THE FLOCK

My flock of over 300 sheep is the heart of the Katie Cotmarsh knitwear brand. Their role in managing our beautiful landscape is vital for our farm and their fibre is the starting point for all my knitwear. Farmers struggle to realise any value from their wool and in reality it is often a financial burden, costing more to shear the sheep than they will ever receive in income. I wanted something different for my fibre.

hardy + resilient

We have over 90 different breeds of sheep in the UK, each with their own intrinsic wool characteristics. Some grow negligible wool, while others have very long fleeces. Some fine wools can be worn comfortably by babies, whilst strong wools can last for centuries. I have two rare breeds in my flock - Portland and Castlemilk Moorit. Both breeds offer very different characteristics for wool production and are ideally suited to long lasting, high performing wool knitwear.

portland sheep

My Portlands are a small, primitive breed, which has long inhabited the Isle of Portland off the Southern coast of England. They are hardy and thrifty, used to surviving on sparse grazing. Happy to eat rough grasses and browse on shrubs, it makes them ideal for conservation grazing. Lambs are born a russet red however this fades as the sheep age – the face and legs become a distinctive tan colour whilst the fleece is cream. They have stunning curled horns. The meat is known for its delicious flavour – it was recorded that George III was a fan of the Mutton. Their versatile fleeces make fantastic worsted-weight yarns, and the wool’s warm white tones nicely enhance dye colours.

castlemilk moorit sheep

Castlemilk Moorits are one of the larger primitive breeds. They were originally bred in the early years of the 20th century on the ‘Castlemilk Estate’ in Dumfriesshire. Using Manx Loghtan, moorit Shetland and wild Mouflon, a breed was developed light brown in colour with definite mouflon pattern markings. Their meat is very lean, slow maturing with high quality, superbly flavoured meat. They are renown for their excellent fleece, tight and even throughout. It is naturally bleached at the tips and darker at the base and when I have it processed into my chunky yarn, it is left its natural milk chocolate colour.