Scottish knitwear, Fair Isle traditions and a jumper designed to stand the test of time
One of the things I’m enjoying about the 90-Day Wool Habit is discovering just how much the same dress can change depending on what I wear with it. And, as we move further into autumn, layering is going to become increasingly important. Which brings me to The Croft House, a Scottish knitwear brand whose beautiful Fair Isle jumper is joining the 90-Day Wool Habit Collective.
Their contribution is the Women’s Croft II Fair Isle Yoke Jumper in Teal, a gorgeous combination of blues and greens, traditional patterning and wonderfully characterful wool. But there’s rather more to this jumper than its good looks…
Meet The Croft House
Based in rural Aberdeenshire, on the north-east coast of Scotland, The Croft House creates timeless wool and cashmere knitwear for women and men, with every piece knitted in Scotland. The collections take inspiration from the surrounding landscape and Scotland’s rich textile heritage, bringing traditional techniques such as Fair Isle and Gansey knitting into contemporary colours and silhouettes.
The business was founded in 2012, following around ten years working in retail management. A local woollen mill in the founder Louise’s hometown had recently closed after more than 200 years of spinning and weaving. It brought home just how easily traditional textile skills and manufacturing heritage could disappear.
The Croft House was launched as an entirely online business, with the ambition of introducing Scottish-made knitwear to a wider audience and supporting the people and skills behind it. Today, the brand works with natural fibres, including British and Irish-spun wool and Scottish cashmere. It is also a certified B Corporation and donates 1% of every sale to charities.
A jumper with a story
The Croft II Fair Isle Yoke Jumper isn’t just another piece in the collection. It was the very first design created for The Croft House, and it remains the brand’s signature style today. It’s currently available in nine colours, with many more produced over the years. The teal version joining my wardrobe brings together shades of blue and green in a traditional Fair Isle yoke, while the Donegal-flecked wool gives the body a lovely depth and slightly rustic appearance.
The choice of wool was deliberate. The original Croft design was inspired by the rural character of crofting life, and the flecked yarn helps reflect that connection to the Scottish landscape. love the idea that something as simple as a jumper can tell a story about where it comes from.
Traditional skills, thoughtful construction
The Croft II is made from 100% wool and knitted in Scotland, just a stone’s throw from The Croft House design studio in Aberdeenshire. One particularly interesting detail is the way it’s constructed. The jumper is knitted in the round, meaning the main body is created as a seamless tube rather than being cut from knitted fabric and sewn together. This combines a traditional approach with a zero-waste knitting technique, while creating the characteristic appearance of a Fair Isle yoke. It’s finished with a ribbed crew neck, cuffs and hem.
And of course, there’s the wool itself. The Croft House works with different types of wool across its collections, from superfine merino to natural, undyed British wool. For this particular jumper, the Donegal-flecked yarn brings texture and character to the finished piece. Wool’s warmth, breathability and resilience make it particularly well suited to Scotland’s climate — and to garments designed to be worn and enjoyed for years.
A favourite, not a fashion trend
Something that really struck me about The Croft House is its approach to collections. Rather than constantly replacing designs to follow seasonal trends, the business continues making styles over many years. It also avoids seasonal sales and doesn’t build discounting into its pricing, encouraging customers to buy when they need something and enjoy wearing it straight away.
As Louise explained:
“A good jumper should become a favourite: something you reach for repeatedly, that develops a history and becomes part of your wardrobe rather than being replaced after a few months.”
Customers sometimes return years later to buy the same design in another colour. And I think there’s something rather reassuring about that. The Croft II itself is proof that a good design doesn’t need reinventing every season. More than a decade after its introduction, it’s still the signature piece.
Wool for everyday life
One of the ambitions behind the 90-Day Wool Habit is to encourage people to see wool differently. Not as something reserved for special occasions, or a fibre that needs to be treated with excessive caution, but as something practical, versatile and comfortable enough to live in. The Croft House shares that ambition.
Louise hopes the challenge encourages people to slow down and appreciate the materials, people and skills involved in making their clothes, rather than automatically looking for something new each season. And that’s something I find myself thinking about more and more as the days of the Habit go by.
The Croft II will give me another way to style the navy dress as the weather gets colder. But beyond the outfit itself, it represents exactly the kind of garment this experiment is encouraging us to appreciate: well made, thoughtfully designed and intended to be worn again and again.
One thing you might not know about The Croft House…
Although the Fair Isle yoke is the most recognisable feature of the Croft jumper, the story is actually in the wool as much as the pattern. The flecked Donegal yarn was chosen specifically to evoke the rustic character of traditional Scottish crofting life. So the next time you look at a Fair Isle jumper, it might be worth looking a little closer. There could be a whole landscape -and a little piece of textile history – knitted into it.
Follow the 90-Day Wool Habit
Throughout the 90 days, I’m introducing the British brands, makers and independent businesses helping me discover just how versatile one British wool dress can be.
Meet the Collective and follow the 90-Day Wool Habit as the story unfolds.
