Organic Virgin Wool
by Julia Leifert
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Wool in general is a natural fiber that has been clipped from sheep for over 5,000 years.
„Virgin“ wool can characterize wool taken from a lamb's first shearing or adult sheep’s wool that has never been used, processed, or woven before. In both cases Virgin Wool is won from living, healthy sheep by clipping. “Wool“, on the other hand, can be obtained from dead or sick animals or even from recycled wool fabric and respinning the resulting fibers.
There is a limited world supply of virgin wool, so the items made from virgin wool are more expensive as compared with those made of regular wool.
The thought of recycled wool is a good approach, but often it is not clear if the origin wool has been produced cruelty free, so due to our ethics, we won’t use this kind of wool for our products.
Sheep who lives on organic farms are not harmed with preventive antibiotics, hormones or pesticides. The animals have enough space not these farms to live on and genetically manipulated food is not allowed on these farms. Further the wool is silicone-free and not chemically treated. So it is more gentile to the skin.
Merino Wool is wool is an extra fine sheep wool that comes form Merion Sheep, a special breed prized for softest wool of any sheep. The Merino sheep was originated in Spain, but the modern Merino was domesticated in New Zealand and Australia.
Unfortunately on many conventional farms it is a common practice to treat Merino sheep with the so-called „Mulesing“ process, where the surplus skin between the sheep’s rear legs is cut of without any painkiller or anesthesia to prevent pest infestation.
For us is the humane treatment of animals a matter of the heart. We don’t support the Mulesing process and only use virgin Merino wool from selected farms that work mulesing-fee.
(credit: Flickr-Ökologix / CC-BY-SA-3.0)