The Wool Wire | November 10, 2025
Game of Wool airs, Jennifer Lawrence wears Paloma, wool gets rebranded, and we take a look back at the Miss Wool of America pageant and the Berger textile factory.
News snippets from the wool world
Hello, my friends,
At long last, the much-awaited Game of Wool competition show has begun airing on Channel 4 in the UK. The first episode received high praise from media sources like the Guardian, but the knitting community had more mixed things to say.
First, a clarification on the show's name. In the UK, "wool" is the catch-all word for yarn, regardless of fiber content. So the show uses all kinds of yarn, not just wool. And second, though the show's tagline is "Britain's Best Knitter," contestants are also expected to bring crochet—the entirely separate skill—into the arena.
The bulk of the brouhaha around the first episode had to do with a fundamental technical inaccuracy (and misrepresentation) of Fair Isle knitting. The Shetland Organisation of Knitters has gone public in protest.
Ryan Nicolson
There's a much more considered review of the first episode, which is helpful—especially for those of us who can't yet stream it in the U.S.
How do we rebrand wool?
Let's get back to actual wool with this next story about how wool growers in New Zealand are being advised to reconsider how they sell their wool. Instead of using the auction system, the idea is to go straight to brands. Build a relationship with them, help them see firsthand what it takes to grow quality wool, work with them directly.
Case in point: The Danish high-end slipper company Glerups has been buying directly from New Zealand farmers for more than a decade—and those farmers receive on average 48% more for their wool than those farms selling through auction. It helps Glerups, too, since the long-term contract allows them to anticipate their costs years ahead.
I especially love the words from Wool Impact CEO Andy Caughey, who suggests the industry should behave more like the wine industry and sell wool as a premium project.
Gerhard Uys
The Irish Grown Wool Council has been doing similar work to rebuild the value of Irish wool, which collapsed in 2014 and has struggled to bounce back.
Shane Ó Curraighín
Making wool in vogue again
Of course another way to raise wool's "brand" is by getting high-profile people to wear it. Take Jennifer Lawrence, for example. Vogue just ran a piece about the actress's gift for finding the perfect clothes to wear between seasons—or as they call it, "transeasonal" dressing. The wildly popular Spanish brand Paloma Wool was front and center.
Anna Cafolla
Pageantry from the past
It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when San Angelo, Texas, was considered the wool capital of the world. While researching San Angelo for my Great White Bale project that became Vanishing Fleece, I was fascinated to learn that the town had hosted a Miss Wool of America pageant from 1952 to 1972. It was televised, and it was a very big deal.
Rhett Brady
From the above article, I discovered that the Texas Archive of Moving Image has archived some of the pageant broadcasts. The videos offer a fascinating glimpse into the last few decades of wool's supremacy—but also into a time when women had far fewer choices than we do today. Check out the opening of the 1970 broadcast for a taste of what I'm talking about.
Blanket statements
Finally, let's end with some fabulous storytelling—this time, about the Berger textile factory in Norway. This article covers quite a chronological sweep, from the founders' first frozen journey by horse and sleigh to Berger in 1879, to the 1980s when the factory was saved by a French marquis, to 2003 when the factory finally closed.
Nina Kristiansen
It's also intriguing to see how the blanket designs and customer base evolved over the decades.
On that note, I'll let you go.
Thanks, as always, for your readership and your support!
Until next time,
Clara
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