Our Wool
Without wool there would be no Woolkind
We love wool! It is naturally sustainable with so many wonderful properties and qualities. Here's why we chose the beautifully soft merino wool that we use in every Woolkind custom knit.
Not all wool is created equally
All our products are knitted with beautifully soft 100% superfine merino wool. The finer the wool, the softer it feels.
The yarn we purchase from our supplier, Lanecardate, uses the finest Australian merino wool from the first clip of the 'greasy' or raw wool - and so the fibres are long and strong, but also superfine at 18.5 microns in diameter (the average human hair is 50-100 microns)!
- On average British wool is 29-35 microns
- Merino wool all tends to be less than 22 microns
- Our superfine merino is 18.5 microns
Superfine merino fibres like ours bend easily causing minimal or no skin irritation so they are super soft and fluffy!
Origin
Our 100% merino wool is sourced from Lanecardate who use high welfare Australian farms for our type of yarn (with accreditation such as SustainaWOOL Green) so that benchmarks are met in:
- sheep health and wellbeing (including no mulesing)
- environmental management practices
- traceability of individual bales back to specific farms
Lanecardate ship their raw wool directly to their plants in Biella, Italy, where it's washed, combed, dyed, and spun to the highest environmental standards.
Around 80% of Australia's merino wool is outsourced to China for washing. Lanecardate's is not. They control their entire process and can ensure the highest quality throughout.
We've visited their mill and it is evident that the teams there feel like part of the family.
Happy people + happy sheep = happy Woolkind customers!
Benefits
Merino wool is a superfibre. Here are just some of the benefits...
- Supersoft - merino is made from superfine fibres so it feels great against your skin
- Temperature regulating - merino can keep you warm when it's cold and cool when it's warm
- Odour resistant - wool is naturally antimicrobial, helping to prevent the growth of odour-causing bacteria
- Self-cleaning - wool naturally cleans itself so you don't need to
- Water-repellent - containing lanolin, wool naturally repels water and so can keep you dry
- Wrinkle resistant - each fibre is like a coiled spring that returns to its natural shape after bending out of shape
Sustainability
Beyond the amazing benefits that wool provides, it is also a highly sustainable material.
- Biodegradable - wool naturally breaks down over time in soil and water. A true cradle to grave material
- Renewable - wool constantly grows on sheep, which means there's an endless supply of this superfibre
- Recyclable - wool is one of the most re-used of all fibres
- Carbon trapping - wool is 95% keratin which is made of 50% carbon. So as the grass absorbs CO2 and the sheep feed on it, the wool grows and traps the CO2 in the process
Traceability
The vast majority of the world's merino wool comes from Australia, where it's estimated there are 68 million sheep, consuming a simple diet of water and grass.
Given its scale, the Australian sheep farming industry is highly advanced with a developed system of standards and accreditations to ensure farms attain the best standards of ethical and environmentally-sensitive farming.
Our wool supplier, Lanecardate, can track all batches of spun and dyed wool back to specific batches of fleece, which in turn can be traced back to individual farms.