Swaledale woollens - The History of Hand Knitting

The history of Swaledale woollens is really the story of woollens throughout the Yorkshire Dales.... from the great religious estates of the Middle Ages to the isolated farms and numerous hamlets such as Muker in Swaledale..... and even beyond throughout North Yorkshire and the hill areas of Northern England. Indeed, wool has been an important economic commodity in England and Britain for countless centuries.

Today the tradition of hand knitting continues as a wide range of hand knit woollen garments are made here using local Swaledale wool from the hardy Swaledale sheep, the nearby exquisite luxurious Wensleydale Longwool from the beautiful Wensleydale Sheep and the more distant Welsh wool. Designer fashion knitwear clothing includes sweaters, jumpers, shawls, shrugs, cardigans, scarves, hats and gloves.

These hand-made craft products feature numerous Ladies, Mens and Children’s items in the available Menswear, Ladieswear and Childrenswear Collections. Teams of local Dales ladies produce hand-knitted woollens and machine-knitted woollens as a continuing form of a cottage craft industry thus ensuring the tradition and heritage of the Yorkshire Dales.

But to find out more about the history of hand knit woollens please select this link to the North Yorkshire Dales Woollens and Crafts.

For hand-knitted woollens please follow the following link to the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop where luxury hand-knit knitwear, yarns, balls of wool and patterns can be found.

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