The History of The Living Rug Company
Every Living Rug has a story, and ours began long before the first rug was ever made. This is the journey from four sheep on a Peak District farm to a handmade product that found homes around the world.
The Beginning (2011)
Every Living Rug begins with a sheep. But before there were sheep, there was a farm.
I moved to our farm in the winter of 2008. It had enormous potential, but it also needed a great deal of work. Over the next few years, I poured my time and energy into renovating the buildings and bringing the farm back to life. By 2011, with the renovation complete and our children having left for university, it finally felt like the right time to fulfil a long-held dream.
We have almost 40 acres of beautiful Peak District countryside. At the time, much of the land was used for my horses and making hay, with some fields grazed by a neighbouring farmer. It seemed only natural that the farm should have sheep of its own. My first four sheep came from a local farm. Billy, Oliver, Ian and Babe (in picture) were never simply livestock—they each had their own personality and quickly became part of the family. It didn't take long before I realised that four sheep were never going to be enough. The following year, I welcomed more sheep from another local farm. As always, each one was given a name, and remarkably, one of those sheep is still with me today as I write this in 2026. Looking back, I had no idea that those first few sheep would lead to the creation of The Living Rug Company. At the time, I simply knew that I loved having sheep on the farm. Sometimes the biggest journeys begin in the quietest of ways.
The Living Rug Idea (2012 - 2014)
By 2012, I had discovered something rather wonderful—I absolutely loved keeping sheep. As my flock began to grow, I knew I wanted a way to make it sustainable. I had never been interested in raising sheep for meat, and I couldn't imagine sending animals I knew so well away. I wanted to find another way. Around that time, my husband gave me the most unforgettable wedding anniversary present—a small group of Valais Blacknose sheep, one of Britain's rarest breeds at the time. My plan seemed simple enough: breed a few lambs each year, sell them to other breeders, and use the income to help support the flock. There was just one problem. The lambs arrived... and I fell in love with every single one of them. Selling them was completely out of the question, so instead of my flock becoming self-supporting, it simply became larger! It was becoming increasingly difficult to explain to my husband why I needed to keep adding more sheep, so I began looking for ways to make use of the beautiful fleeces they produced each year. I explored all sorts of woolly ideas, but nothing really inspired me. Then, one summer, everything changed. As I watched the shearer at work, I noticed something I'd never really thought about before. Some of the fleece came away in one complete piece. Lying on the ground, it looked remarkably like a traditional sheepskin rug. That single moment sparked an idea. I remember thinking, surely there must be a way to turn a fleece into a rug—without using the skin at all. That simple thought was the beginning of a journey that would eventually become The Living Rug.
Jakey joined the flock in the early days and is still with me today. He has been part of The Living Rug story almost from the very beginning.
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These were my very first Valais Blacknose sheep. They were intended to be the start of a small breeding flock, but every lamb that arrived stole my heart. Instead of selling them, the flock simply kept growing—and, without realising it at the time, they would become part of the story that led to the creation of the Living Rug
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Meet Odin and her first lamb, OJ. OJ was one of the very first Valais Blacknose lambs born on the farm. It was moments like these that changed everything. I had planned to sell the lambs to help support the flock, but once they arrived, I simply couldn't bear to let them go.
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Love at first lamb
It wasn't just me who fell in love with the Valais Blacknose sheep. My daughter was just as smitten. It soon became obvious that finding homes for the lambs wasn't going to be as easy as I'd imagined.
The First Living Rug (2013 -2014)
I remember thinking, surely there must be a way to turn this beautiful fleece into a rug—without using the skin at all. That single thought became an obsession. At the time, the internet was nothing like it is today. Social media was still in its infancy, and finding information wasn't always easy. I searched everywhere I could, trying to discover whether anyone else had already come up with the same idea. I looked at traditional wet felting, but nothing I found was quite what I had in mind. Eventually, after widening my search internationally, I came across something called a vegetarian sheepskin. It was the first time I'd seen an idea remotely similar to the one I had imagined. It was a wonderful discovery because it proved that creating a rug from a fleece alone was possible. The next question was far more difficult.
Who was going to make it?
