2022-09-12 ... OVERFLOW
I need to create another page to continue the 2022 Blog because this page has grown too large for Shopify's system.

2022-09-10 ... Anoraks Underway ... Garden State Sheep Show
Yesterday, Alex delivered FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric to Factory8 in the Garment District of New York City. Anoraks in the oven!

It was a nice surprise to find that -- if we stuff the cab -- our pickup truck can handle 500 yards (over 450 meters) of FullWeight Fabric no problemo ... Although I would not put Fabric in the truck bed if there were any possibility of precipitation.

This morning, Debby and I attended the New Jersey Sheep and Fiber Festival, The annual event is organized and hosted by the Garden State Sheep Breeders, "a non-profit, educational group promoting sheep and wool products in NJ". The festival is held in rural Jersey (an oxymoron to many, I know) near the Delaware River. It's some of Jersey's prettiest land, although it's losing its rural character as more and more city and suburban folk decide to live there.

The young ranchers did a great job with their stock!

We attend the fest every year, and it's always nice to see so many people interested, participating and enthusiastic. I always like to see the youngsters presenting their animals to the judges.

This year, I was particularly interested in the fleece competition and sales. For a long time, I've been hoping we could do some work with Natural Colored Wool. For a LONG time, the USA has focused on white sheep and relatively few were interested in black (or brown or tan or mottled) sheep wool. It was very actively avoided, in fact. And mostly, it still is. But the Natural Colored is so so so beautiful that it is attracting interest beyond the hobby market. There are some industrial-strength processors willing to clean it. And New Jersey certainly produces the Natural Colored beauty I am looking for!

This is some seriously beautiful fleece ... Naturally Colored!

Jersey's growers tend to be small, and focused more on the hobby market than on industry. WeatherWool is not what I think of as industrial-sized, but we are bigger than "hobby", where wool is usually sold a few pounds at a time. The hobby market also does not offer the type of test data we need. Here, knowledge of the sheep breed, plus seeing and feeling the fleece is enough to make a purchasing decision. And perhaps someday this information will be enough for me, too. But we always insist on formal lab testing, and that's not compatible with the hobby market. Still ... we may be able to find someone with enough fiber for us to get a project started. I hope so!! The Natural Colored is too attractive to ignore. We will soon be speaking with some local ranchers!

2022-09-08 ... FullWeight Lynx Pattern Picked Up
Made another run up to American Woolen in Connecticut for the remainder of our Batch 7 FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric.

 I don't know why I feel as if I've done a serious day's work. It was the truck (and Jacob!) who really got it done!

Tomorrow, a bunch of this Fabric, plus some of our Batch 6 MidWeight Lynx Pattern, will go to Factory8 in NYC's Garment District, where JR's team will get working on Anoraks right away!

2022-09-07 ... Mill Run in the Morning
Got the wheels ready to make the trip up to American Woolen in Connecticut for the remainder of our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric. Anoraks going into production at Factory8 pronto!

2022-09-06 (Again)
Ben Franklin wrote something to the effect: "Begin in anger, end in shame." I've been a lot more ashamed than this. I finally dumped the situation (earlier entry for today) on Denali, who got it straightened out (THANK YOU!!!). But she did said it took about a half-hour to find a way to initiate online chat (they still wouldn't talk to us). And now she has "earned" the go-to role for Shopify problems.

Amusing side note ... Unbeknownst to me, some yellow jackets made a home under the sliding door to our garage, and they strenuously objected when I moved the door. As a youngster, my friends and I used to collect wasp nests. Looking back on it, I don't know why this seemed a good idea. But as a result, I've been stung a whole bunch. Maybe I never got stung on the ear before. Or maybe these smaller ground-dwelling yellow jackets pack an extra wallop. But I now have the left ear of a wrestler ...

I've frequently been a fat-head, but never before a fat-ear

... the ear is so swollen and ITCHY I couldn't sleep! The shoulder stings were nothing in comparison.

But anyway, I don't take back anything I wrote earlier today. In a wasp-free world, I might have used a different tone.

2022-09-06 ... Communication is HUGE
To me, anyway. WeatherWool has always tried to be accessible to our customers at all times. There are many ways to communicate, but actual speech is best!! As a company, we have always been committed to making it as easy as possible for customers to get in touch. Some people seem allergic to actually speaking, and will go to remarkable lengths NOT to speak. A 1-minute phone call is often more effective than several emails or texts. But we'll communicate in whatever manner a customers prefers.

As it stands now, it's almost always me answering the phone. A lot of people are surprised that ANYONE answers the phone. It's common that people will not respond for a second or two when I answer. Then they'll say they assumed my voice was coming from a machine. And for callers who've already been in touch with us somehow, their info has normally been saved on my phone. So I can answer "Hi Bob, it's Ralph". This really shocks some people. But it's what a business should do.

We will never be inaccessible, and we will never put up any barriers ... such as an answer machine that makes people listen to a menu and makes it difficult to speak to an actual person. We've been told a bunch of times that a business can't operate on such a personal level. But our "DOs and DON'Ts" are frequently the opposite of the routine way of doing things.

The reason I'm wound up about this today is that this is the 4th day we are unable to ship from our store. Shopify, the platform upon which our web-store (and >1 million others) rests is good at a lot of things. But they are generally AWFUL at customer communications. One of Shopify's services is facilitating shipping. When we fill an order, we can click a button to CREATE SHIPPING LABEL, and this is really convenient!! But on Saturday, clicking that button generated this message:

At first, it seemed an easy, if weird problem to fix. Shopify runs charges against our credit card all the time. Shopify also deposits and withdraws from our bank account regularly. It puzzled me this notice would come up. Clicking PAY INVOICE takes me to another screen that claims our credit card failed. But the bank said no charge was rejected, and the charge had not even been attempted. But the screen also gave the opportunity to use another credit card. So, I gave it another credit card, with the same result. Next, I write to the email address offered by PLEASE CONTACT SUPPORT. Shopify generates an automatic email response with a trouble ticket number. Sounds good. But no followup for about 36 hours, when I get another email asking me to open a trouble ticket. But I'm already corresponding with the help desk, and I already have a trouble ticket number and I have already explained the problem, and have asked to speak with someone. Shopify's help desk keeps telling me to open another ticket but I haven't been able to figure out how to do that. I'm not the swiftest guy, and will freely admit that. BUT ... we are already in touch, and I'm asking to speak with someone, and Shopify seems dead-set against that. Their market cap has lately fallen by about two-thirds (tech wipeout), and maybe service is part of the problem.

In any case, this is our fourth day unable to ship in the normal way. We will get all the orders out today (Holiday weekend is over) by working through the UPS website.

Sorry for the rant!! Please, if you ever have a problem with WeatherWool, phone me directly at 973-943-3110. Thank You! -- Ralph

2022-09-05 ... Ripoff?! ... Send me Samples
"I’ve got to be honest. When I first heard of you folks and saw the prices I just about choked. What a ripoff, I thought. After reading through your site, I’m not so sure. I look forward to comparing your wool to my filson and old woolrich pieces. Either way, I admire your willingness to take a risk on an absolutely crazy idea. Good on ya."

We used to get "ripoff" comments once a month or so, but these comments are  less frequent now. And this note, which came in a couple of days ago with an order for Samples, also presents a refreshing open-mindedness. Usually, the input will start and end with RIPOFF. But we've never heard anything like this from anyone who has our wool.

These notes always make me wonder what people think. One thing I would not have expected is the loyalty people feel toward their woolens. I've seen discussions in the forums where people passionately defend their whatever (car-maker, dog-breed, boot brand, fishing line), as well as their favorite woolen outerwear. Sometimes, people love what they've been wearing, and they become downright defensive and ornery when someone suggests there is another level. People who publish reviews of almost anything know this well. They will usually tread very carefully to make sure they don't annoy anyone! People want their choices validated.

Regarding the note above, we also look forward to his comparisons of WeatherWool with Filson and old Woolrich. We invite comparison with any other maker of outerwear and we hope people will inform us of their findings.

Returning to the RIPOFF perspective, the first entry in our FAQ tells what we are trying to do, and the second entry explains Why So Expensive?

As we have become more experienced, we have found ways to improve our products and service. And so, somewhat contrary to expectations, our costs -- even aside from inflation -- continue to rise.

I have long been an admirer of Jerry Rice, who is unquestionably one of the greatest (American/Canadian style) football players ever. A young hot-shot player -- JJ Stokes, I think -- told a story about the first time he practiced with Rice. Stokes caught a short pass at the sideline and jogged out of bounds. Next up was Jerry Rice who caught the same short pass but sprinted 90 yards to the end zone. Rice wrote that "perfect practice makes perfect" and that the idea is to score a touchdown every time you touch the ball. This made a big impression on Stokes, and on me.

The way the Rice-method translates to WeatherWool is that OF COURSE the big things matter, and we do all the big things in the best way we can figure out. But we also do all the small things in the best way we can figure out. Every time. And we keep on trying to do better, and to find better materials and techniques. In this business and virtually all others, the better way is the more expensive way.

Lastly, we want to earn with everyone the perspective expressed by Scott Blythe, who published on 24 February 2022 on our website this short and sweet Review of our Anorak: "Holy [****] man, I just received my mid weight anorak . This is top shelf! I own other wool anoraks from other companies and they are really good but nothing like this. The quality of the wool and thought that went into this is next level! I kept kicking myself for putting up that kind of coin for a anorak but it is SO worth it. Pony up and get you one you won’t regret it!!!"

2022-09-04 ... Wether Wool
A few days ago, a gent phoned looking for some wool. He was extremely polite, but his second-language English and accent made it a little bit difficult to communicate. Plus, what he wanted was a little confusing and funny, too.

He said he wanted to buy some WETHER WOOL, and I told him he'd come to the right place. He asked if we actually sold WETHER WOOL, and I told him we are the only place he can buy WeatherWool. He asked if he could buy just a little bit. He explained that he didn't have much money, and that he was hoping to, according to Scripture, use WETHER WOOL to prepare a treatment that would cure a friend's serious illness.

I am aware that wool is sometimes used to dress wounds, but that's not what I would call an illness. Given the language situation, maybe the caller meant a wound?

We talked some more, and it finally became clear (language-barrier again) that he called because he really wanted WETHER WOOL.

A wether is a castrated male sheep. Historically, shepherds have placed a wether among a flock of ewes and lambs. The ewes and lambs will follow the wether, and if the wether wears a bell, it helps the shepherd track the movements of the flock. Bellwether is a shepherd's term that has come into common, metaphorical usage.

