Katie Cotmarsh

22/02/2026

Farmers Guardian giving my wool business a little bit of love ❤️

When Katie Allen began working with sheep, she saw how little value fleeces were bringing. 🐑

Now, the Wiltshire farmer has created her own knitwear brand to give her wool the traceability and return she believes it deserves. 🙌

Through the Great British Wool Revival, her fleeces are part of a wider push to reconnect farmers and fashion.

READ MORE: https://ow.ly/EjKF50Yj7b6
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Fashion Roundtable | Katie Cotmarsh

21/06/2025

I’m looking for a new Castlemilk Moorit breeding ram.

Needs to be proven and not regularly fed nuts or concentrate, otherwise he will struggle to perform in our system.

I will travel quite far for the right animal but the above two qualities are really important. He’s got to cover at least 50 ewes in a 100% pasture based system.

If anyone can help, let me know 👍

Castlemilk Moorit Sheep Society

13/06/2025

“I didn’t realise how much life was in the soil” … Hereford College of Arts came to the farm this week for our ‘Fashion as a force for nature’ workshop. They gave our new worksheet a good road test, which is a space for them to record observations in the dye garden, attach yarn samples and interact with the soil-to-soil approach to producing clothes. We use the Fibershed_ model as the basis for all our conversations around regenerative fashion and I encourage students to consider how conventional fashion focusses on recycling as a way to address circularity. We look at the true meaning of circularity within the context of the soil and students leave with an understanding of how much of the process isn’t being addressed by the fashion industry. It’s a new way of looking at fashion education and filling a vital gap between what’s happening in the classroom and on the ground.

19/05/2025

Our new farm classroom opened its doors today for the first time. We have over 200 students from more than 12 colleges and universities booked onto our ‘Fashion as a force for nature’ workshop in the next five months. This beautiful barn, is our space on the farm that invites people to come together and talk about a connection to the land. Where fashion, craft, food and our local landscape collide in a conversation that asks us to consider what can we do differently - and how can we grow, make or design in a way which will regenerate our soils and support nature recovery. So enjoyed curating this space on the farm and excited to see and hear the conversations that will evolve within its walls.

Some mentions:
Funded in part by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the North Wessex Downs National Landscape Farming in Protected Landscapes
Beautiful print work on the walls Rosanna Morris Prints
Reclaimed 1970’s French Mullca Stacking Chair Merchant & Found
100% Welsh wool insulation Celtic Sustainables British Wool
Plant roller plants Color Co
Carpentry Absolute Carpentry and Joinery
Electrics Inman’s Electricals Ltd
Plumbing & Heating Mayne Plumbing & Heating
Build A J Lowthers
Technical drawing Taylor Hare Architects

26/04/2025

Craft + Land … the intersection of truly sustainable fashion. Slow made, community based, ecologically grounded. Soil-to-soil textiles must be free from toxic chemicals, starting most vitally at how the fibre or dyes are grown, continuing along the journey through to the creation of the finished garment.

28/03/2025

It’s taken a couple of months to bring this together, but I am finally able to announce I am relaunching my knitwear brand under a new name – KATIE COTMARSH.

I started Loopy Ewes many years ago, when the focus of my business was my flock and how I could add value to their wool clip. Although these both remain core to what I am about, my work has evolved to encompass so much more.

My work on the farm to heal our disconnected relationship with how our clothes are produced, has found a beautiful and tactile voice through craft. Craft is a hugely personal journey, intimately connected to the skills and creativity of the maker, so I wanted that to be better reflected in my story - which is why I have chosen to use my first name.

Over the last two years the flock and I have found a home at Great Cotmarsh Farm and I wanted the branding for my knitwear to show that symbiotic relationship. The bringing together of Katie + Cotmarsh illustrates the deep connection my knitwear has to our farm and home. The collaboration of this relationship to make heritage knitwear in partnership with nature grows stronger each season we are here, and projects like growing my own natural dyes intertwines my work with the landscape further still.

Our farm business logo, a biodiverse rich ‘C’ in earthy brown, represents our home in Cotmarsh, the importance of community and the vital role of soil health and an abundant ecosystem within farming. I will be using this for my knitwear brand in a vibrant indigo blue👇. Woad was my first foray into the magic of natural dyes and the beauty, history and alchemy behind this pigment seemed fitting.

You can visit my new website http://www.katiecotmarsh.co.uk and learn a little more about the unchanged but hopefully better communicated ethos of KATIE COTMARSH knitwear.

I’m sure it’s going to take a while for the change to filter through as so many have stood behind and supported Loopy Ewes. Thank you for coming along on my journey with me - I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

Katie xx

05/12/2024

SALE … I am running a big sale across my website to clear some of my stock. Our farm is moving in a new and exciting direction in 2025 and my work as a creative is a key part of driving that vision, so in the New Year I will be relaunching my business with a new name 😮. It’s going to be a big transition - I’ve been Loopy Ewes for a long time and it is well recognised within certain circles. But my work has evolved so much over the last decade and especially since moving to Great Cotmarsh Farm . Loopy Ewes started with 13 sheep and the idea to do something different with my wool clip, but my work is now so much more than that. It is not just about my lovely flock, but their interaction with the landscape. And whilst my aim with my knitwear is to add value to my wool clip, I feel I have taken ownership of a process that responds very intimately with the land. My interaction with our ecosystem here at the farm, through the creation of beautiful garments, is something that has become hugely integral to me and my work as a maker and hopefully my relaunch in the New Year will echo that. Watch this space … and grab a bargain on the website whilst you can! www.loopyewes.co.uk

23/11/2024

Fantastic day at Modern Makers Collective Winter Market in Yattendon. Lots of customers keen to support the wide array of beautifully curated handmade gifts here. I have launched some new products which have gone down a storm, including this gorgeous colourway dyed with Woad and Coreopsis in my new bobble hat shape with matching wrist warmers.

17/11/2024

I gathered up the girls today as the tups went in. Hopefully I will be busy in 5 months time when the lambs will be due to arrive. I will endeavour to get a photo of the handsome chaps later this week, but it was pitch black by the time we got finished. My ewes were very patient as I checked their tags to see which breeding group they were off to. As pedigree rare breeds it’s important to know the parentage of the lambs born so I can register them. If you remember, last year lambing was carnage as escapee rams had prematurely covered a lot of my ewes! Looking forward to a simpler lambing season in 2025.

14/11/2024

Just over a week until the Modern Makers Yattendon Winter Market. I’m super excited as it’s the only craft event I’m doing this season and I’ve got lots of lovely new products to share. PLUS, I’m going to be launching my first ever sale! The market is on the 23 + 24 November at Yattendon Village Hall and will host 24 makers, offering a diverse and vibrant selection of handmade treasures.

11/11/2024

Weld isn’t supposed to flower until its second year, however mine went crazy in it’s first season. The bees thoroughly enjoyed the flowers and I have been saving the seed so that I can grow my 2025 weld crop in the dye garden from my very own seed. How cool. I don’t know if the plant matter from this first year would be good to dye from?

Seed sovereignty is quite an important issue for growers. Currently they are just four big corporations that own the rights to more than two thirds of the world’s seed sales, leaving us very susceptible to security of supply and around diversity in the seed types. It’s particularly important to protect native, organic and non-gmo seed. Hopefully next year when the crop really gets growing I will have plenty to pass on too.