british wool – KDD & Co

ooskit!

By: Kate Davies Designs October 15, 2021October 15, 2021

textilesbritish wool, circular economy, Kate Davies designs, KDD, manufacturing, new yarn, ooskit, recycled, sustainability, wool, yarn20 Comments

it’s yarn-launch day!

ooskit is coming

By: Kate Davies Designs October 14, 2021October 14, 2021

manufacturing, wool, yarn, yarnBritish manufacturing, british wool, Kate Davies designs, KDD, KDD and co, manufacturing, new yarn, ooskit, sheep, wool, yarn1 Comment

new yarn! tomorrow!

schiehallion

By: Kate Davies Designs September 9, 2020September 9, 2020

wool, yarnbritish wool, colour, knitting, palette, Schiehallion, yarn22 Comments

Morning, everyone! First up, I should let you know that the KDD shop is once more up and running, and subscriptions to the 10 Years in the Making club are now open! Next, I can finally tell you about our new flagship yarn, Schiehallion This is a yarn that’s been a long time in the…

Coracle

I’m really excited to reveal something which has been a long time in development and of which all of us at KDD are really proud – Coracle. Before I became a manufacturer of yarn and knitwear I was a consumer of both these things. And, as a consumer, I often found myself deeply troubled by…

Layter – a celebration of sheep and wool

In case you haden’t noticed, today is the first of WOVEMBER! I thought I’d begin the month by showing you a garment that, like no other I can think of, truly celebrates the glorious variety of British sheep and wool. It was designed by my good friend and fellow WOVEMBERIST, Felicity Ford, AKA, Felix. This…

A grand day

(combed tops and yarn in the sample room. Wool heaven.) Yesterday I had a grand day out. Martin and Janet Curtis kindly invited me to the opening of the new showroom at Haworth Scouring, the world’s largest commission scouring company, and an important hub of the British wool industry. The opening showcased many different elements…

wearing Deco

(my Deco cardigan in October 2010) Throughout WOVEMBER, we’ll be exploring WOOL from several different angles, and today Felix and I are both writing about how wool wears. We knitters are perhaps sometimes more interested in the new and the spectacular than we are in the old and the reliably-wearable, but durability and longevity are…

braid claith

Since I wrote that piece about the Yorkshire woollen trade for The Knitter a while ago, I’ve had broadcloth on my mind. Broadcloth is a traditionally woollen, and and quintessentially British fabric. As the woven wool trade developed through the Sixteenth- and Seventeenth Centuries, broadcloth, in its several grades, kinds, and colours was popularly produced…

best fest

There has been much talk over the past few days about the general handsomeness, and nobility of the ovine. Here is a supreme example. Just look at that marvellous phizog! So calm, so gentle, so self-contained, so . . .sheepy! I spent a long time admiring this fine herdwick at woolfest the other day, and…