There actually is a little bit of wether wool in WeatherWool, so maybe we could help. But actually, he wanted pure, raw, wether wool. Not us! Advisor Andy McMurry suggested he contact Facebook group Raw Wool 4 All. I hope the friend feels better soon!!

2022-09-03 ... MADE IN USA?
We have tried to make it very clear on our website that we offer only pure-American products. All materials and all labor, 100% USA.

So it was a small surprise that someone wrote this week questioning whether WeatherWool is MADE IN THE USA. It's understandable, to some extent, because there are a lot of companies that are stretching the definitions and the law, dancing and weaving to sneak by or trick people into believing they are offering American products.

We do not believe we could do what we seek to do if we worked outside the USA. But even if we could, we wouldn't, because pure-USA has always been our idea.

We love the MADE IN USA label on our products!

It was also kind of nice to receive that note because it underscores a strong and growing desire among Americans (and actually quite a few citizens of other countries) to buy American-made products. We are very happy about this, but from the point of view of our manufacture, there is a little bit of a downside.

Americans used to wear about 95% American-made clothing. And most Americans wore wool. Now, Americans wear only about 3% American-made clothing, and only about 2% of that is wool. We think these numbers have bottomed out and seem clearly on the upswing. But the capacity is nowhere near what it was. The factories were not merely closed ... the equipment was sold and shipped overseas. And large numbers of the workers have aged-out of the workforce. So ramping up US garment and textile production is not a simple thing.

More and more, we are hearing that manufacturers are unable to fill orders in a timely way. The delays in supply chains are well-known. For us, the sewing professionals we need are very much in demand, and our production is slower than we'd like for that reason. But also, things like zippers, thread and buttons, which might seem as if they should be readily available, are not. We have ordered enough Slot Buttons to last us a couple of years, at least. Same with thread. We were told we could get our thread in a couple of weeks ... that stretched out quite a bit longer. Zippers are 12 weeks out. We are well-stocked because we practice just-in-case ordering rather than the ideal just-in-time ordering.

We are also hearing, consistently, that workers are very hard to find. So, even companies that may have their raw materials to work with mostly don't have the employees to move as quickly as they otherwise could. Raising wages considerably higher than they had been pre-pandemic has been necessary, but has not been adequate.

We are getting things done and getting garments made. And we are thrilled to see the surge in demand for MADE IN USA!! But that surge is making it more difficult for us to fill orders!

2022-09-02 ... Patriot Jackets Under Way!
This morning, Jordan and Tyler Lang, the firefighters and brothers who together operate Heat Straps (link covers our collaboration), picked up enough of our FullWeight Lynx Fabric to fulfill production requirements for the first run of The Patriot Jacket.

 Young guys working, old guy yakking ...

Jordan Lang in The Patriot Jacket. In the background, the Heat Straps truck loaded with FullWeight Lynx Fabric that will soon be the interior lining of the first production run of The Patriot

2022-09-01 ... Long Day (And it ain't over yet!)
I like to get an early start when I'm running up to American Woolen in Northern Connecticut. About 165 miles (265 km) is not so far, but the shortest route puts the NYC metro area in between us. Used to be if you crossed over the Hudson River into NYC before 6:30 AM, you wouldn't hit much traffic. But this morning I got to the GW Bridge at 4:45AM and it was already slammed. So I detoured up old US Route 9W and crossed the Hudson on the Tappan Zee Bridge (which the politicians have renamed the Governor Cuomo Bridge). But the main thing was that I got up to AWC and picked up the first tranche of Batch 7 FullWeight Lynx Fabric! Hooray! This is the "Hurricane Batch" so it has a sort of exciting -- or at least eccentric -- history. BUT ... the Fabric is gorgeous!! This Fabric will mostly be used for The Patriot Jacket, and cutting starts Saturday!

We've been wanting to do Blankets for a long time. A customer needed an Adult Stadium Blanket kind of quickly, and Better Team put a nice border on some of our MidWeight Fabric.

Denali will definitely not like this image. But for a quickie Blog post, I hope she will forgive me!

And now, it's a little past 8PM and I'm watching Mountain Men on History Channel. So far, I've seen two Mountain Men (Josh Kirk in his Duff All-Around Jacket and Mike Horstman in his Lynx Anorak) in our garments. I've actually gotten to know Josh pretty well in the last couple of years. And I hope to visit him in the Wind River Range of Wyoming again soon. I've done a lot of texting with Mike, and I would dearly love to take him up on his invite to Kodiak Island, Alaska!

We've been waiting for this WeatherWool Double Header (a new episode of Alone: Frozen will immediately follow the Mountain Men premier) and there are a total of six people who wear our wool, although there is not telling whether we'll see any more WeatherWool than I've already seen in the first 10 minutes of Mountain Men.

This will be an interesting evening!!

And now, on ALONE, Callie and Amós are featured in their Anoraks! I love the idea of what they are doing. And HATS OFF for accepting the challenge. I just had some pizza delivered, and was feeling a mite deprived when the delivery guy was late. These folks -- regardless of outcome of the present challenge -- are tough and determined. But they are making a point of stating this time (they've all done it before), they won't punish their bodies as hard as their previous outings. Callie and Amós and actually all four of the contestants are hanging in until next week.

2022-08-31 ... Nice Circle!
This isn't strongly wool-related, but a nice circle. The Blog of 2021-09-30 was about my family's old barn, which is now owned by Marlboro Township, NJ, because the farm was sold to Marlboro as dedicated Green Space. The barn dates from the mid-1700s, and has not been maintained in decades, so the Township will demolish it. We've been hoping someone would know a way to preserve the barn for historic value, or at least salvage the fabulous lumber. Today, we visited Real Antique Wood, which is only a few miles from our home. Anthony Saraceno runs the show there, and I'm delighted he is working on a salvage contract with Marlboro. It was also a kick that he has been interested in WeatherWool for a couple of years, but did not know we are only a few miles apart. I have always loved wood, and old wood in particular. And Anthony has old stock. Not European-old ... this is the USA, after all, but he has a great deal of 100- and 200- year old timbers. This old wood is a pleasure to see and touch and think about. But not only that, the old wood, hickory in particular, just gets tougher and better over the decades.

Something that wool, wood, leather, stone and steel all have in common is that people seem drawn to them ... I think because they are real, natural products. People don't get attached to formica or vinyl or polyester the way they get attached to wood, leather and wool. When I mentioned this, Anthony said he loves steel, and knives in particular. I mentioned that several knifemakers wear our wool for thermal protection as well as for protection from sparks. And I asked if Anthony knew of Advisor Jerry Fisk, one of the world's foremost knifemakers, who is one of those who wear our wool while working. Not only did Anthony admire Jerry's work, but he took me to visit Lisa Lofdahl (LL Metalworks), the knifemaker next door, who is also an admirer of Jerry Fisk and who is also from South Orange, where we live! Lisa showed us some beautiful work!

Before long, Anthony (and I hope Lisa) will visit us here to try on some wool and to look at some huge beech-rounds that I saved from a 6-foot DBH beech tree that died at our place 20 years ago. Most of that tree went up the chimney, but it was my favorite tree ever, and I had to save some rounds. Now, finally, those rounds might be made into something!

One other thing ... getting back to the barn. Those old-time workers were SERIOUS! Our barn features some remarkable carpentry. The joints are not only mortise and tenon, but they are doweled also. To do this kind of work without power tools was routine for centuries, but still amazing to me. And if I know anything about the old-time New Jersey farmers, that kind of work was done in winter, when they couldn't do very much on the agricultural side. And I bet they were wearing wool.

[Not wool related, but fascinating to me and I really admire what people could do centuries ago.] A short vid about the old-style joints. The vid shows the mortise ... there were no tenons or dowels on hand, but I took the opportunity to show a little bit of old-fashioned WORK. And SKILL. I wouldn't last an hour with those folks!

2022-08-30 ... WeatherWool Double Header Thursday on History
This Thursday, 1 September, History Channel will air new footage of MOUNTAIN MEN (Season 11 premiere) and ALONE: FROZEN. Both these series feature people who have chosen our wool as a result of online research and/or in-the-field observation. Except for the producers, nobody really knows what footage will actually be shown. But several Mountain Men and two of the four remaining contestants of ALONE do wear WeatherWool. We will surely be watching!

We know, at least a little bit, all of the people on these programs who have WeatherWool. The idea for this post -- our double-header -- mostly came to me this morning, when I got a text from Mountain Man Josh Kirk, who was evidently up and working by 5AM. Josh just put up his new website, and he posted on Facebook about Thursday night's new Season Premiere.

WeatherWool's TV history goes back to 2015. Our first TV Show started with a 2015 phone call from from Advisor Bill McConnell, as described in the Blog of 2022-08-09, below (apologies again for being so inept on the audio).

Next time on tube was initiated by a July, 2018 written message from Brady Nicholls, a US Air Force SERE Instructor who was preparing for ALONE. As usual, Brady couldn't tell me that he was preparing for ALONE. But he described the conditions he expected to face, and together we settled on a FullWeight Anorak in Lynx Pattern. Brady later published a tremendous YouTube review of the Anorak.

In late December 2018, Brad Veis, a professional videographer, ordered an Anorak. A few months later, Matt Taylor, who works with Brad, also ordered. And then in 2020, I started hearing from Mountain Men. It wasn't until I heard from Mountain Man Mike Horstman that I learned Brad and Matt worked on the show. It turns out Mike was seeing our wool all around him, because a friend of his in the US Coast Guard at AirSta Kodiak had also gotten a Rak via our WarriorWool Program (see photo). So Mike tested some of our wool and will hopefully be wearing it on the show again (he wore it some last year, too).

Mike lives alone on remote Kodiak Island with his Airedale, making a living through his knowledge of Nature

It wasn't until I heard from Horstman that I got to know Veis and, later, Taylor. Both of them are VERY keen on WeatherWool. Brad told me he's worn the wool in many countries around the world, and he really appreciates the wool works in the highly varied field conditions he experiences as well as while traveling and in town. Brad said the only drawback is that people keep asking to touch it.

At this point I know Brad pretty well from a bunch of phone calls. Among the other TV shows Brad has filmed is Fox Business Channel's American Gold: The Legend of Bear Gulch. It's not certain whether Bear Gulch will air for another season, but if so, WeatherWool will be there.

The next person we met on Mountain Men was Josh Kirk, of Wyoming. Debby, Denali and I visited Josh on the Bison Ranch in summer of 2020:

Below, Josh and I with a few hundred bison!

The Natural Beauty of Wyoming is almost beyond belief!
But Nature can be harsh. The Winter is long and cold, and the time of year when wolves, which are capable of taking down bison, thrive, while almost all other animals are struggling to survive until Spring. How out of place do I look here? Even so, I have always felt at home in Wyoming!

