Woolgatherers / UK
The Woolgatherers is a slow craft studio rooted in Dartmoor, born from Zoë Lyne’s desire to reconnect with land, materials and a slower, more meaningful way of making. What began as a personal investigation into wool has grown into an ongoing design practice centred around process, place and ancestral craft. After studying knitwear and spending time in London’s fashion industry, Zoë returned home to Chagford, where a Bluefaced Leicester fleece gifted to her became the beginning of a deeper exploration into wool – from washing, carding and spinning raw fleece to knitting the finished piece.
Today, Zoë sources wool from farms around Dartmoor and Devon, keeping the journey from farm to garment as short as possible and working with farms championing regenerative agricultural practices. She sees this as part of a wider movement to bolster the value of British wool and support farmers. Wool, for Zoë, carries thousands of years of shared human history, connecting us to landscapes and making traditions much older than ourselves. The name Woolgatherers speaks to the literal gathering of wool, but also to the old expression “to wool-gather” – to daydream or let your thoughts wander, a freedom from which creativity can begin.