I certainly didn't think I had the skills. My search led me to a lovely lady on the island of Texel in the Netherlands, who was willing to experiment with my Herdwick fleeces. She created my very first Living Rugs (see picture), and seeing them for the first time was incredibly exciting. Sadly, the reality soon caught up with the dream. Once shipping costs, import charges and taxes were added, it became obvious that having the rugs made overseas was never going to be financially sustainable. I turned my attention back to the UK, contacting wet felters in the hope that someone might be interested. Most had never heard of the concept, and others simply weren't interested in taking it on.
I had the idea.
I had the fleeces.
But I still didn't have anyone who could make them.
There was only one thing left to do.
I would have to learn how to make them myself.
Learning a New Craft (2014)
With nobody in the UK able to show me how to make these rugs, I realised there was only one option—I would have to teach myself. I had been fortunate enough to watch the lady in Texel make my first rugs, so I understood the basic principles. However, she used specialist rolling equipment that I simply didn't have at the time. So I started at the beginning. Rather than attempting a full-sized rug straight away, I practised by making small felted samples, learning how wool behaved and experimenting with different techniques. Every piece taught me something new. When I finally moved on to full-sized rugs, I quickly discovered just how physically demanding the process was. Washing the fleeces, preparing the wool and then felting an entire fleece by hand took an enormous amount of time and effort. The cleaning alone was a challenge unlike anything I had expected. There were plenty of failures along the way. Some rugs simply didn't work, while others taught me valuable lessons that couldn't have been learned any other way. Looking back, every unsuccessful attempt brought me one step closer to creating the rugs I had imagined when I first stood watching the shearer. After months of trial and error, everything finally began to come together. The rugs became stronger, the finish improved, and with every fleece I gained more confidence in my own technique. What had started as a simple idea was slowly becoming a craft. Little did I know that those first handmade rugs would become the foundation of The Living Rug Company.
Building a Business (2015)
Creating the Living Rug was one challenge. Finding people who wanted to buy one was another.
By 2015, I had a product I truly believed in, but no customers. Like every small business starting from scratch, the hardest part was simply getting noticed. It was my daughter who suggested I join Instagram. Back then, Instagram was very different from today. It was all about beautiful photography, and people genuinely enjoyed following everyday life through pictures. Thankfully, I had one big advantage—I lived in a beautiful part of the Peak District and had a flock of sheep that were surprisingly happy to pose for the camera. In October 2015, I published my very first Instagram post. I think it received just a couple of likes. But I wasn't discouraged. By this point, my flock had grown to around seventy sheep, so I was more determined than ever to make the business work. I kept photographing the sheep, the changing seasons and, of course, the rugs. Gradually, people began to notice. What I realised was that I wasn't simply selling rugs. People loved the story behind them. They wanted to know the sheep by name, follow the lambs as they grew, and see the journey from fleece to finished rug. They understood that every rug helped support the flock and gave value to something that might otherwise have been overlooked. Slowly, orders began to arrive. Then something wonderful happened. Demand grew so much that I had to introduce a waiting list. I also tried selling at a few local shows, but they never felt quite right for the business. The real connection happened online, where people could follow the story throughout the year and become part of the journey.
Looking back, I know I was fortunate to begin when social media was still centred around genuine photography and storytelling. Today, with so much artificial intelligence and computer-generated content, it feels very different.
But in those early days, people simply enjoyed following a small flock of sheep and the unusual idea that their fleeces could become beautiful handmade rugs. And that's where The Living Rug Company really began to grow.
The Living Rug becomes a Brand (2017-2020)
Between 2017 and 2020, The Living Rug Company grew beyond anything I could ever have imagined.
One of the proudest moments came in February 2017, when Country Living visited the farm to photograph the sheep and feature the business in the magazine. To be recognised by a publication I had admired for so many years felt like an incredible achievement. The article was far more extensive than I had expected and beautifully captured the story behind the Living Rugs, the sheep and life on the farm.
The response was overwhelming. Almost overnight, demand increased dramatically. I found myself with waiting lists and, at times, having to tell customers that there simply weren't enough rugs available.