 Not long after visiting Josh, Debby and I spent some time with Jake and Dr Anika Herak, and Anika's parents, Julie and Cal Ward. Anika is a veterinarian, and, coincidentally, Julie and Cal are Sheep Ranchers, raising Targhees (we do use some Targhee fiber) on Clover Meadows Ranch where we all had a really nice evening.

I don't know if Jake will be wearing our wool this year because he seems to be working with Sitka now, but I have not spoken with him for a while. Jake and Anika married recently!  Mazel tov!!

I've spoken a couple of times with Kidd Youren, another of the Mountain Men, and I expect Kidd will appear in his All-Around Jacket this year. He did wear it for the filming, but as mentioned, nobody knows what will actually hit the airwaves.

Immediately after MOUNTAIN MEN, we'll be watching ALONE: FROZEN. This is episode four, and two of the six starting contestants have 'tapped out'. But Cassie Russell and Amos Rodriguez, remain. The teaser on History's website suggests that another contestant will tap out tonight.

Callie Russell in her Anorak. We did not know Callie would be wearing our wool in this series until we saw an ad for it, and customers of ours knew who she was. We did not know Amos would be wearing an Anorak for the same contest until Callie told us. We know Callie and Amos only from a couple of long phone calls (actually that's how I know most WeatherWool people!). Callie told us that careful research led her and Amos to WeatherWool!

Below is Amos as he is being flown to his ALONE location in a chopperl

Best of luck to Callie and Amos in this really difficult contest

2022-08-28 ... Ti Slot Buttons ... Invisible Mannequin ... Fabric Tranches
We have finalized the design and finish of our Custom Titanium Slot Buttons. We'll use these on our Peacoat, North Maine Double Coat and perhaps some other pieces. HATS OFF to Dutch Ressler and his team at DutchWare Gear in Lancaster, PA!

DutchWare Gear is your Go-To Source for Hammock Camping Supplies, and WeatherWool gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Proprietor Dutch Ressler and the DutchWare team in developing for us Custom Slot Buttons in Titanium and Bronze (still working on Bronze)!

WeatherWool sometimes uses an “invisible mannequin” for photo shoots.

  Above, the Hooded Jacket on an Invisible Mannequin. Basically, the mannequin has neither head nor neck.  The photo with the Hood down is done in a straightforward manner. For the photo with the Hood up, Denali inserts a neutral colored object to hold the hood up, then edits the photo to remove the object and replace it with Lynx Pattern.

We got some good news from the mills regarding the production schedule for Fabric Batch 7. Usually, the mills will complete the entire run for a specific Fabric Color/Weight, then move to the next. But the sewing professionals want all the Fabric for a given garment on hand before they begin work. If we hadn't lost about 7 months because of the Hurricane Ida Flood in Philadelphia, it would have been fine to proceed as normal. But now, we are already beginning the Fall Season, and we don't have any of our FullWeight Fabric. And so MTL will weave about half of our Duff, Drab and Black Fabrics, and send each color to AWC for finishing as soon as possible. Then they will circle back and finish each of the Fabrics in turn. All of the Lynx has already been woven, and AWC will complete finishing of all Batch 7 Lynx within two weeks or so. It's a lot of extra work for MTL to switch from one color to the next. And it may well be a lot of extra work for AWC also. But getting Fabric to the tailors several weeks sooner than I had been expecting will likely help a lot. This is another example of our Partners going out of their way to help us. MANY THANKS FOR THE SPECIAL HANDLING, GUYS!!

2022-08-27 ... Wilderness Access, Risk Control and Scout
Some of the WeatherWool Advisors (who advise us and customers) can be difficult to contact because they travel a lot, or spend time in places without normal comms. And some Advisors need to keep a low profile for professional reasons. Advisor Stani (Greenway) Groeneweg's work as an Adventure Film Producer, Location Scout and Risk Controller takes him far off-grid for extended periods. A couple of days ago, a TV Producer asked me to let Stani know they needed him for a project, so I relayed the message.

Stani's Instagram account gives a great sense of what he does, and here are some photos from that account, and some Stani has sent us:

 Stani sent the photos above and below, showing him in his Anorak, holding the Ax that led him to contact us originally. We used to be dealers of Artisan-made Axes, which we love, but we no longer have the time.

The photos above and below were taken by Stani in the Amazon Basin, in 2022, where he was on extended assignment. These photos and many more can be seen on Stani's Instagram

 Below, Stani (at right) with some of the local guides who also helped keep the film crew safe

Above and below: Stani spends a lot of time in Africa, working with Anti-Poaching Ranger Teams. Poaching is a tremendous problem in parts of Africa, and Stani's work training the Rangers is very important, and is 'more than work' to him. Stani is at right, in the tree.

OK ... maybe I have spent too much time 'setting the table'. But I thought giving a sense of Stani's work, plus the photos themselves, were certainly worth some space here. But in my mind, in my armchair, read-about-everything-life, the preceding photos are how I imagine Stani's work-world. And in fact, when he received my email, Stani was working on instructional materials he will present to a TV crew in Africa that needs to learn how to act and react in the presence of the dangerous animals that will be around during filming.

And so ... In the message I was asked to relay to Stani, I was surprised to read they needed his help to film 'celebrities' 'forest bathing'. Visiting the website of the woman who sent the note, the first thing I see was not at all how I have envisioned Stani's usual work environs:

I think the Stani with the devilish grin in the photo below would jump right into some celebrity forest bathing.

And I will admit to having a good time putting this entry together. But not as good a time as Stani's upcoming assignment ...

2022-08-26 ... TV Shows and Open House
It's always sort of amazing to us to see our wool on TV, particularly because it was chosen by professionals whose comfort and perhaps even survival depend on their gear. So last night was really some head-shaking fun for Debby and me, watching Callie and Amós on ALONE and hearing from customers at the same time!

Next Thursday, September 1, may be even more of the same. Season 11 of Mountain Men premieres, immediately followed by the next episode of ALONE, both shows on The History Channel. A total of six people on these shows wear our wool, but there is no telling what will be seen on TV.

We hope you can join us Sunday for the first Open House of Fall-Winter 2022-2023.

2022-08-25 ... Open House this Sunday ... Caught Up! (I think!?)
Although I tried to keep up with things while away, and Alex continued his normal schedule, a great deal of work accumulated during Debby and my 37 days on the road. We got back to the office a week ago and I finally got caught up -- I think -- last night. Sorry to be slow on a lot of correspondence, and to not have acknowledged many incoming orders in the usual way. I hope anyone waiting on me will get back! THANKS to all for your patience!

Thirty-seven days is not a long time, but there were some significant changes and developments:

• It was really good to visit for a few days with Denali, and see her settled into her new home and married life in Wisconsin. She will be doing more and more work from WI. All the Sample Packs are shipped from her place, and she continues to handle Social Media and photography as well as assorted other bits.
• The big deal, of course, and the primary reason for the trip, was to help our son Zack and wife Carla welcome Carter, their first child, into this world. And that could not have been better. And we are all aware how much of a miracle that is!!!
• Anything to do with WeatherWool I think is already posted on the website. It was startling to return to what passes for a drought in Jersey (which is a long way from a true drought). But it's the driest I remember. I thought the persimmon tree would have a bumper crop, but instead it dropped all the half-grown fruits -- hundreds of them -- and now it's dropping leaves, too.The apple tree dropped most of its fruit. Woodchucks and deer devastated our backyard garden and fruit trees. Birds are eating tomatoes, which they ordinarily would not do. A neighbor sold his house, and the new owners tore it down! (And obviously, I'm a real homebody.)

Speaking of home ... we have an Open House this Sunday. This is the first Open House of the Fall-Winter Season. Here in North Jersey, the first hints of Fall will arrive on the evening breeze in late August. But not so far this year.

2022-08-24 ... International
We've always loved the idea that our garments have traveled to many countries, and that we have customers in many countries. This list shows the countries where we know our garments have gone. We've never tried to put together a list of the countries where we have customers, and I guess we should. Year-to-date, our website has hosted visitors from 95 countries, with about 57% of the visitors from the USA. International folks are much less likely to buy, tho, partly because currency exchange rates are presently unfavorable for US exporters. And because many countries impose import tariffs, VATs and other fees that can increase the cost of our garments by 50% or more. Even so, I estimate about 15% of our customers are outside USA. Most of those are in Canada, which does not impose any import duty on American woolens.

About a year ago, we decided to seek international registration for our trademark "WeatherWool". On our behalf, Polson Intellectual Property Law applied for registration in Australia, Canada, European Union, Great Britain and Japan. All of these applications have proceeded smoothly and it appears WeatherWool will be registered without contest in all these jurisdictions. THANKS, POLSON!

2022-08-23 ...Material Circularity Indicator
Until last night, when I saw this Instagram post from @ExperienceWool (SheepUSA.org) I'd never heard of the MCI. Nothing surprising, but still very nice to see.

@ExperienceWool ... In stark contrast to synthetic fibers, wool is by nature a circular fiber. In the Material Circularity Indicator by the @ellenmacarthurfoundation, wool gets the highest score possible. The Material Circularity Indicator (MCI) is an assessment tool for companies to improve product design and material procurement. Wool has a unique set of ‘circular’ features: ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
✅ renewable ⁣⁣
✅ biodegradable⁣⁣
✅ reusable ⁣⁣
✅ recyclable ⁣⁣
⁣⁣
#experiencewool #sustainablefashion #circularfashion #slowfashion #slowfashionmovement #experiencewool #consciousconsumer #americanwool

Click here for a ton more info on wool from SheepUSA.org (aka the American Sheep Industry Association).

I'm glad to see wool getting a nod, but in the case of wool, or at least WeatherWool, the MCI almost misses the point. We don't want our garments to be part of any material cycle. We hope WeatherWool lasts a long, long time!

