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OUBAS | British Knitwear | Cumbria, England

@oubasknitwear

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Defining the future of British knitwear.
Crafted slowly, worn for a lifetime 🌿
Visit our atelier and shop:
📍Lake District, Cumbria, England

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Meditational processes in our knitwear world 🧶

India linking together panels of knit to create our Olann Donegal Merino Sweater in Copper; handcrafted always.

This is the quiet engineering of knitwear. Precision you can feel, brought into three dimensional form.

#madewell #oubas #madeinengland #naturalclothing #craftsmanship by @oubasknitwear

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6 months ago

Knitwear has always been a craft of precision.

Unlike cut-and-sew clothing, it is created directly from yarn — engineered stitch-by-stitch, shaped three-dimensionally as it is made, and finished by skilled hands.

At OUBAS, we continue and refine this tradition in our Lake District studio. Working with natural fibres and fully-fashioned construction, we knit in small quantities and made-to-order — ensuring purpose, integrity and longevity in every piece.

Our focus is on thoughtful design, technical excellence and a deep respect for material and place.

This is modern British knitwear — rooted in heritage, made with care, and created to endure.

#modernheritage
#textileheritage
#quietluxury by @oubasknitwear

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9 months ago

Where it starts; when I actually stop to sketch.. ✨

I design constantly in my mind’s eye, turning shapes, proportions and details over throughout the days. Often the sketching part gets missed, but when I do sit down with pencil and paper it helps resolve what’s been building.

From there, it moves onto the machines. We programme each piece stitch by stitch, working with tension, structure and yarn behaviour to refine the garment. It’s not just design on paper but it’s developed through the process of making, adjusting and testing until it sits right.

Working this way keeps everything considered, from first idea through to final finish. Working closely with fabric and stitch design, refining details and seams makes OUBAS what it is.

Designed and made in our Lake District studio.

Localising clothing production and building a community around us.

- Kate x by @oubasknitwear

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7 months ago

The comfort of being wrapped in wool.

The warmth, the softness, that wonderful feeling of being completely enveloped in something natural.

British wool is a little bit of magic from our landscape. Grown on our hillsides, shaped by the seasons and full of the remarkable qualities that nature has spent thousands of years perfecting. ✨

Naturally insulating, breathable, resilient and beautifully tactile. A fibre that looks after us, just as it has for generations.

Isn’t that the subtlest kind of protection? Something that connects us to the land, to skilled hands, to the rhythms of nature and to the simple pleasure of feeling good in what we wear.

Here’s to wool. 🐑

@rosalilyjames in our Freyja British Wool Sweater in Ecru captured by @tor_harrison

OUBAS | British Knitwear by @oubasknitwear

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9 hours ago

At OUBAS, we believe British wools deserve to be treasured.

Like the finest cashmere, we believe British wool is a fibre of extraordinary value. One whose character is inseparable from the landscape, climate and farming traditions from which it comes.

Much like the concept of terroirs in wine, our native sheep breeds have evolved in relationship with their particular geography. From the hardy Herdwick of the Lake District fells to the lustrous longwools of the English lowlands, each fleece carries its own distinctive qualities, shaped by generations of breeding and adaptation to place.

Wool belongs to the natural rhythms of farming. The changing seasons, the annual shearing, the patient work of shepherds and the stewardship of our landscapes.

At OUBAS, we see these fibres not simply as raw materials, but as something precious. Through thoughtful design and skilled knitting, we seek to celebrate their individual character, creating garments with a sense of provenance and permanence.

Luxury is not necessarily found in the rare or the faraway. It exists in the landscapes around us, in our connection to place, to the natural world and to one another. In the knowledge passed between generations, the hands that tend the land and those that transform its fibres into cloth. ✂️

Perhaps true luxury is a humble sense of belonging; to a place, to craftsmanship and in our shared humanity.

📷 @folk.and.kin by @oubasknitwear

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a day ago

Shades of the Land | Rooted in Cumbria, our knitwear is shaped by the landscapes around us.

From shifting colours of the fells and the stillness of mist-covered mountains to the textures of weathered stone, woodland and wild grasses.

These landscapes are more than our surroundings; they are an endless source of inspiration, influencing the colours, textures and character of every piece we create.

And during Wool Month, it feels especially fitting to celebrate the natural fibre that connects our knitwear so closely to the landscape we call home.

#OUBAS #fromtheland #woolmonth #madeinCumbria #britishknitwear by @oubasknitwear

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2 days ago

Why we love British wool 🇬🇧🐑

There’s something special about wool grown close to home.

From the farms and farmers who produce it to the landscapes our sheep call home, British wool connects our knitwear to the land it comes from.

With a remarkable variety of breeds, from Bluefaced Leicester to Masham and many more, Britain produces wool with a diverse range of natural characteristics, shaped by our landscapes and climate.

