Knitwear From the Heart. Honest as the Earth herself, HERD knitwear is nature unfurled. There is no harm, no squander, no toxicity, no needless travel. Made in the best of English wool traditions brought to life.
Their first collection is all-natural and undyed – five complimentary pieces that embody and imbue all that is the HERD Knitwear way. Wool From Heaven
HERD yarns are comparable in softness and incomparable in lustre with the finest grades of wool from anywhere in the world. Grown and made in Yorkshire and Lancashire from fleece to fibre. Spun to DK weight for the joyful knitting of heirlooms.
Mission
The HERD mission is to make beautiful, sustainable knitwear, to revive & re-energise the traditions of sheep farming for wool in England, and to do so locally & naturally
The Herd Promise
To source our fleeces collectively from Lancashire and Yorkshire.
To use nothing toxic to clean or dye our wool so it is completely natural.
To only use the finest Bluefaced Leicester wool so you don’t miss cashmere or merino, with its hefty transportation carbon footprint and desertifying impact on the environment where it is grown.
To increase the price of fleeces every year so farmers are incentivised to protect the pedigree of beautiful wool, rather than subsidised to prioritise meat.
To champion the expertise of the farmers, graders, scourers, carders, dyers, spinners, weavers, makers, knitters and finishers – skilled craftspeople of the everyday.
Our Motivation
Most knitwear on the market today either contains petrochemicals called acrylic, nylon and polyester, harmfully extracted from the most precious, biodiverse and vulnerable places on the planet (because all the easy-to-reach stuff we’ve already used up) or is grown in China, Australia and New Zealand in ways that further desertify these landscapes. And all those little fluffy white dots on the hillside all over the UK?
Their fleeces are sold for pennies, for less than the cost of shearing, or just burnt or buried as it’s not worth the hassle of sending them off to be sold. By using only 100% fine English wool, grown, processed, made and finished within 230 miles of the farms, with no toxic chemicals or dyes, we are completing the carbon cycle begun in the soil, so that you can wear your HERD with a clean conscience – you’re helping the planet and supporting British farming at the same time!
HERD invites your inner wilderness to reconnect, as sheep grow fleeces every year to be shorn and worn, so these garments are made in tune with the seasons and cycles of England, for your everyday cosy. It’s all connected, happiness, health, productivity, food, land and soil.
Creation
Bluefaced Leicester sheep yield the finest fleece of any sheep in England. They are kept by farmers in the North-West to breed with hill ewes to make strong, healthy lambs well suited to the landscape and climate. They have peaky roman noses, perky ears and long lustrous fleeces. Quite the woolly Romeos!
60 Miles to Scourers, Carders and Combers
Raw fleece is laden with natural oils that keep the sheep warm and dry through an English winter. To turn it into wool the fleeces are washed with organic detergent to draw out the oil, which is then sold on for use in lanolin balms and cosmetics.
The soapy water is then recycled while the fluffy fleeces are blown through huge pipes to the carding machines where their fibres are aligned forming ‘slivers’ – coiled soft snakes of wool.
The waste wool from these processes is called ‘noil’ and is sold on to be used to stuff teddy bears and cushions. Lastly the slivers are combed to align the fibres.
20 Miles to Dyers
At a dye house fibre is then dyed in huge vats to the desired shade. Did you know that synthetic dyes are made from petrochemicals, which take millions of years to decompose? Fortunately, sheep look great in ecru, and occasionally different shades of brown and black – and so will you!
We are working on a way of natural dyeing at scale, so watch this space. In the meantime, HERD knitwear is undyed and will therefore nourish the soil at the end of its long and useful life – making it fully circular.
20 Miles to Spinners
Combed wool is turned into yarn. It first goes through a gilling machine which blends the fibre to the exact right shade, sometimes up to eight times to get it just right. Roving thins out the yarn to the right weight. Then it’s spun and wound onto hank, or ball or cone.
70 Miles to Knitters and Finishers
In the knitwear world Nottingham is known for the skill of its finishers – the joiners who put sleeves to cardigans and cuffs and hems to jumpers. A good finisher is hard to find so take a moment to look at the joins in your knitwear – it’s no mean feat to get it just right!
We found a small boutique knitwear factory that makes luxury knitwear, and that’s where we make your HERD.
Total 230 Miles
“It was a labour of pure love to bring together HERD. Every piece of the supply chain working in harmony with the next, to create fully circular and beneficial knitwear.”
Ruth Rands
Founder