2022-08-22 ... Thieves
There are definitely some swindlers patrolling the web, and we hear from them a few times a year. In this case, they started with an email asking if we ship to Australia. If this was any sort of legitimate inquiry, they would have spent 30 seconds on the website and found the answer to that question. But more to the point, a serious business relationship would start with a garment or two and Fabric Samples. Instead, these guys start with Hoods, which nobody wants without the matching Jackets:

Hello Ralph,

Thanks for the email, Please find below the item I want to order

Double Hood
Color: Black

Mouton Hood
Color: Black

Reversible Seamless Watch Cap
Color: BLACK/Drab

Scarf
Color: FullWeight Black

Shemagh
Color: FullWeight Black

Quantity: 100 Pieces Each

Our store information:
SOLACE GROUP PTY LTD
37 JELLICO DR
SCORESBY VIC 3179, AUSTRALIA
TEL #: +61 4888 93744
EMAIL: info@solacegrpltd.com

When you figure out the total weight and dimension of the items kindly contact the shipper with my account number (ARSS2022K2CG). Find below information to contact my freight forwarder:

The contact person

Mr. Smith Richardson
Freight Name: All Rounders Shipping Services
Email: info@allrounderss.com

For more information of the freight company kindly contact them and they will get back to you with the necessary feedback you require. The freight company, has my shipping profile already, (Australia). The weight of the package and your company address is what they need to give a shipping cost to you. kindly get back to me when you have the actual total cost (both order cost and the shipping cost from the shipper), And I shall proceed with providing you my credit card details or complete the ACH payment, so that you can complete the arrangement for pick up with the shipper. After which the Freight company will come for pick up. I look forward to your prompt response.

---

Best Regards,
Willy Fogle
SALES MANAGER
--------------------------

SOLACE GROUP PTY LTD

37 JELLICO DR
SCORESBY VIC 3179, AUSTRALIA
TEL #: +61 4888 93744
EMAIL: info@solacegrpltd.com

The purchase price of one-each of these items is $860. One hundred of each item is $86,000.

The bigger swindlers always want the goods shipped somewhere outside the USA, by their own shipping company. [There are smaller but legitimate shipping companies that specialize in moving goods from USA to specific destinations, such as the Philippines.]

I don't know exactly how the scam is supposed to play out. I think the idea is after we ship the goods, they claim we scammed them, and their bank pulls back the payment they made to us, which will include the cost of the goods plus the cost of shipping. Our bankers have told us credit card payments and even ACH payments can be reversed unilaterally! A wire payment is much more difficult to reverse.

The one time we did get scammed in similar manner was totally my fault. We've been warned to dishonor orders from anywhere on the African continent. It's kind of amazing to reflect on an entire continent being flagged, but that must be the result of a VERY large number of bad experiences. Our loss was minor. Someone in Morocco ordered a couple of Watch Caps, and the order was flagged as suspicious. But the shipping and billing addresses matched, and I felt bad about refusing an order simply because it originated from Morocco. So, against Debby's better judgment, I filled the order. A couple of months later, the payment was reversed. I wrote the credit card company that the goods were delivered, and that the shipping address matched the billing address. The Moroccan bank replied there was clear evidence of fraud, but provided no further explanation. We can still work with people from sketchy jurisdictions if payment is made by Western Union.

2022-08-21 ... Drying ... Last Day Pre-Order Patriot Jacket Collaboration
Today is the last day to pre-order the Patriot Jacket, a collaboration with Heat Straps and Nicks Handmade Boots.

On 19 August 2022, Giuseppe Monteleone, Plant Manager at American Woolen Company, sent me a video of our FullWeight Lynx Fabric on the drying machine.

American Woolen has primary responsibility for turning our fiber into Fabric. Here is how Giuseppe explained the drying process:

2022-08-20 ... "Blast Mail"
We don't do many mailings because I don't want to be 'one of those companies'. But I did one today to make sure everyone on our mail list is aware of The Patriot Jacket collaboration with Nicks Handmade Boots and Heat Straps USA.

2022-08-19 ... Batch 9
A couple of weeks ago, we completed acquisition of all Batch 9 fiber. I'm not sure when we'll begin processing Batch 9, because we haven't yet made Fabric from Batch 7 and Batch 8 ... and because some of the details of the processing still need to be resolved. But I wanted to acquire Batch 9 this year because we won't be able to get more greasy (raw) wool until May of 2023.

Batch 9 (44,582 pounds / 20,219 kg) is our largest yet, and the first Batch to include fiber from Wyoming. Debby and I visited the Innes Ranch (Gillette, Wyoming), which supplied the largest clip in Batch 9, last month. We also visited the PM Ranch in Minnesota just before visiting Innes. PM belongs to Advisor Bob Padula, who has been absolutely key to WeatherWool since 2010. I'm not sure, but I don't think we'd seen Bob since we spoke at the 150th Annual Convention of the American Sheep Industry in 2015 in Reno, Nevada.

Speaking of which ... The following material really should have been part of the Blog from 2 February 2015 ...

Because of our commitment to American Wool, we were honored with an invitation to speak at the American Sheep Industry Association's 150th Annual Convention in Reno, January 28-31, 2015. Kind of crazy speaking to a hundred-plus career sheep-industry professionals, every one of which knew more about sheep (but not more about turning wool into clothing!) than us!

They spelled "Ralph DiMeo" and WeatherWool correctly ...
(not a given!) ... and "Jersy" seems an improvement.

We were actually in Reno partly to exhibit at an outdoors show. Advisor Mike Pimentel handled our show-booth while Debby and I went to the ASI convention.

2022-08-18 ... Back at the Office
Debby and I are back home at WeatherWool HQ after 37 days on the road. We tried to keep up as we could. Alex stayed on top of the shipping, and Denali continued to handle Sample Requests and Social Media. But there is a mountain of stuff to catch up on.

Debby and I left Denali's home in Wisconsin at 9:30 AM yesterday. We got some good phone work done while we drove. We covered the 885 miles (1425 km) to South Orange, NJ, in about 13 hours. Everyone drives 80 mph (130 kph) on the freeways now, so a day of driving covers a lot of ground.

I will catch up on the mails and acknowledge everything that I missed while working from my phone. But WOW, there is a ton to do! ... WeatherWool stuff, but also around the house. Biggest priority is to trap the groundhog that devastated my garden while I was gone.

2022-08-18 ... Homeward Bound
The founders of Heat Straps are professional firefighters. They've been making great jackets and specialty items for firefighters as well as for the general public. Recently, working with the team at Nicks Handmade Boots, they designed footwear suited to their urban firefighting. The success of these boots led to an additional collaboration, this time a Chore Coat lined with our Fabric. Yesterday, Debby, Denali and I had a great talk with the folks at Nicks, who gave us the welcome news that orders for the Chore Coat have exceeded their expectations, and we discussed potential ways of incorporating wool fabric into leather boots. We are going to have some fun with this! If anyone has ideas, please get in touch!!

On the 15th (two days ago) I blogged about a happenstance meeting with a gent who owns hair-sheep. Last night I got some feedback from the wool-sheep point of view. It seems there is a bit of a battle between the hair-sheep and wool-sheep folks I guess that is not surprising. WeatherWool being what it is, we are strongly allied with the wool camp, who does not believe the lanolin produced by wool-sheep is any detriment to the meat. My own take is that any controversy there may be is fundamentally caused by wool garments having fallen relatively out of favor ... which in turn I think has been caused the proliferation of inferior woolens made by people attempting to compete with synthetic pricing. One thing that caught me totally unawares was that sheepskin for the leather market can be a very significant portion of the overall value of a sheep!

In the USA, it seems sheep milk is not much of a priority. But a great many cheeses are specifically made from sheep milk: feta; manchego; pecorino romano; roquefort and many more. Wikipedia has interesting info ... "as sheep's milk contains far more fat, solids, and minerals than cow's milk, it is ideal for the cheese-making process." I suppose the cow-milk-folks would have a somewhat different point of view. In any case, should WeatherWool ever actually have our own sheep, we'd be trying for:

1. GREAT FIBER!! ... and likely natural-colored fiber!
2. Milk for cheese, as it seems to be under-appreciated in the USA and we strongly favor some of the sheep cheeses
3. Meat
4. Leather

But the only thing I really know about ranching sheep is that it takes a huge amount of work and time ...

These past five weeks on the road have been tremendous. The huge and wonderful event was the birth of our grandson, who is doing great. And we visited quite a few wool-friends, too! We also visited Denali on our way to Wyoming (where Carter was born to son Zack and wife Carla) and on our way back East. Today, we leave Denali's home in Wisconsin and head for Jersey. We've had our house in South Orange for 38 years, and in all that time, until this trip, the longest we've been away was 17 days. Hopefully, we get home tomorrow, which will be our 38th day on the road. I am eager to get rolling!

2022-08-16 ... ALONE, in an Unexpected Way
We have really appreciated that serious outdoor-types, such as the competitors on History Channel's ALONE Survival Competition, choose WeatherWool. And so of course we like to see our stuff on TV. We are very happy that JP, one of "our" contestants, was the overall Season 9 winner. But we wished that his Anorak had been worn visibly on the final episode. JP had gone into a sort of hibernation mode, where his focus was expending as few calories as possible, and his visible outer layer was windproof synthetic, to eliminate air exchange. (We design for versatility, which absolutely requires breathability.) BUT we did have a nice little boost at the end of the final episode, when JP's sweetheart, Jennifer, surprised him, letting him know he was the winner. Jennifer was wearing our Watch Cap and Neck Gaiter, which we had sent to JP along with the Anorak he ordered. A second episode of the new season, ALONE: FROZEN, will air Thursday the 18th. And there are again two competitors wearing our Anorak in FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric. 

2022-08-15 ... Hair Sheep and Pizza!
Yesterday, we left Zack's home in Wyoming, headed for Denali's place in Wisconsin. We randomly stopped for the night at the halfway point, in Plankinton, South Dakota. We felt particularly welcome because a flock of sheep was in a pasture immediately adjoining the motel's parking, and they came to the fence to greet us. Because some of the sheep had black heads and some had white heads, I guessed them to be Dorpers. Only one place in town was still open, so there was no doubt where we'd have dinner. The proprietor was also the cook, bartender and pizza maker. He made us a tremendous pizza, and we talked about various things. He runs his bar/restaurant/package store seven days a week, staying open until 2AM. And when he's not working in town, he's a couple miles away on his sheep ranch! He raises Katahdins, which are a hair sheep. Katahdins have no wool, and are not sheared. They are a meat-breed. I was surprised to learn that Katahdins have no lanolin, which our host said made them a superior meat-breed. The lack of lanolin means there is no chance of meat contamination from the oily lanolin, and butchering is easier. I would guess that wool-sheep folks would not quite let the matter drop at that point. But I have nothing to add. It was a sweet coincidence to have our dinner prepared by a shepherd!

2022-08-14 ... Gucci Quote ... Versatility
We watched a movie about the Gucci brand and family last night. I have not researched how accurate the movie was, but truthful or not, I like this quote from Aldo Gucci: "Quality remains long after price is forgotten." In my own life, when considering a quality purchase, I remember that the money always disappears somehow, anyway.

The following might not appear wool-related. BUT this is another (albeit strained) example of the versatility of wool.

