The making of woolly jumpers, obviously, all starts with a sheep.

Once sheering season comes round in the summer, the sheep are rounded up and their fleeces are washed and cleaned ready to be sheered. They are placed on a wooden board, to catch the sheered wool and to protect it, and then sheered with big, strong scissors. The farmers who do this are well trained and no harm comes to the actual sheep, but many younger ones do find it a little distressing.

Once the fleece has been collected it is tied up with its own wool and placed in a sack ready to be sent off and processed into wool. At the factory the fleece is put through a really big set of combs on rollers. It combs all the knots and bit out of the fleece to make it smooth and ready to prepare for weaving into wool strands. The longer fibres from this process are taken to make wool and yarn that we knit with. The wools are then spun tightly to make them into the wool required to be knitted into various fabrics or items and is finished and dyed.

Now, we're ready to knit our jumper.

Whilst if you were just making one jumper it would be a simple case of buying the correct amount of wool and then buying a pattern and setting off to knit. But, in mass production woollen items are made on a knitting machine which rapidly weaves the fabric together to form garments far faster than someone knitting by hand. This makes it so lots of jumpers can be produced and sold all at once to meet with supply and demand.

Once the jumper is knitted it is taken to be inspected in quality control. Once it passes the quality tests and it has been deemed to be of a high enough standard to be sold in stores, it is tagged, packed and boxed up ready to be shipped to the store where it will be hung up on the rail ready for you to buy!

There are many different styles of jumper on offer, and all suit different people. We have turtle necks for winter, which have a big puffy roll up neck which keeps the wear nice and warm. There are tank tops, which are a lot like a knitted vest that goes over a shirt- very popular in the 60's and have recently made a big come back in the fashion industry. The jersey is the stereotypical jumper that you see from day to day- a standard long sleeved top that can be worn either on its own or over a shirt.

The main function of a jumper is, of course, warmth so when the wool is good and thick there's nothing more comforting than snuggling up in one. However, recently they've become even more of a fashion statement rather than simply an extra layer to cover you up and many new patterns and designs have emerged to decorate the jumpers. This can range to incorporating a picture into the front or knitting in a certain way that will add a different texture to the jumper rather than just a flat front.