Choosing British wool helps create demand for wool produced by British sheep farmers, supports our domestic wool industry and makes use of a valuable natural resource already being produced as part of our farming system.

For us, it’s about more than choosing a natural fibre. It’s about valuing the connection between farmer, fibre, landscape and garment; and keeping that connection alive in the knitwear we make.

We’re proud to be a British Wool licensee, bringing a little piece of British land and farming heritage into every knit. 🧶

British wool, from British land.
OUBAS

#BritishWool #BritishMade #BritishFarming #NaturalFibres #SustainableKnitwear BritishWoolRetailer by @oubasknitwear

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2 days ago

WOOL | Meet the sheep breeds behind our fibres

The character of a yarn begins with the fibre it’s made from; from the sheep it comes from, to the qualities of the individual fleece itself.

For our yarns, we work with a beautiful mix of British and Merino fibres, each bringing something different:

🐑 Bluefaced Leicester — silky, lustrous and supple

🐑 Masham — resilient, durable and versatile

🐑 Merino — fine, warm and breathable

🐑 Merino Lambswool — delicate, lightweight and cosy

We’re incredibly lucky to work with such brilliant suppliers, who share our appreciation for beautiful natural fibres and the craft, knowledge and care that goes into producing them. Their expertise allows us to choose fibres with the qualities we’re looking for, and ultimately create yarns we’re proud to work with.

A little closer look at the sheep behind the wool we use, and a big thank you to the wonderful suppliers who help bring these fibres to us. 🧶

#britishwool #merino #bluefacedleicester #mashamwool #lambswool by @oubasknitwear

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4 days ago

Farming has shaped Cumbria’s landscapes and communities that surround us for generations.

From tending livestock to producing the wool that has been part of British life for centuries, it’s a tradition built on hard work, knowledge and care for the land.

This Wool Month, we’re celebrating the farming families behind that heritage. The generations who have worked the same land, cared for their flocks and helped keep Cumbria’s farming traditions alive.

It’s a reminder of the people and places behind British wool, and why their stories are worth preserving.

- a glimpse into generations of Cumbrian farming life, captured in photographs from the family albums of Megan, our marketing assistant.

#WoolMonth #BritishWool #CumbrianFarming #Cumbria #FarmHeritage by @oubasknitwear

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4 days ago

Saturday in the OUBAS studio. A stack of our Freyja British Wool Sweaters, each one passing through the hands of our team here in Cumbria.

Wool Month is a chance to talk not only about wool, but about the skills and infrastructure needed to turn it into clothing.

At OUBAS we design, programme, knit, link, wash and finish our knitwear within our own studio. It means retaining specialist knowledge, training the next generation of makers, and keeping the relationship between design and manufacture incredibly close.

For us, sustaining British knitwear isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about building a contemporary future for these skills; making beautiful, relevant pieces, and maintaining the knowledge required to make them here.

OUBAS | Made slowly in Cumbria. by @oubasknitwear

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13 days ago

OCTOBER | Perhaps it is the first cooler morning, or the feeling of the evenings drawing in. A jumper comes out of the wardrobe, a heavier knit is reached for, and suddenly wool feels like exactly what you want to be wearing.

It is such a familiar part of Autumn that it is easy to forget how extraordinary it is. 🐑

This month, as part of Wool Month, we wanted to spend some time talking about wool at OUBAS; why we work with it, what makes it so special, and the many forms it can take.

This month throughout Wool Month we’re writing and sharing what wools we use, our design process and celebrating the amazing beauty of #britishwool

It is the magical interconnectedness of farm, land, craftsperson, designer, textile engineer and you, all those who love it that make OUBAS wool garments what they become and mean in your lives.

Welcome to our community ✨🧶 to read our latest journal, follow the link in our bio. by @oubasknitwear

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15 days ago

‘A story of heritage, a label of quality.’ - British Wool

For generations, wool has been part of the rhythm of our British landscape; shaped by farming, weather, place and the knowledge passed from one pair of hands to another.

At the British Wool depots across the UK, fleeces gathered from farms across the country are still graded by hand and expert eye; sorted for their character, quality and purpose. Piles of raw fibre waiting for the next chapter in a story centuries in the making.

At OUBAS, we believe there is value in carrying these traditions forward; not simply preserving them, but giving them a place in how we make and dress today.

Behind British wool is an entire ecosystem of farmers, graders, spinners, designers and makers; each carrying their own part of its knowledge. The expertise of the graders, understanding fibre through sight and touch, is part of a skill and heritage that continues to shape what designers can create with this remarkable natural material.

From British fleece to our knitting studio in Cumbria.

Rooted in heritage. Made for now. 🧶 by @oubasknitwear

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