Debby and I raised three children. Debby did nearly all the home work and I did all the paid work. Debby changed nearly all the diapers, but three kids need a whole lot of changing, so I believe I did change hundreds of diapers. However, I hadn't changed a diaper since 1989 until Zabz came along in 2016, and I changed one or two of hers. And now we have 17-day old Carter (another possible Granpa-name is Crater, an anagram of Carter, and short for Crateros, which I think is an ancient Greek name meaning the strongest ... and suggestive of his incipient performance), going through a whole lot of diapers.

I'd told Debby, Carla and Zack that I'd change Crater's diaper before we headed back to New Jersey. Years down the road, should I need to remind him who-is-who, saying "I changed your diaper" is a short and sweet way of doing so. Debby and I are leaving Wyoming today. So, last night was my return to diaper-changing. It's NOT "like riding a bike", although I learned decades ago that even riding a bike is not like riding a bike. But I was far more inept in this instance than in any of my old-guy bike rides. However, as Dirty Harry liked to say, "A man has to know his limitations", and so I had Debby with me in case expertise was needed.

When customers ask us which color WeatherWool will best disguise pet hair or mud, etc., the answer is Lynx Pattern, by a mile. And so I suited up in my Lynx CPO and carried Crater over to the changing table. I very much appreciate that he was cool, calm and collected through the entire process. He seemed to actually enjoy it ... looking at himself in the mirror and making those little sounds that newborns make in order to achieve complete control over adults.

It went fine at first. It seemed I was going to get off very lightly, and that he merely needed a change of a wet diaper. So I wiped him down and was about to suit him up when I noticed the tiniest bit of ... l'll call it lava. So I took care of that. Not bad at all, there were plenty of baby-supplies at hand, and I was starting to feel competent. But Crater read my mind, and evidently decided he was going to make me earn my 'changed your diapers' line, because he turned into a volcano. Repeatedly. I mean about four or five times. [I learned a few days later it was actually SIX times.] He maintained his calm, self-satisfied demeanor, cooing to me as I scrambled to keep up with him. I needed a lot of Debby's help. And even four hands didn't really seem adequate. Each of his eruptions had Debby laughing more than the last.

At one point, I knew Crater's room was monitored somehow. But it was not at all in my mind that Carla and Zack were watching the entire proceeding in realtime from downstairs. And it was all actually recorded, too! When the area (not just the volcano itself, but the surroundings, as well) had been thoroughly cleaned (thanks again for the mountain of supplies), I buttoned him up all clean and fresh and Debby took him downstairs while I cleaned myself.

Rejoining the group, I was puzzled to hear peals of laughter as I approached. It was then I learned of the very detailed audio/video, with the camera at the best/worst possible angle. Carla and Zack had been having a grand time watching the entire proceeding, and each of Crater's eruptions had everyone laughing louder and deeper the second time through. I suppose next I'll be hearing Crater and Granpa have gone viral. 

 
We did it!!

2022-08-13 ... Collaboration!
Our most-significant collaboration yet is scheduled to be announced today by Nicks Handmade Boots. Our friends Jordan and Tyler Lang, founders of Heat Straps, designed The Patriot Jacket, which features an inner lining of our Lynx Pattern Fabric. This website has a page detailing our Collaboration with Heat Straps.

The Patriot Jacket!

2022-08-12 ... On TV ... Burning Clothing
Really nice seeing our wool on TV again last night (details in yesterday's blog). But we were not shown on ALONE: SKILLS, as expected by Amós. It's interesting that "the talent" doesn't know what the editors and producers will actually put on the air until they watch the shows.

One of the things I love about wool is that it is actually classed as non-flammable. And there is a centuries-old market for used wool, which can be recycled into shoddy clothing, among other things. There are more and more companies offering shoddy. And of course wool is completely bio-degradable, so even without shoddy, wool does not pose a waste problem.

It's a very very different situation with synthetic clothing. Most of us don't need to think about our clothing burning. But it's a huge factor for some of us, particularly Military (incendiary weapons) and the many folks who enjoy campfires and outdoor cooking. Several of our customers even wear the wool for metalsmithing. The contrasts between wool and synthetics were underscored by a lead story in today's APPAREL INSIDER about burning synthetic clothing for fuel:

LONDON – A joint investigation by the Daily Mail and Unearthed, Greenpeace’s journalism arm, has discovered that garment waste from major high street fashion brands is being incinerated in Cambodia to fuel brick kilns. It was found that warehouses are burning used clothing for fuel as it is cheaper than wood. Garment waste from Nike, Reebok, H&M, Michael Kors, Diesel, Next, River Island and Ralph Lauren were found among the mountain of offcuts awaiting incineration.

This paragraph from Apparel Insider is reproduced with THANKS!!

I've read many times that mountains of old synthetic garments are a significant environmental and waste-disposal problem. But I never thought they'd wind up being burned on an industrial scale for fuel. The article has information about the pollution caused by the burning and the health hazards to people in the area. I was also surprised to read that the makers of the synthetic garments actually have contractual agreements with their business partners regarding acceptable methods of disposal! Our garments will last a long time -- I have not yet heard of our clothes winding up in the trash -- and we have an active Lending Library for used and repaired WeatherWool.

2022-08-11 ... ALONE, again! ... and ALONE, THE SKILLS
For several years, The History Channel has been airing ALONE, a solo survival competition. At least five contestants have purchased our garments to help them outlast the other competitors.

Only a week ago, JP Quiñonez won $500,000 for outlasting nine other Season 9 contestants. Tonight, ALONE: FROZEN, an entirely new competition, begins, and two of the six competitors have included our Anorak (FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric) in their kit. All of the FROZEN competitors were previous contestants, invited back by History.

Callie Russell purchased an Anorak and Neck Gaiter from us in August 2021. I enjoyed a long phone call with Callile last month. Callie told me that Amós Rodriguez, another contestant on the new series, also chose to wear our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Anorak. Checking our records, I found that Amós purchased his Rak in September of 2021. Amós returned my phone call only an hour before the premiere! We talked for a half-hour and then I let him go so he could settle in to watch the show. He doesn't know what footage will air, so, a lot of what appears on TV will be a surprise even to him!

After tonight's series premiere will another series premiere, ALONE: THE SKILLS. Amós will also be featured in this series ... again wearing his Anorak. We may work together to create a garment specifically for this type of activity.

For two reasons, it's a little bit surprising and funny to me that five ALONE contestants have worn our Anorak (four chose FullWeight Lynx):

1. I did not design the Anorak for serious cold. Our Anorak is designed for active wear in relatively moderate conditions ... from typical room temperatures to well-below freezing, over one or two base layers. But for a cold-weather survival contest, a different neck closure would surely be more appropriate. We would probably have changed the hood and probably have added storm flaps over the side zips. However, these changes might have changed how the Anorak was classified by the rules of the competition, which are very strict and specific.
2. Our Fabric is very capable of withstanding ferocious weather, but ALONE is, among other things, a conservation-of-calories contest. Our Fabrics breathe, meaning there is significant exchange of air. This is by design. Felted Wool is extremely tight -- windproof -- but we design for breathability, which is vital for active use. But in extreme conditions, the wisest course of action may be no action. JP chose to virtually hibernate like a bear, expending as few calories as possible. He did not attempt to find food, nor did he attempt to even build a fire, for many days. For such a strategy, our Fabric would be a great mid-layer, but the outer layer would preferably virtually eliminate air exchange. We do offer our Mouton Jacket and Hood, both of which offer extreme warmth and wind resistance, because these are lined with Mouton Pelts. Benji Hill had our Mouton (and Anorak) in Season 9, but he developed a life-threatening infection before the weather turned really cold. He wore the Anorak (FullWeight Duff) almost constantly before the illness.

This contest is somewhat different than Season 9. The prize is still $500,000, but the goal is to survive 50 days. The pot will be shared equally by all who remain at Day 50. Previous competitions have been scheduled so the participants will have a couple of weeks of warm days that will help them get situated. FROZEN takes the opposite approach. The contestants are turned out when the weather is already cold. Polar bears are expected!

Best of luck to all tonight's contestants! And of course we will be pulling for Callie and Amós!

2022-08-10 ... "It's Always With Me"
Many times, people have said "If I'm not wearing your wool, it's in the truck. It's always with me." We love hearing that! And this is very much what we have been trying to achieve. Of course, it holds true for us, too.

About 3AM today, Debby and I decided to drive up over the top of Casper Mountain to see the stars and hopefully catch the Perseids. It's a little early for the meteors, and we are having a full supermoon right now -- a negative for meteor-sightings.

Living in the NYC suburbs, our air is not as clear as here in Wyoming, but mainly, our night sky in Jersey has huge "light pollution", as skywatchers refer to manmade light. But in Wyoming, there is a lot less light pollution, particularly if you drive onto the backside of Casper Mountain, which is undeveloped.

At home, you can literally count the visible stars. This morning wasn't nearly as good as I've seen it here, but still hundreds of times more stars than back home, even with the full moon. It's always a treat to see the Milky Way, which is invisible at my place.

We didn't see any meteors, but we did get to watch the supermoon set over (I think) the Wind River Range, about 150 miles to the West. I can't remember ever watching moonset before. It was interesting that the moon changed color from the familiar bright-white to a sort of orange as it approached the horizon.

As for the wool, it was a soft summer night (morning) in Casper, and a little cooler ... 55 or 60F (14C) on the mountain, which is about 6000 feet (1800 meters) above sea level. With a steady wind I estimated at 15 mph (24 kph), our CPOs were perfect over summer clothes.

 "It's always with me" ... Even in summer!

Hopefully, we get another clear night soon. We'll go up the mountain a little later ... between moonset and sunrise, which is spectacular from the Mountain!

2022-08-09 ... Adding to (Cleaning Up) Last Week's Entries
I am back in Casper, Wyoming now, at my son's house (baby is 12 days old!), and can edit the website more effectively. So I will revisit some of the posts and events from last week in the coming days.

When I pulled into Bozeman, Montana on the evening of July 31st, I joined Advisor Bill McConnell and some local friends and I watched the premiere of Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid FROZEN survival challenge. Another friend of WeatherWool, Ky Furneaux of Australia, is a contestant. Ky is an inspirational character. She was seriously injured in an auto accident, and never walking again was a possibility. Ky went the opposite route, becoming an athlete, top-tier stuntwoman for the film industry, and heavy-duty survival expert and contestant. So it was pretty cool watching Ky on the screen, knowing that Bill had interacted with her, and then seeing Bill get his first official credit, with a title of SURVIVAL PRODUCER.

