre samples, and technical informationZoe studied all
72 pure breeds
of British sheep1 2
WRITTEN
BYHELENSPED
DINGThe Knitter Issue 141 Subscribe now at TheYarnLoop.com