Celebrating sheep, celebrating native breeds and celebrating wool

Alice Underwood joined The Wool Clip in 2013 and she also trades as Sheepfold. Alice is known as a great advocate for rare breeds, particularly coloured and native sheep, and she is a committee member for the RBST (Rare Breeds Survival Trust) Cumbria group. In recent years, she has combined her interests and skills to publish three books that are proving popular in the Caldbeck shop.

"I first developed knitting designs for a baby blanket, featuring different British coloured sheep breeds," Alice explains. "My niece was expecting a baby in summer 2018 and I thought that a woollen blanket featuring 20 different native breeds, each on a pale green background, would be an unusual approach and an attractive one too. I was really pleased with the result so knitted a second one, with just a couple of tweaks, for a Wool Clip exhibition at Upfront Gallery near Penrith. People then started asking me for the pattern - and it didn't exist!"

At first, Alice shared charts for five of the 20 sheep with brief background information on each breed but given the demand, decided to put all 20 charts, as well as background facts about each breed and photographs, into a first book: Sheep of Many Colours that was published in 2019.

"The subtitle was all about knowing and knitting, which was important to me," she says. "My husband, James, created the cover images, one of our Manx Loaghtan sheep and one of a Portland ewe in charcoal and pastels. Sales have been encouraging and it's lovely that people keep in touch via social media with their own work and variations. As well as incorporating the designs into sweaters and other items, I've had people try to knit each design in the appropriate breed's yarn and I also know that people have used the charts to create cross stitch and beadwork versions." 

A year later, and with another family baby on the way, Alice created a second baby blanket resulting in another book. A Breed Apart includes 20 charts with accompanying photographs and information and this time features 20 native livestock and poultry, many of which are rare breeds too.

"With my love of sheep, I did include four more sheep breeds in this blanket design," she explains, "alongside cattle, horses, ducks, pigs, geese, goats, chickens and a pony! The emphasis is very much on them being native to the UK and, in most cases, designated as rare breeds. I wanted to use the book to enthuse and engage people and to show the importance of the diversity of our native breeds."

Since publication, the charts in this book have appeared on other blankets as well as baby hats, potholders, bunting and other customer creations. The size of each chart matches those in her first book, so they can all be used together.

The third and most recent book (published in 2024) is called In the Wild and it features 20 wild birds and animals, all of them to be found in Cumbria and most of them (16 at the latest count) found in or around Alice's garden and surrounding fields, river and sky. 

"In The Wild is the most colourful of the three collections – the goldfinch, kingfisher and other birds ensure that – and customers are already incorporating the designs into their own work. I've knitted a headband that includes the stoat and I've also sold some baby hats via The Wool Clip. It will be interesting to see what other items these charts inspire. Again, the chart size for each bird and animal matches those in my first two books so that people can make their own selection and combine them."

​Alice Underwood

Alice has sold over 1000 books so far, each selling at between £9.50 and £10.50. They all feature James Underwood's paintings in pastel on the front and back covers and all have been printed by local press, H&H Reeds in Penrith. They are on sale in the shop at Caldbeck and also via The Wool Clip's online shop  or via Sheepfold.

But the books have emerged from a broader involvement in native breed sheep and their fleece. Alice has a small flock of Manx Loaghtan sheep and she sells a DK yarn produced with fleece from her own flock and another small flock of Manx, descended from Alice's animals. She also has some DK yarns that are her own Manx Loaghtan fleece blended and marled with a 'white' Portland fleece from Hannah Stott of Hollow Green Rare Breeds at Raisbeck near Orton.

"I met Hannah through RBST and it is great to work together in this way. My yarn range is now a 100% Manx wool, a 100% Portland wool, a blend of Manx and Portland and then two marled yarns, one 2:1 ratio of Manx to Portland and one 1:2 combination. All are remarkably soft and fabulous to work with, whether put together or used as a single yarn in knitting and crochet projects. They make the most of the fleeces' natural colours and, I hope, support and celebrate these rare and unusual horned breeds for the future."