Ky and Calem O'Grady were the subjects of the Corona-inspired series Outback Lockdown, seen on Discovery Channel, NetFlixUK and NITV Australia. It was pretty cool how Ky and Calem rode out Corona while living off the land on an enormous and remote sheep station in Australia. Our wool saw some use while they hunted feral goats with traditional archery gear. I also got a kick out of texting with Calem while watching him on TV. Don't remember ever having done that before or since. 

Below is a quick-vid I did with Bill in the Gallatin National Forest, where Bill has spent a lot of time. The Gallatin more-or-less forms the Southern border of Bozeman.

 Bill and Ralph on the first time we were in touch. You'll need to crank up the volume to hear Bill, because I messed up the microphone. Sorry!

2022-08-06 ... Visiting Ron Spomer
On Thursday, I made it to the ranch of Advisor Ron Spomer and his wife, Betsy. Betsy visited Debby and me a few years ago, but until this trip, I had never met Ron face to face. Ron has published an enormous amount of outdoors related material and I have actually been reading his work for over 40 years! 

It was really great visiting with Betsy and Ron and daughter Sarah, and huge thanks for their hospitality!

I will have more to say about this before long, but right now it's 5:00 a.m. Saturday and I would like to get to the West Gate of Yellowstone National Park by about 6:00 so I need to get moving!

2022-08-04 ... JP Quiñonez Wins!!!
JP is the winner of season 9 of History Channel's ALONE survival competition. We are proud that JP chose WeatherWool as part of his kit!

There is a detailed account of the series finale at this link.

Huge congratulations to JP. What a demonstration of intelligence, resourcefulness, and resolve!

2022-08-03 Again ... NOT WOOL-RELATED
Today I drove from the South end of Sun Valley to Boise, the long way ... headed North through the Sawtooth National Forest, through the little town of Stanley, the Salmon-Challis National Forest and the Boise National Forest. It takes twice as long that way, but it is spectacular. It was new ground for me and I'm glad I took that route.

Shortly after I started driving, I noticed someone hitch-hiking. Having done a whole lot of thumbing (50 years ago), I will usually pick up hitch-hikers when I am alone. The decision to offer a ride or not needs to be made in a fraction of a second. This guy was unusual in that I figured him to be in his 60s. He looked a little bit crazy, and I took him to be homeless, but his pack was large and neat. His name is Aul ... which is short for Paul. Never met anyone who felt the need to shorten Paul, at least until now. Aul is about to turn 60. Around 10 years ago, when his children became self-sufficient, he and his Mrs split, Paul gave away all his possessions except what he could fit in a big backpack, and chose to be homeless. He's a well-informed guy ... in addition to the roads through the National Forests, which he knew well, we talked about politics, history, natural history, current events and music in particular. He rode with me about three hours.

Aul thumbs his way from one musical event to the next, at least in summer. He is a guest of many venues ... they give him room and board for the length of an event ... usually a couple of days. In return, he brings love and joy and dancing. Bringing Love and Joy and Dancing is his Mission in Life.

Aul has been seriously dancing since 2nd grade. And he looks it. He's about 5'4 inches tall (163 cm) and about 100 pounds (45 kg) of pure sinew. He looks like he could dance all night. And dancing is what he is there for. He's supposed to get everyone moving!

Aul mentioned at one point that sometimes people are afraid of him. My thought was that many homeless people are ... crazy. He didn't like that, but not for himself, and he wasn't angry with me. He explained he'd spent time in homeless encampments (not government-sponsored homeless shelters, but rather, people living outdoors on their own, in a group, without what most would call a home), and that many homeless people know they have mental problems, and don't want to frighten others, but are unable to get the treatment they want and need. But he also said he didn't believe apparent mental issues were what made people uneasy. Aul thought what actually bothered people was that they saw in him what they could become within a short time if something went wrong. He felt they looked at him and were frightened for themselves.

Aul's only regret, it seems, is that the ladies don't favor him as much as they once did. They like having an old dog around, he said, but in the end they usually -- but not always! -- bring a pup home.

After about three hours, Aul decided he would climb up the mountain, find a private spot, camp, have some smoke and spend the night. He needed to cover another couple hundred miles (maybe 330 km) to his next event, but he has until Saturday to get there. As we parted, he told me to spend as much time as possible with my new (6 days old) grandson, particularly in his first five years, which Aul said are the years family can have the most influence.

OKAY ... A "little-bit" wool related. A gent who bought a CPO in Drab last week just ordered another one in Lynx. I love when people do that. Makes me feel like we are doing something right!

2022-08-03 ... Montana, Idaho
Yesterday, my ineptitude ruined the plan for a video interview with Advisor Bill McConnell. Still, it's always good to talk with Bill. Standing next to The Gallatin River, while I fiddled fruitlessly with my microphones, Bill pointed out some fireweed, an edible plant he uses for cordage for fishing line and bow strings.

Clear proof of how bad I am with this! That's Bill laughing a little behind me. And the beautiful flowers are the fireweed.

Next stop was the Wool Lab at Montana State University. Bill teaches anthropology at MSU, and so he hoped to join me at the lab but unfortunately had to excuse himself after the first few minutes. On the other hand, lab manager Liz Deurmeier was kind enough to show me around, answer all my questions and listen to me jabber about WeatherWool for 3 hours! Thank you very much, Liz! We will be in touch again, and there will be more about the MSU Wool Lab coming on this site.

Yesterday afternoon I left Bozeman, headed for Boise, Idaho, via the old US highways. Some very very striking and amazingly beautiful country. Passing through the Targhee National Forest reminded me that the US Department of Agriculture has a sheep research station in Idaho, where they developed the Targhee breed. We use a lot of Targhee fiber, which is Merino-class, but usually a little thicker. The Targhee is bred with slightly more emphasis on meat, and fiber slightly thicker than traditional merino. The additional bit of thickness, in general, adds strength to the fiber. But as always, there are various factors that interact with each other, affecting the fiber as well as the meat. But anyway, I was thinking the sheep research station might be near the Targhee National Forest, but no dice. About 500 miles (800 km) away. Too much of a detour!

An unexpected surprise was the Craters of the Moon National Monument. I had never heard of this place before, and the landscape is truly otherworldly! At first I thought there had been a prairie fire because there was almost no vegatation and everything was black. But in fact the it's just crazy jumbles of black rock left from volcanic activity. The terrain is so broken and uneven I don't think it would be possible to really walk through without putting hands on the ground a lot of the time! And I just read on the Park Service website that two of the caves are closed because late snowfall created icy conditions. This is quite surprising as it was extremely warm when I passed through.

Parts of Southern Idaho are amazingly empty. Although there were a lot of farms, some of which look extremely fertile, at least with irrigation, there were long distances between towns. I think I traveled about 200 miles (320 km) without passing a gas station!

And last but certainly not least, Debby wanted me to post a photo of our 6-day-old grandson, Carter Ross DiMeo, in a WeatherWool Swaddle Blanket. Carter is doing great! And Mom and Dad are experiencing the rigors of newborn care, with a big assist from Grandmom. The Blanket is made from a few yards of Undyed Fabric that we have had for years.

2022-08-01 ... Montana
Yesterday, I left Casper headed toward Montana. I took the old US highways for the most part, through the Wind River Range and up into Montana. Wow wow wow what a beautiful stretch!

Since arriving in Bozeman, I've been spending time with advisor Bill McConnell. Bill is actually the first person who ever wore WeatherWool on TV (for Dual Survival). Way back in 2014, Bill phoned me and told me he was going to a cold place where he would need to survive outdoors for an extended period. I think he also told me he was going to be filmed, but I don't remember for sure. What I do remember clearly is he said he is a big wool believer, and would be wearing wool for his adventure. He also said he was getting in touch with all the makers of wool outerwear, and would wear the best he could get his hands on. A few days later he called back and said something like "I'm going to be wearing your stuff. I know no one has anything better."

We have really enjoyed working with Bill over the years. Debby and I spent quite a bit of time with him here in Bozeman 2 years ago.

Bill has an amazing knowledge of the outdoor world. His knowledge comes both from book study as well as a lifetime spent outdoors in many different environments. Plus, really the main thing, is that he loves Nature, and particularly likes to experience it in the way of the ancients. He is actually an instructor of anthropology at Montana State University.

Last night, Bill and some local friends and I watched the premiere of Discovery Channel's Naked and Afraid FROZEN survival challenge. Bill did a great deal of work on this contest, and his name appeared in the credits at the end as SURVIVAL PRODUCER. Bill has been behind the scenes many times, but this was, I think, the first time he was credited. Another friend of WeatherWool, Ky Furneaux of Australia, is a contestant.

I didn't leave Casper until our new grandson was 3 days old and thriving. As I write this he is turning 100 ... 100 hours old, that is. Official Grandpa rules say that after 100 hours then you count his age in days until he is a month or so old, then you switch to weeks. Another Official Grandpa rule is that Grandpas can call their grandkids whatever they like. My present working name for Carter is King Carter, although it's not final. It took me three or four years to settle on Zabz for Isabelle, my granddaughter, so there's no hurry!

A nice little tidbit is that Carter was born on Bill McConnell's birthday!

2022-07-29 ... CARTER DiMeo!!
Carter Ross DiMeo joined the family at 14:59 yesterday!! All is very very well. Carter is the first child of my younger son, Zack, and his wife, Carla. They live in Casper, Wyoming. Debby and I timed this road trip just right for Carter.

Fun fact: Zabz came up with the name Carter. Zack loved the name so much that they decided to change it just 1 month before the baby was to be born. Alex's wife, Cecy, had sent some baby clothes to Carla. The baby clothes were made by a company named Carter, and Zabz may have thought that was the baby's name ... Which it did become when she told Zack about it!

2022-07-27 ... Rabbit Hole
More than one person has likened a visit to this website to a trip down the rabbit hole ... meaning the site is conducive to following links from one topic to another for a while, and before long getting sort of lost. It's the same with editing. I don't actually remember which page I set out to edit today. But I wound up touching a bunch of pages, including Testing, Scouring, Weaving, Chargeurs, Innes Ranch, Jewell Ranch, Corn Ranch, PM Ranch, Advisor Pages for Padula and Corn, Batch 9, Combing.

2022-07-26 ... Testing Greasy Wool ... Innes Ranch
Updating the page on Testing Greasy Wool caused me to create a page on the Innes Ranch. We'll add more info to both pages over time. But a good start for both.

