Please click for the page listing all WeatherWool Fabric Batches.

2 July 2026 --- Ralph

We completed work on Batch 9 Fabric in early 2025.  We're finishing up Batch Innes-1 now (Batch 11), and working on several more Batches as well.   But Batch 9 initiated some very significant changes that deserve to be highlighted.   Batch 9 really changed our company:
   

• We were large enough to buy 40,000 (18,000 kg) pounds of greasy wool.  This quantity opens new possibilities for processing
• For the first time, we had a batch large enough to be processed into WOOL TOP
• WOOL TOP is necessary to make worsted yarn, which we need for the warp of our FullWeight and MidWeight Fabrics
• Until we began our own worsted spinning, I had thought all the commercial yarn available for our warp was superwashed.   I was wrong about that.  But by the time I found out, it didn't matter, because we were spinning our own worsted from our own fiber.  We have not used superwash since Batch 8, and even then it was only about 25% of the Fabric
• For the first time, we are spinning ALL our own yarn, and ALL from WOOL TOP.  So we are not BUYING anyone else's yarn on the open market.  All the fiber was purchased from Ranchers we know, and processed specifically for us
• Spinning all our yarn from top means we have virtually 0 vegetable matter (grass, hay, weeds) present in our yarn and Fabric.  This, in turn, means that we no longer have to carbonize.  Carbonizing requires bathing the Fabric in heated sulfuric acid -- probably twice -- to carbonize (turn to carbon-black!) whatever vegetable matter (VM) is present in the Fabric.  But VM is eliminated when processing clean fiber into TOP.  No more sulfuric acid!  YAY
• Batch 13 was the first time we purchased greasy wool directly from a Rancher (Bob Innes in this case).  No insult meant toward the wool brokers and auctioneers and warehousemen, some of whom were and are friends, and with whom we continue to work.  But being closer to our producers is a good thing
• Batch 9 featured our first Denim (yah 100% Wool Denim!), which has since become a very important part of our company
• Batch 9 featured our first unbleached and undyed Fabric.  We initially skipped the dyeing simply because that saved us about four months and we were very eager to lay hands on this new Fabric!  But we were also curious about Natural White.  And we like it a lot!
• So ... In June of 2023, we got our hands on the first Fabric that was:
  • 100% TOP
  • 100% Non-Superwash
  • 100% Non-Carbonized
  • 100% our own fiber
  • Our first Denim
  • Undyed and Unbleached
• And with Batch 9, I somehow realized (forgive my lack of imagination) that the whole world of spinning and weaving and finishing and creating/developing new Fabrics was open to us.  Batch 9 enabled us to make Whipcord (yay!) and Heritage Fabrics (DOUBLE YAY!!).   The Heritage (which we have also referred to as Utility and LightWeight) enabled us to eliminate the wool-poly blend fabric that we used to buy for construction of pockets and the like
• With the realization that we can make our own Special Purpose Fabrics, such as Heritage, we began to ship garments with 0 synthetic fabric, and 100% our own Fabric ... for the first time, garments with all Fabric of 100% WeatherWool Certified Fine Wool

   

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For Batch 9, I've decided a timeline, with latest entries on top, would be interesting. A little bit of a different approach than on pages dedicated to previous batches. The timeline appears below the composition of Batch 9 (the Ranches from which the greasy was sourced).

 

• Innes Ranch ... Wyoming .. our first wool from Wyoming! And the largest single clip we have ever purchased ... 18,420 pounds (8354 kg), representing 41.3% of Batch 9
• Cravens Ranch ... New Mexico. Our first time working with the Cravens. We'll get a page up for the Cravens Ranch as soon as Mark gets me some photos ... 13,055 pounds (5921 kg), 29.1%
• Jones Ranch ... New Mexico ... 6266 pounds (2842 kg), 14.1%
• Corn Ranch ... New Mexico ... Mike Corn, the Corn Ranches and Roswell Wool have been key to WeatherWool since 2010! ... 5239 pounds (2376 kg), 11.8%
• PM Ranch ... Minnesota, owned by Advisor Bob Padula, has been part of every WeatherWool Fabric Batch! Bob has advised us since the beginning. If we had not ever met Padula, there might never have made anything ... 854 pounds (387 kg), 1.9%
• Jewell Ranch ... Colorado. We have worked with John and GeorgeAnn Jewell previously. They are mainly breeders, and produce some of the most-desired fiber and stock in the world. Of all the clips in Batch 9, Jewell is the longest, strongest (tie with Innes), finest and cleanest. We would have thought this was impossible!! No surprise, the Jewell clip is also the most expensive in Batch 9 ... 838 pounds (380 kg), 1.9%

 

2025-02-19 ... Last of the Batch 9 Fabric Picked Up
Today, I picked up the last of the Batch 9 Fabric from American Woolen, and dropped it off at Factory8, where it will be turned into FullWeight Brown and FullWeight Natural White Anoraks.

