This autumn you must keep your eyes open for special events to mark The Campaign for Wool. The Campaign for Wool culminates in a special week, starting October 11th, where you will find stores such as John Lewis, Marks and Spencer backing British wool.

To celebrate and promote wool during this week, Rowan has joined forces with Liberty in London, by running a design competition with students at the Royal College of Art.

The Campaign for Wool has been backed by HRH Prince of Wales who has long been concerned that British Sheep Farmers have not been getting a fair price for fleece. Over the last 10 years the value of British fleece to farmers has dropped by about a third.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage people to buy more British wool, not only for handicrafts such as knitting and crochet, but also to encourage the public to buy British wool clothing as well as larger ticket items such as carpets, and even house insulation.

Rowan’s design competition is entitled Freedom and it is combined with a 1960s theme that is running across the Liberty store in the autumn. Students at the RCA have been briefed with the key word ‘freedom’, asking them to consider exploring new uses of hand knitting and to challenge the perception of hand knitting by designing garments, accessories for the person or the home, or textile art.

Students have been asked to submit designs using Rowan Purelife wool, including the brand new Rowan Boucle yarn, which is the nearest you will possibly get to a ball of wool that looks like a big soft fluffy sheep! Boucle is produced exclusively from the frizzy Bluefaced Leicester sheep. It’s so soft and has a fabulous creamy colour.

The winning designs from Rowan’s Freedom Design Awards will be on show at the Liberty store during wool week.