2022-07-25 ... Power Fully Restored ... Callie from ALONE
Friday morning, a tree fell across the power lines and the utility company had some troubles getting power back to normal. Power has been up and down since Friday, and so we've been a bit ragged. Sorry for any inconvenience. It seems power is fully restored, but the internet connection may still not be right. I'm in Wyoming, and Alex is in the office in New Jersey, getting things back to normal. The off-and-on-and-off-again outage may have done some damage to our wiring. The joke is that in the 38 years we've had our house, we've never had this kind of problem from a power outage. And Debby and I are away from home for the longest stretch in all those years.

What is kind of interesting, but not related to WeatherWool, is the circumstance of the outage. There is a creek -- really just a trickle -- running behind our house. But if there is a storm, the flow skyrockets. It seems the stormwater eroded some tree roots, and because the power lines run along the creek, the falling tree took out the power for our block. The interesting part is that the little creek used to be substantial enough that it provided a travel route for trappers. In the 1600s, a trading post was established just a stone's throw from where our house was built 200+ years later. The old trading post is the 2nd oldest building in New Jersey, dating from around 1660, although now all that is left is the foundation, with other buildings having been put up over the top, I don't know why the water flow in the creek has been so reduced over the centuries, but it is nice to reflect that around 350 years ago, trappers in canoes -- maybe birchbark? -- would paddle up the stream and trade furs for powder, shot, whiskey and WOOL BLANKETS, which comprised the majority of trade goods. The furs would then go to New York City, only a few miles away. And the trappers would return to the frontier, which at that point was (guessing) maybe only a few days paddling and portage from NYC. ... And we are not the first wool traders on the block!

Last night, Debby and I spoke for a while with the delightful Callie Russell, a contestant on the upcoming ALONE: FROZEN survival competition on History Channel. Callie is a really warm (oh, that's a bad pun but i didn't intend it!) energetic and engaging telephone personality! I have not seen her on TV yet.. (Maybe we can find her on YouTube this afternoon.) Callie gave us some interesting background info. The rules of the ALONE competition allow the contestants to bring a sweater and a parka. Because our Anorak is unlined, it counts as a sweater ... and so contestants can then also bring a fully insulated, lined, wind-stopper type of parka which enables them to sit still, conserving calories in the cold. Callie also used our Neck Gaiter. She explained the use of a Neck Gaiter is also permitted, and she chose ours because she could use it not only as a neck gaiter, but also as a scarf, kidney warmer, cushion and even as a skirt over her leggings!! AND ... Callie also gave us a really nice piece of news: another contestant, Amos Rodriguez, will also be wearing a Lynx Pattern Anorak. Amos phoned about a year ago, telling me he wanted the Anorak for a trip.

2022-07-23 ... Does Macy tell Gimbel?
That was something people would say often when I was a kid in the 1960s. Macy's department store is still around but Gimbel's shut down in 1987 after more than 100 years in operation. The question referred to business practices and secrets and the presumed answer was that Macy would never tell arch rival Gimbel.

The subject of secrecy comes up pretty frequently for WeatherWool. People tell me there is too much information on the website ... that it can help others to copy us and to do business with our Partners. And, I agree. But that may not be a bad thing.

We want our Partners to thrive. And at this point, except perhaps for some Ranchers (and then only for the wool -- they all have other streams of income) we are not the major portion of income for any of them. We hope our website brings more business their way.

Regarding The specifications of our fiber, yarn, weaving, etc, I am really tempted to add more info, which has so far been pretty well vetoed by others that I rely on very strongly. And it wouldn't be very hard to reverse engineer what we are doing. Plus, I think a major company coming along, and trying to do just what we are trying to do, might be a very good thing! As it stands now, I don't think we have a true direct competitor. That is, I am not aware of anyone else making Hardcore Luxury woolens. I am guessing that if a large maker wanted to do it, it would be good for the ranchers and they would publicize the capabilities of their products. We don't advertise, but a major company would, and it would be great if more people understood what woolen outerwear can offer if hardcore luxury is the only objective.

The worldwide annual clothing market is about 2 trillion US dollars. Our primary customer base is USA and Canada, which I believe totals about $500 billion. (We are very happy to have customers all over the world, but in most countries exchange rates are very unfavorable lately and import tariffs, duties, VATs and shipping costs add a lot of friction.) And so there is an astounding amount of room for the hardcore luxury woolen concept to grow.

Plus, one of my very favorite things is how frequently I am confounded. And how frequently so-called experts are confounded. Professionals analyze and plan, and wind up big-time wrong quite often.

Decades ago, Debby gave me a book titled The Experts Speak by Cerf and Navasky. It's filled with examples of spectacular errors from hitherto respected sources. And we have certainly seen some humdingers in recent years. So it might well be good for us and our customers if we were more forthcoming, despite the opinions of the experts. Plus, I just don't like secrecy.

2022-07-22 ... Innes Ranch
Before we could actually buy the clip that completes Batch 9, we needed test results, which came in yesterday. We're very happy the data fully supports the sterling reputation of the Innes Ranch fiber.

Debby and I visited Innes Ranch on Sunday -- our first Wyoming stop of the trip.

Thanks to Bob and Kirsten Innes for their hospitality and for permission to use this image of Kirsten in her CPO, checking stock on the magnificent Innes Ranch.

Bob Innes is 70 years old -- hope he won't mind my saying so -- and the ranch was founded by his grandfather, so it's been in the family over a century. And that's not at all unusual among American sheep ranching families. One of the things that we really like about what we are doing is that it does help support some generational lifestyles.

My own ancestors were on the land for as far back as we know, until my parents built their lives in the suburbs. My cousins sold their farm to New Jersey's Green Acres Program about 20 years ago. Selling to Green Acres meant that my cousins got only about half -- or less -- of what they could have gotten from real estate developers, but they wanted their farm to stay open space, and hopefully, a farm. They sold the farm because they had sort of aged out of farming and didn't have a younger generation who wanted to undertake the 7-day, 80 hours a week lifestyle. This is a very common story throughout American farming and ranching. But also, somewhat amazingly, in the 1920s when they bought the farm, there were no deer in the area. By the time they sold, it was almost impossible to grow their usual crops because the deer hammered the young plants right down to the ground. Sadly, the barn, which dates back to the 1700s, is about to be demolished. There is some tremendous timber -- huge beams, hand hewn -- if anyone would like to salvage. But any salvage has to happen very quickly. There is more info on the blog of September 30, 2021. My cousins and I had met at the farm for lunch, as we do once a year or so, and amazingly ran into historians hired by the government to do a thorough report on the barn in preparation for demolition!

This is the first time we have purchased a clip from Wyoming. I'm sure it won't be the last! It's interesting that ranchers in Wyoming normally do not submit samples for length and strength testing, which has always been critical to us. And so we had previous test results showing fineness (the diameter of the fiber) and the expected yield after scouring (cleaning). But the length and strength testing had not been performed until we asked for it.

Generally, the ranchers have a really good idea of the qualities of their fiber, and in this case the test results bore out the expectations and validated the reputation of the Innes clip. Nobody was surprised, except maybe pleasantly so, because length and strength were both beyond what I was realistically hoping for! Hats off to the Innes Family whose many decades of work have produced tremendous results!

We are still making garments (Hooded Jackets and hopefully Shemaghs and a few Blankets) from Batch 6. Batch 7 is being woven now, and Batch 8 has been dyed but not yet spun into yarn. So it will take us some time to produce Batch 9 Fabric, but we are thrilled to have the fiber nailed down for our largest Batch yet!

2022-07-21 ... "Concealed Carry"

The Anorak is good for more than one type of concealed carry! Versatility is our middle name, but I definitely did not have maternity in mind when we put the side zips into the Anorak

2022-07-20 ... BIG PICTURE
There are many pieces to the WeatherWool puzzle ...  a great many Partners that help us reach our goals. It's a very large team. A large ecosystem, if you will. And the parts of this ecosystem, the ranchers and their sheep, the mill workers and the garment workers have been reduced enormously over the last 20 to 50 years.

To us, very importantly, we hope to be part of the revival of America's Sheep, Wool, Textile and Garment Industries, all of which are only a tiny fraction of what they once were. We strongly believe that high quality woolens can help to support and grow ways of living and working that have centuries-old roots in the USA. And we believe superior garments for more people makes the effort a win all around!

2022-07-19 ... Preparation of Wool Clips
A "clip" is a harvest of wool. It could contain all of the wool sheared from all of the sheep on a ranch or the wool sheared from a group of similar sheep if a ranch has different types of sheep. The fleeces of mature sheep are usually regarded as a separate clip from the fleece of yearling sheep.

Having just spent a couple of days with ranchers, we have been learning a lot about sheep, and there's always more to learn than we suspected, and so we have picked up some information about how wool is sheared from the sheep and prepared for sale.

Padula gave us this book about the preparation of wool clips. It was prepared by the American Wool Council which is part of the American Sheep Industry Association.

I look forward to putting together a website page summarizing just the highlights of the information in this booklet. But that will have to wait until I am back in the office in August because working the website from the mobile phone is so slow (for me, anyway!).

2022-07-18 ... Wyoming
Yesterday morning we left Pierre, headed west toward Wyoming. We spent several hours in northeastern Wyoming with a rancher that we'd never met before. We hope to buy some of his wool but we are still waiting for test results. We had a wonderful afternoon with some great people on a huge, gorgeous ranch!

We talked about many things and a lot of interesting ideas were exchanged. We talked about the wool certification programs that more and more people are interested in. There is some information about these programs elsewhere on this website. My view is mostly that the ranchers we work with are multi-generational and could not be more devoted to their land or their animals. But a new idea, which should have been obvious to me, came up yesterday. Our new rancher friend said something like ..... "I'm supposed to pay these guys money and they're going to certify that my animals are treated well, my land is respected, and that I know what I'm doing. Well that doesn't sound so good, does it? What if I don't want to pay them? What if somebody wants to pay them extra? And besides, who's going to certify them? How do I know that they are on the up and up and that they know what they ought to know?" INDEED!

It's great to be back in Wyoming! I love the smell of sage!! I haven't been here in 2 years, almost, since Zack and Carla got married. And now we are here because they are expecting in the next week or two. It was really Debby that they want here but I'm part of the package. I can still take the trash out and move things around a bit!

It's wonderful that our kids live in Wyoming. It's kind of funny how Zack came to live here and it is directly attributable to the wool business! Back in 2012, when we didn't yet have any fabric of our own, I was still selling off the inventory of the product line that had been my entry into the wool business. We had customers who were in the energy business out west, and I had spoken to them frequently about what was going on in Texas and Wyoming and North Dakota.