2025-02-13 ... Fabric Complete
All of the Batch 9 Fabric is now complete, but it will be about three more months before all the Fabric is turned into garments.  So it will be, in total, a full three years from the first greasy purchases until the final garments are completed.  Much too long!!!

2025-01-03 ... Still Going!
We are still making Batch 9 Fabric and still making Batch 9 garments.  We've made our first Denim (100% Wool Denim!) from Batch 9, and our Denim garments include (mostly) Chore Coats, but also some Denim Jeans.  More Denim pieces to come!  And we've made lots of the usual FullWeight and MidWeight Jacquard pieces.

2024-10-03 ... Still Not Complete
We've made a lot of Fabric and a lot of garments from Batch 9 so far.  BUT, 30 months after purchasing the first clips, we are still weaving.  I am guessing we won't finish making Batch 9 Fabric until the end of 2024 or even early 2025.  We'll have Batches 10 and Innes-1 (aka Batch 11) well under way before Batch 9 Fabric is completed.

2024-01-22 ... Denim
We picked up the first tranche of our true production WeatherWool Denim.  We will shortly be making some Denim garments.

2023-01-18 ... Denim Names
We need names for our Denim colors ... Looks like we'll be calling them Denim Black and Indigo.

2023-11-22 ... Denim
We have a few test pieces made from the first small sample run of Denim, and we like these pieces a lot!  AND ... we have since made two more very small samples, each one softer than the previous.  This last sample was approved for production runs that should complete at the end of January 2024 ... about 1000 yards (941 meters) each of Charcoal Black and Navy Blue.

2023-11-03 ... Natural White and Denim Update
We made a few Anoraks in Natural White ... those are almost all gone.  We will have a few CPOs (hopefully this month!) in Nat White.  We expect our first production quantities of Denim in Black and in Blue by February of 2024.

2023-10-10 ... UTILITY FABRIC MIXUP
It turns out there was a mixup in shipping and what we thought was much-too-heavy Utility Fabric was a sample that should have been sent to someone else, who wondered why his sample was so light.  We are very happy with the Utility Fabric and may be able to use it for some additional purposes!

2023-10-07 ... Black and Brown Fiber Samples Approved
We received samples of the newly-dyed Black and Brown fiber, and we approved them. Good thing we like the colors, because at this point it's really a fait accompli.

2023-10-06 ... UTILITY FABRIC
First sample of Utility Fabric arrived ... and we like it a lot, BUT not for the use we had in mind.  Seems much too heavy/thick to use for pouch pockets or the backside of pocket flaps. Will see if we can make lighter fabric!

29 September 2023 ... DENIM Again
We have enough Denim to make a few garments. We'll be testing the Denim in a lab, testing the garments as soon as we can, and deciding exactly what to make.

23 September 2023 ... DENIM!
First small samples of DENIM arrived today!  And we love it!!!! ... At least so far ..we still need to test the properties and make a few garments.  But right now I am VERY optimistic that we will actually be introducing a new Fabric for the first time in about 7 years. The look and feel of this stuff is sweet! More info on the Denim Page

11 September 2023 ... Dyeing and Spinning
Some of our top has been shipped for Tintoria to be dyed True Black or Classic Brown. I don't have an ETA from Tintoria. Some of our top has been shipped to Kentwool Yarn to be spun into worsted warp that will be used in all our Fabrics. And the rest of our top has been shipped to American Woolen for spinning into woolen weft for Lynx Pattern and (we hope!) Denim and even (we hope!!) a little bit of what we are calling Utility Fabric. We're hoping to use the Utility Fabric to make pockets. If this works, then even all our products will be made with fiber sourced ourselves, and all our garments will use only Fabrics made by us ... and all our Fabrics are 100% wool.

