Business with two Shropshire shops will be exhibiting at Wonderwool Wales
Partners in a Shropshire-based business which sells a huge range of natural and ethically sourced wool, yarn and fibre from the fleeces of their own sheep and other local flocks, will be exhibiting at an award winning show later this month.
With shops in Oswestry and Shrewsbury, Ewe & Ply are longstanding supporters of Wonderwool Wales, which celebrates all that’s great about Welsh wool and natural fibres.
More than 230 exhibitors have booked their places at this year’s 17th show at the Royal Welsh Showground in Builth Wells on April 22 and 23.
The annual festival brings together people and businesses with a passion for Welsh wool and its versatility as a material for creative crafts, designer clothes, home furnishings and more.
Wonderwool Wales covers everything from the start to the end of the creative process. Exhibits of sheep, raw and hand dyed fibres, yarn for knitting and crochet, embellishments, equipment, dyes and books can be found alongside superb examples of finished textile art, craft, clothing and home furnishings.
Especially for Wonderwool Wales, Ewe & Ply will be launching its latest batch of Shropshire Ply yarn which is spun from a small, local flock of Shropshire Sheep.
The fleeces, which are chosen after meeting the flock owners and checking the welfare of the sheep, come from within 20 miles of Oswestry.
The wool is spun in New Lanark and is hand dyed by Ewe & Ply partners Becca Tansley and Teri Evans using both conventional and natural dyes. “A lot of love, care and dedication goes into producing Shropshire Ply,” explained Becca.
“The welfare of the sheep and the people working with them are in our set of core values. Our customers need to have faith that we are providing them with high quality, ethically sourced goods.”
Becca and Teri opened their first Ewe & Ply in Shrewsbury Market Hall in 2016, having “escaped” careers as a psychiatric nurse and medical herbalist respectively.
The business now has shops in The Parade, Shrewsbury and 11, English Walls, Oswestry. Their range of products includes exclusive Shropshire Ply, a woollen yarn traditionally spun from the fleeces of small, local sheep flocks. The wool is then kettle-dyed by Teri and Becca in semi-solid colours.
Ewe & Ply shops also stock a wide variety of needles, notions, buttons and books and run Knitting Schools, a Stitchin group and a Sweater Society.
Both Becca and Teri are passionate about Welsh wool and the skills they learnt as children. Having survived the economic challenges of the pandemic, the business is thriving, thanks to the support of customers.
“We realised from the start that the business belonged to Teri and me, but the shops belong to our customers,” explained Becca. “We are certainly a determined bunch, as the skills require patience, perseverance and, at times, bloody-mindedness.”
Last year, a dozen customers answered an appeal for knitted plant creations on the theme ‘Wild’ to fill Ewe and Ply’s colourful shopwindow display which won the Oswestry in Bloom competition.
