Cotton fibers may be bent back and forth only about 3,000 times before they break, whereas a wool fiber can be bent back and forth more than 20,000 times before it begins to show signs of breaking.
We carefully choose and blend specific types of wool to ensure our batting is exceptionally soft and resilient. Columbia and Corriedale are categorized as mediumwool, Cheviot, Dorset and Suffolk are down-type wools, and Romney is a longwool.
As a society, our focus on specific qualities, such as softness, whiteness, staple length and strength, has put many breeds at risk of extinction.
Wool
Wool is a renewable resource that can be shorn from sheep annually. It is biodegradable and helps maintain healthy, sustainable ecosystems. Wool from free-grazing sheep, treated ethically throughout their lives, represents a traditional small-scale industry that demonstrates good land stewardship and supports local economies.
Today, many small organic farmers are returning to this sustainable industry to create clean and healthy wool that is produced without stress to the animals or the environment. We encourage our primary wool providers to follow specific guidelines, thus producing a higher quality wool that is grown in a thoughtful, sustainable manner.
We use only locally-sourced wools that are carefully blended to create the highest quality, cleanest batting available. Our wool blends wool from six to eight different breeds of sheep – Dorset, Romney, Cheviot, Corriedale, Columbia and Suffolk. The blends are chosen to create strong, durable wool batting that retains its loft and resiliency longer. A mix of coarse and finer wools with a varying crimps to achieve the optimal batting.
Natural wool is an excellent choice for bedding due to its inherent qualities, which provide for a restful, healthy sleep:
Regulates temperature: Wool is a natural insulator to keep you warm in winter and naturally breathable to keep you cool in summer. Wool fiber helps to keep your body at the optimal temperature zone for comfort and rest.
Naturally absorbent fiber: Wool fiber's coil-like shape pulls excess heat and moisture from your skin while you sleep. Wool fabrics can absorb up to 30% of their weight without feeling heavy or damp. The absorbent fibers "breathe" by wicking away moisture from the body and releasing it into the air.
Mildew and mold resistant: Wool's natural resistance to mildews and molds comes from the way it repels moisture, and lets moisture pass through it's fibers without holding the moisture. (Mildews and molds require moisture to live and grow).
Perfect insulator: Wool is warm in winter and cool in the summer because of its hydrophilic ability to wick away excess moisture. In the winter, wool removes moisture from the skin to keep warm and dry and wool’s insulating qualities trap dry air and warmth near the skin. In the summer, wool’s coil-like shape pulls excess heat and moisture from your skin helping to stay cooler.
Water repellant: Tiny overlapping scales encase the wool fiber like tiles on a roof. This allows wool to repel rain, snow and liquid spills with ease.
Durable: Tests have shown that wool fibers resist tearing and can bend back on themselves more than 20,000 times without breaking. Cotton breaks after 3,200 bends, silk fibers break after 1,800 bends, and rayon fibers break after just 75 bends.
Fire retardant: Wool has natural fire-retardant properties. (High moisture content and protective lanolin is resistant to combustion). It can resist flame without the chemical treatment involved in fireproofing.
Naturally non-allergenic: Wool is almost entirely non-allergenic. Although some may have a rare natural allergy to lanolin, the oil found in wool, most people's allergy to wool is a reaction to the many harsh and toxic chemicals that go into the treatment, and finishing of conventional wool. Serious chemical abrasives are routinely used to wash raw wool for processing. Chlorine and mothproofing chemicals are routinely applied to conventional wool before turning it into a finished product.
