The Journey of Our Homegrown Merino
GROWN, SHEARED, SPUN AND KNITTED IN THE UK
The Merino Cable Sweater and Merino Cable Socks are pieces in our Autumn Winter 2026 Collection, made entirely from wool grown by our own Saxon merino flock at Daylesford Farm.
OUR SHEEP, OUR WOOL
Our flock at Daylesford trace back to the Saxon merino, a breed that grazed the hills of Northern Europe and England hundreds of years ago, long before a handful were shipped to New Zealand in the 19th century. The first generation of pedigree Saxon merino sheep were introduced to Daylesford farm in November 2019, relocated in close collaboration with the UK's only pedigree merino farmer based in Devon. Once a year we shear them, gathering around 2.5 to 3kg of fleece from each sheep, and by the following season it has simply grown back.
The finest measure of wool is its diameter, a micron, one millionth of a metre, so fine that fifty of them barely span a single human hair. Most merino wool falls somewhere between 17 and 80 microns. Ours comes in finer still, at 17.5 to 19.5, closer to cashmere than to any wool, which is why it sits so softly against the skin.
FARM TO FINISHED GARMENT, ENTIRELY WITHIN THE UK
Our wool is 100% traceable from the farm all the way through to the finished garment, unlike conventional merino, typically imported from Australia or New Zealand. Transparency and a commitment to treading lightly are at the heart of this collection, and we are proud to be championing UK wool and a longstanding British knitwear heritage. Follow the journey of each piece as it was made: the origin story of our merino flock at Daylesford, the fibres as they are transformed into yarn, and then into garments.
THE JOURNEY
DAYLESFORD FARM, COTSWOLDS, UK
The raw fleece is collected straight from shearing, it leaves the farm for the first and only time in this state.
BRADFORD, WEST YORKSHIRE
The wool is cleaned and prepared, then spun at a mill in Bradford.
NOTTINGHAM, UK
The sweater's yarn is knitted here.
HAWICK, SCOTTISH BORDERS
The sock's yarn continues north, to be knitted in Hawick, one of the last places in the UK still working at this level of hand-framed skill.
DETAIL IN THE DESIGN
Neither of our merino pieces is dyed. The bone colour is the wool's own, and some of its lanolin, the natural wax that keeps a fleece soft and weatherproof, has been left in rather than stripped out. In typical production processes, wool is scoured until every trace of lanolin is gone, leaving a cleaner, more uniform fibre for dyeing and spinning; this also strips out some of its natural softness. Leaving a little behind is a deliberate choice, one that keeps the yarn closer to how it comes off the sheep and gives it a softer, slightly richer handle against the skin.
The cable and moss stitch running through both pieces are drawn from the fisherman's knit, a tradition where every stitch once carried its own meaning.
Moss stitch stood for abundance, the diamond for success, and cable and rope, twisting over one another like rope on a boat, for good fortune at sea.
