The Woolgatherers Workshop

We stock beautiful Aran weight grey yarn from The Woolgatherers Workshop, set up by Zoë Lyne.

The Woolgatherers originally started after Zoe moved back to Chagford on Dartmoor where she grew up. What originally drew her home was the promise of some respite after interning in the fashion industry in London, only to be plunged into the covid pandemic.

After being in London she felt very disillusioned by the fashion industry. She had an overwhelming feeling that it wasn't congruent with who she was, and the values she wanted to base her work upon.

The stillness of lockdown was a chance for her to reconnect with what she loved about knitting and creating. She decided to learn the process of making a garment from the very start: collecting the wool, washing, drying, spinning and knitting.

Her beautiful friends from The Dartmoor Shepherd gifted her a dark grey blue-faced Leicester sheep fleece - and she began. 

The brand name came from the literal sense to gather wool and also a little joke to herself at her own tendency to daydream: 'To wool-gather is to indulge in aimless thoughts or daydreams'

The Woolgatherers  is an investigative project, rooted in a deep connection to process and materials;  honouring ancestral practice. 

A Commitment to learning about wool production, spinning, weaving and knitting. Zoe creates beautiful bespoke garments as well as selling her own yarn which is stocked in the Dartmoor Wool Loft. 

With a holistic approach to design Zoë works with local farmers and spinners with the aim of utilising the resources Dartmoor gives us. 

The heart of the handcrafted knitwear design practice is centred around the human body and its connection to its environment, our garments act as a bridge between ourselves and the landscape around us, this connection goes much further than the physical relationship but into the realm of ancestry and tradition and what connects us to our landscape through materials and rituals of making. Rituals to live in.