Worsted spinning and woolen spinning are substantially different.

19 August 2023 ... Scarf for Bob Innes
Bob has been on his Family Ranch, established in 1870, for all of his 71 years. For decades, Bob has been asking for feedback from the people who purchase his fiber. He's not gotten any feedback except from us. And now, although just a small thing, Bob has a Scarf made with his own fiber.

24 July 2023 ... Production Losses
I just put up a new page -- Production Losses -- showing the loss (by weight) of material beginning with greasy (raw) wool and moving through finished Fabric, ready for the tailors

23 July 2023
We have been shipping Shemaghs and Scarves made from Natural White (Cream) Batch 9 Fabric. Feels good to write that!

7 July 2023 ... (sorry for getting behind here!)
We have made the first rolls of Batch 9 Fabric in Natural White (cream color) in both FullWeight and MidWeight Fabrics. It looks and feels great. And we'll make more. We're using these first yards for Anoraks, CPOs and Shemaghs. I need to get the Natural White added to those product pages ... but we need to update our Color Palette ... and that effort has led to some renaming of our colors. Did not expect that!

30 May 2023
The first test pieces of Batch 9 Fabric, both MidWeight and FullWeight, are scheduled to ship from MTL to American Woolen for finishing. There will hopefully also be enough leftover yarn for American Woolen to make some WeatherWool Denim for us to examine and test. This would be the first new WeatherWool Fabric since MidWeight in about 2015. It's just an idea at this point, but I'm really looking forward to it.

12 May 2023
Both warp and weft yarns for first small test batches of FullWeight and MidWeight Fabric should arrive at MTL within a week, and first pieces of griege Fabric completed by end of May.

24 April 2023
Kentwool has completed spinning a tiny batch of warp fiber. The warp and weft for Batch 9 testing will be at MTL shortly, and they will weave a small amount of FullWeight and MidWeight undyed Fabric that we will use for testing.

24 April 2023
The spinning of the warp yarn for the first test pieces won't be completed for another three or four weeks. And this is just the testing. We have a very long way to go before Batch 9 becomes Fabric. It seems unlikely we will have Batch 9 garments until late 2023, at best.

7 April 2023
One bale (about 550 pounds / 250 kg) of clean top has been sent to American Woolen to spin into weft, and one bale has been sent to Kentwool to spin into warp. We are skipping dyeing for this first little bit. I'm going to have a LOT more to say about processing of Batch 9 as time goes by.

8 March 2023
Scouring and combing complete. Chargeurs provided some detailed information about processing and results, much of which was new (and still somewhat mysterious) to me. I'll post that information eventually, but I need to understand it better. Chargeurs tells us that we now have 21,466 pounds (9735 kg) of 21 Micron Top, conditioned at 15%, for a yield of 48% (greasy weight 44,582 pounds / 20,219 kg). The "15%" refers to moisture, and I don't understand that yet.

17 Feb 2023:
Scouring scheduled to begin 27 Feb

6 Feb 2023:
Batch 9 is on its way to Chargeurs and scouring should begin end of February.

April 2022 until Feb 2023:
All of Batch 9 sitting in warehouses until time to scour!

21 July 2022:
We finished putting together all the clips for Batch 9, our largest Batch yet. The Innes Clip (see below) was the last and biggest piece of the puzzle. Debby and I actually spent half a day at the Innes Ranch before we could commit to the purchase, because we were still awaiting test results.

At 44,582 pounds (20,219 kg) of greasy (raw) wool, Batch 9 is large enough to enable us to do some things that have been on my mind but were not previously possible.

April until July, 2022:
Batch 9 was put together for us by Advisor Mike Corn at Roswell Wool in Roswell, New Mexico. Mike put together most of Batch 8 in April and May of 2022, but it took until July to accumulate all of it. The Innes Clip (described below) was the largest and last component to be added to Batch 9.

The greasy will stay with Mike until early February, when it will be trucked to Chargeurs in South Carolina for scouring.

Here is a list of the ranches that are represented in Batch 9, listed in order of clip size:

• 
  

As of 6 February 2023, Batch 9 began its journey from the warehouses in Texas (Bollman) and New Mexico (Roswell Wool).

 

Page initiated in April of 2022 --- Ralph