Jeni Hewlett knows exactly the quality and provenance of the wool and fibres which she is ordering for her supplies. That is because she has been out to Peru to visit the mills, see the suppliers and meet the farmers themselves with their herds of sheep and alpacas.

Wool is one of the staple materials of Fyberspates, her business based in East Challow, near Wantage.

It was a spate of early enthusiasm for experiments in dyeing wools for spinning and weaving, and the processes involved, which lead to the play-on-words idea for the name of the company.

Hand-dyeing of wools, silks and cottons, all natural fibres, is the company’s focus, and finished products are marketed in two separate sales sectors. These are customers who shop online for materials for hand-knitting and hand-weaving, and the commercial sector.

The interest in working with fibres began during 32-year-old Ms Hewlett’s college days, when she was studying psychology.

She said: “I had always enjoyed knitting as a child and while I was a student I attended a workshop in London on dyeing techniques.

“I couldn’t get any hand-dyed wool here in the UK, so I had to learn to do this myself.

“When I started dyeing my wools, I finished up with more than I could use myself, so I started to sell it on eBay.”

So much interest followed that, at the end of her contract as a researcher in psychology, working in Cardiff, she decided to concentrate full-time on building up a business of her own.

She explained: “I sell mainly online, although people do come to visit the shop and buy here. I also hold occasional open days and workshops, when people can come to learn the processes of dyeing”.

A series of workshops during this year’s Wantage Summer Festival proved very popular, and Ms Hewlett also gave a talk on her work at the Vale and Downland Museum as part of the festival programme.

The reason for importing wools and other products is that there are not sufficient supplies of fine, white wool produced in this country.

She said: “Wool from the blue-faced Leicester sheep is very fine and white, but there is not enough of it available.

“Much of the wool produced in this country is for different grades, rather than for an end product which represents the luxury end of the market, as mine does.

“When I set up my company, I really wanted to source all my materials from the UK but it was not possible.”

Very fine wool from merino sheep is produced in Peru. Ms Hewlett found her visit there are real eye-opener when she was taken out to the farms in the mountains.

The farmers are supported and helped by the mill-owners who have built a school for the children as they live too far away from the towns and villages.

Ms Hewlett also visits the USA, but this is more of a trade mission for which she has been able to obtain a Government grant.

She has just returned from a visit to a trade exhibition in Ohio, one of the main shows of its kind.

“You can see the trends and these shows are really good fun to go to. The trip was very successful and I made plenty of contacts.”

Her own exports are to the USA, Northern Europe and Scandinavia and make up 50 per cent of the business. Scandinavians love knitting, she has found, and there is big demand there for wools.

As well as wool, she works with silk and cashmere imported from China, via Peru.

“It is best to buy the fibres from where they are produced, you get much better quality,” said Ms Hewlett.

“When I was in Peru, I was able to specify exactly what I wanted of each material, the weight, blend and ply-thickness. The fibres are spun especially for me.”

While she would like to use natural dyes, this is not practical because of the chemicals used in fixing the colours, so they have to be synthetic.

All batches of wools and other materials are individual. There is no hard and fast range of any colour. Each batch will have a shade of its own, so customers need to ensure they order enough to finish their project.

Ms Hewlett said: “Colours are never exactly the same twice and I have a very quick turnover of stock.”

Her prices are similar to those of commercial suppliers.

While fashion trends have dictated that lace-weight yarns have represented a large proportion of recent sales demands, winter-weights are now beginning to come to the fore as autumn approaches.

Production is much higher in winter, and Ms Hewlett has part-time help during these busier periods.

Styles may change, but knitters still use the traditional stitches in their work. Ms Hewlett also designs patterns, creating those for specialist knitting magazines.

“I created patterns of a much higher technical level, ones more complex than average,” she said.

“Nowadays, people are not knitting out of necessity. Hand-knitting can be more expensive than buying machine-knitted garments from chain stores.”

People knit a lot less for babies and children now. Knitting is more usually taken up by people who want a challenging, artistic interest, with most of Ms Hewlett’s customers aged over 30. But the demand is certainly there.

“Knitting is very, very popular, and increasingly so. There are already a lot of people knitting, and they encourage others to do so.”