Edition Eight Feature
Words by: Rosa Pomar
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Photo Credit: ©Rosa Pomar @retrosariarosapomar

A passionate advocate for Portugal’s native sheep breeds, Rosa Pomar is quietly reviving part of her country’s cultural heritage from her knitting and sewing shop, Retrosaria.

I specialise in creating knitting yarns from the wool of native Portuguese sheep breeds. It all began as a personal calling to research and document the history of knitting in my country, which resulted in the publication of a book, Portuguese Knitting: A historical and practical guide to traditional Portuguese techniques, with 20 inspirational projects (Search Press, 2020).

As someone with a background in history, and a knitter since childhood, I had collected books on knitting traditions from many different places and wondered why there were none about southern European countries such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal or even France. So, around 2008, I started the research that would put me on the path to where I am now. I studied museum collections, spent long hours in the library and travelled up and down the country to meet the older knitters who have continued to keep some of our traditions alive.

Through knitting I discovered spinning, and through spinning I realised that it all starts with wool. Why were no commercial yarns made from Portuguese wool? How many native sheep breeds are there and why are some of them on the brink of extinction? What makes good wool? I immersed myself in all these questions while learning how to spin using the traditional tools and techniques from my country.