The following year, Country Living featured the story again, and once more the response was extraordinary. One photograph, showing me with Billy, my Herdwick sheep, seemed to capture people's imagination. It became one of my favourite images and was later beautifully illustrated by an artist and also appearing in a Country Living book. Instagram continued to play a huge part in the business's success. Rather than photographing the rugs inside carefully styled homes, I preferred to photograph them where their story began—out in the fields, hanging on old gates, dry stone walls or weathered farm buildings. To me, that was where they belonged. People weren't just buying a rug; they were buying a little piece of the farm and the story behind it. As the business became more widely known, I also noticed something that often happens when an idea gains popularity. Other makers began producing similar felted fleece rugs, and I was even invited to run workshops to share what I had learned. Although I enjoyed meeting people, I soon realised that teaching wasn't really where my passion lay, so I decided to concentrate on making rugs instead. With growing recognition also came a new responsibility.
The name Living Rug had become closely associated with my work and with the values on which the business had been built: creating rugs from the fleece of a living sheep, without using the skin.
As more people began using similar language to describe their own products, I became increasingly concerned that customers might become confused about what a Living Rug represented. I had also seen the name being used in ways that, to me, did not reflect the principles on which I had built my business.
For that reason, in 2020 I registered Living Rug® as a UK trademark.
The trademark was never about stopping others from making beautiful felted fleece rugs. It was about protecting the name that customers had come to recognise and trust, and preserving the identity of a product that had grown from a simple idea on our farm many years before.
Still writing the Story (2021 - present)
Every story changes with time.
Today, my flock is much smaller than it once was. Many of the sheep who began this journey with me have now reached old age, and sadly, some are no longer with us. That is the hardest part of keeping animals for so many years. Although they leave us, each one leaves behind memories that become part of the farm forever.
Those who remain enjoy a much gentler pace of life. These days, my priorities are very different from those early years of growing the flock and building a business.
Now it's about caring for old friends. One of the greatest privileges of keeping sheep for so many years is getting to know each one as an individual. Every sheep has its own personality, its own little quirks. Saying goodbye is never easy. I have been incredibly fortunate to have a wonderful vet who has supported me over the years, helping me make those difficult decisions when the time comes. It is the final act of kindness we can give an animal that has given us so much. Although those days are always heartbreaking, I take comfort in knowing that every sheep has lived a life filled with care, respect and kindness. There have been so many unforgettable characters over the years, but one sheep seemed to capture everyone's heart was Ian.
Ian was a Herdwick with the biggest personality you could imagine. He became something of a celebrity on Instagram, making people smile with his antics and his unmistakable character. More than once, people suggested I should create Ian merchandise, but that never felt right. To me, Ian wasn't a brand. He was simply Ian. As the years have passed, social media has changed too. Instagram isn't quite the place it once was, and I don't spend nearly as much time there now. I still enjoy sharing the occasional photograph, but these days most people discover The Living Rug Company through the website, which suits me perfectly.
The Living Rug Company continues at a pace that feels right for both me and the flock. I no longer produce the number of rugs I once did, and that's entirely intentional. As the sheep have grown older, so have I, and life on the farm has found a gentler rhythm.
Alongside The Living Rug Company, I now spend some of my time developing The Felted Fleece Collective, a separate business that celebrates handmade felted fleece rugs from a wider community of makers. It has allowed me to continue supporting this unique craft while giving The Living Rug Company the freedom to remain exactly what it has always been—a reflection of my own flock and the sheep that inspired it. I also like to spend time in the garden now as well.
There will always be a few sheep here at the farm. There will always be fleeces. And as long as there are fleeces, there will always be Living Rugs. Perhaps not in the quantities I once made, but that was never really the point. When I look back over this journey, I don't think first about magazine features, waiting lists or even trademarks. I think about Billy, Ian, Babe, Oliver and all the other sheep who shaped this story. Some are still here, some now live only in my memories, but every one of them helped create something I could never have imagined when I first brought home four sheep in 2011. They gave me far more than their fleeces. They gave me a purpose, a business I never expected to build, friendships with people all over the world, and memories that I will always treasure.
Every Living Rug begins with a sheep.
And every sheep has a story.
This is ours.
Ian
Herdwick Sheep call Iam
Bill
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Oliver
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Babe
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