In the fall of 2012, Zack was working in New York City and really didn't like what he was doing and he's really not a Manhattan type of guy. I'd been telling him to check out the energy sector. Alex and I and a couple of friends had a Wyoming pronghorn hunt planned for late September. Alex would be driving out with his buddy. Two days before Alex's departure, a customer from Wyoming phoned and we got to talking, and he said they were really looking for people to work the oil fields in his area and he could get Zack an interview. So Zack threw his stuff in the truck, drove off with Alex and friend Rich, and Zack has been here since! And it has suited him awfully well. And that customer of ours from 10 years ago is a good friend of Zack's and interestingly enough they bumped into each other far out on the prairie in the middle of nowhere just a few days ago.

2022-07-16 ... Padula's PM Ranch
Yesterday, we made it to the ranch of Advisor Bob Padula in time for dinner (super leg of lamb!) and had a wonderful evening with Bob and his family. THANK YOU BOB AND SAMANTHA  AND MADELAINE (French for WOOL!)!!

Today we spent several hours vaccinating, deworming and weighing Bob's flock of about 220 sheep. Bob keeps a mix of Merino and Targhee sheep, all growing Merino class wool, suitable for WeatherWool. (I don't think we have ever made a batch of Fabric without Bob's wool, except for our very first.) We got some interesting video and stills. It was a kick to see Debby pushing sheep through the chutes!

Debby coaxing a ram to advance through the chute, for a deworming treatment and weighing.

Bob also did some video for us which I will post after we get home.

After lunch Debby and I headed West.  I had never been in this part of Eastern South Dakota and must say it was (is!!) stunningly beautiful and amazing in the richness of the agriculture! Tonight we are in Pierre, South Dakota, and tomorrow we visit a rancher in Eastern Wyoming from whom we expect to buy some wool very shortly.

2022-07-15 ... Wisconsin to Minnesota
Denali and Debby spent hours yesterday checking out the local landscape with particular regards to groceries and home-good and furnishing stores. Luckily, they decided this was not an outing where I was needed, and I spent time talking to customers and working on the website. The CPO Shirts are now fully stocked-up and available online or by phone. But we still need to make the 3X CPOs and the CPOs with extra sleeve length.

Today we leave Denali's home and head for Advisor Bob Padula's PM Ranch in Minnesota. Bob tells me we'll be de-worming! It's about 550 miles (880 km) and we'll be on roads we have not previously traveled.

2022-07-14 ... Wisconsin
After covering about 400 miles (640 km) yesterday, we arrived at the home of Denali and Aram, her husband, in Wisconsin. Denali is showing me how to do some audio-video. Now we have microphones that work remotely, in concert with the video recorder on my phone. Denali is not going to approve whatever video I create, but it will be better than nothing!

All of the CPO Shirts are available now. We didn't make any CPOs in size 3X, nor did we make any FullWeight CPOs. We are hoping to make some CPOs in size 3X soon ... and some CPOs with extra-long sleeves. We regard the CPO as a MidWeight item, and the ShirtJac as a FullWeight garment.

Denali tells me cheese curd and smoked whitefish are everywhere in Wisconsin so that will be my focus for the rest of today! The weather and the air are absolutely splendid!

2022-07-13 ... Ohio
We drove about 500 miles (800 km) yesterday. Denali's home in Wisconsin is another 400 miles (640 km), is the first destination of this trip.  

Inflation was a big story on the news again today, along with the strong dollar. We don't import anything at all, and about 15% of our customers are overseas. So both inflation and the strong dollar inhibit  WeatherWool.

Here in Fremont (Western), Ohio, the Comfort Inn was twice the price I expected. I have not had Pizza Hut in years. The $8 pepperoni pizza shocked me when it arrived at 5 inches (12 cm) diameter! It's looking like the New York City suburbs are a cheaper place to live than Fremont! Hopefully, we  had an overpriced local experience.

2022-07-12 ... Road Trip
In a few hours, Debby and I will head West to visit Denali in Wisconsin and Zack in Wyoming. With the stop in Wisconsin, it will be about 2100 miles (3400 km). Zack is our younger son whose work with WeatherWool is mostly behind the scenes. We will be on the road three or four weeks, and doing some work almost every day. We plan to make several visits related to WeatherWool. If you are anywhere along the way between NYC and Milwaukee and Casper, Wyoming, maybe we can meet for a burger. Call anytime. I am hoping also to visit people in Idaho and Montana and Lander, Wyoming, but we'll have to see how things play out. And ... American Woolen is scheduled to complete some Batch 7 FullWeight Fabric about the time we return home!

2022-07-11 ... Inflation ... Exchange Rates ... Ebay: "No other words needed"

• Ebay: Alex noticed a listing for WeatherWool on ebay. We are concerned about 3rd-party sellers because we have had reports of WeatherWool being stolen. And the ebay listing claimed the item was latest production. It's hard for us to understand why latest production would be on ebay because if  purchased from us, a 100% refund is available. We explained this to the ebay seller, who responded the item was NOT stolen and that we didn't need to blog about it. We've had some weird calls from people who purchased our garments elsewhere. One guy wanted to exchange sizes, saying something he bought off the web was smaller than it should have been. If he'd been nice instead of nasty, I might still have accommodated him. We have the Lending Library for people who want to trade in USED pieces. And we will always refund anyone who is not happy. But if the piece did not come directly from us, we'll decide on a case-be-case basis. The ebay description was pretty great, tho: "No other words needed. You know about them or you don’t…Featured on History Channel & Nat Geo Survival Shows."
• This morning Zack (our son in Wyoming, where we are headed tomorrow) notified me that the US$ is trading at parity with the Euro. A year or so ago, it was $1.20 for one Euro. The recent strength of the dollar makes purchases tough for our customers in other countries. A customer in South Korea wrote me this morning looking to lock in a rate for US$ to Korean Won conversion. The Won is trading at a 10-year low -- by a lot! -- against the US Dollar now, and falling rapidly, at least lately. We offered to lock in the current rate of 1309 KRW per USD for the next production of All-Around Jacket and Double Hood. Never thought WeatherWool would be doing anything like that.
• This morning we were also notified that our shipping insurance rates were increased 19%, effective today. Many of our Partners have notified us recently of big price hikes. Luckily (backwards-lucky, I guess), we have had so many delays in production that we mostly locked in our production prices a year ago, and don't have any plans to raise the prices of our own products.

2022-07-10 ... ALONE: FROZEN, Callie Russell
Two of our customers also noticed the ALONE: FROZEN (yesterday's blog) commercial, and Peter Wiltse also wondered who was wearing our stuff. So Peter Wiltse questioned the WeatherWool Group on Facebook and Kelley Nelson identified Callie Russell, a previous contestant on ALONE. Callie purchased an Anorak and Neck Gaiter from us in August 2021. Pretty neat stuff, and some more interesting TV coming up. Thanks to Peter and Kelley ... AND CALLIE!!!

2022-07-09 ... ALONE: FROZEN - Surprise!
The History Channel is advertising a new series, ALONE: FROZEN, premiering August 13th. History's website at this point only says "Coming Soon". But much to our surprise, the TV commercial we saw showed a woman wearing our Anorak in Lynx Pattern. The image was flashed for only a small fraction of a second, but we had it on DVR and watched several times. So we are convinced of what we saw, but we have no idea who the woman is. We kind of like the idea that we could turn up this way. It's a funny thing about the Anorak, tho ... I designed it for active wear in moderate temperatures. A bunch of people have suggested we make a true cold-weather Double Anorak. ALONE: FROZEN would have been a great reason to make one.

2022-07-08 ... Cover Girls
Last night I took the unprecedented step of putting myself on our Landing Page (the landing page aka Home Page, is "WeatherWool.com"). We are now shipping CPO Shirts in MidWeight Drab and Lynx, and we had a photo of Advisor Rob Stuart, who has been working with us since 2010, and myself out for dinner and drinks at a sidewalk cafe. We were both wearing CPOs, Rob's in Drab and mine in Lynx, so the photo was very appropriate. We don't want people thinking WeatherWool will make them look like me, so photos of yours truly are few on the website, and never-before prominent.

when 2022-07-07 ... Hooded Jacket TOP
Today, Alex took a drive into NYC to pick up the TOP of the Hooded Jacket at Factory8. TOP is short for Top (first) Of Production. After all the cutting is done, the sewing pros put one piece, the TOP, together. The TOP is our last chance to change any details of sewing. Debby had a couple of questions that we'll discuss tomorrow. I got a few photos of Alex in the TOP, and updated the Hooded Jacket page with what is basically the finished product.

2022-07-06 ... Testing Wool
I've been in touch with Padula a lot lately, talking about testing wool ... the techniques, the history and even the "politics" of it. This is another situation where it's not "just" ... meaning you don't "just test it" ... there is a lot going on. So I added some information to the Testing Greasy Wool page that I started about a year ago.

FOURTH OF JULY, 2022 ... American Made
Woke up a couple of hours before dawn, thinking The Fourth would be a good day to update our American Made page. We've always made pure-American products. And we've therefore always been compliant with the Berry Amendment, a law requiring the US Military to purchase Made in America goods, if possible. The textile business in the USA is now in such straits that Congress has created some new exceptions. We have never deviated from our fundamental concept of 100% American materials and labor.

At the end of the American Made page is a statement that I love seeing The Flag on our front porch. And so I went out front, well before first light, took this photo and added it o the page.

No "bombs bursting in air", but the early morning of the Fourth of July is a great time for a photo of Old Glory.

2022-07-03 ... Statue of Liberty!
We took today for a little company outing to the Statue of Liberty! I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I hadn't been to Liberty Island since about 1960. And Debby had been only once when she was one of the Moms running herd on Alex's grade school class about 30 years ago. It's a weird standard thing that people who've grown up here have often never been to Liberty Island. But Alex's wife, Cecy, grew up in Monclova, Mexico, and Liberty State Park is a favorite place for Alex's family!

Lady Liberty and a Lynx Pattern Ball Cap.
I am just not made for being out in the summer sun!

2022-07-02 ... New Zealand Dustup
Following on from yesterday's column, Advisor Bob Padula thought I might be interested in some sheep-related fireworks (sorry, but it's 4th of July weekend) from NZ, where sheep are much more newsworthy than here in the USA.

Padula is a lifelong student of "all things sheep", and that includes the socioeconomic factors that influence the sheep business. These factors are influencing America's sheep business, but it seems they are magnified in NZ, due to the locally greater importance of sheep ranching.

Country Calendar, a very popular show about rural living, has been airing on TVNZ for 22 years. It's not available for streaming outside NZ, but YouTube has some episodes, and somebody will probably post this season's Episode 17 before long.

The nub of it is that Geoff Ross and Justine Troy, a couple of farm-raised kids, grow up, found a vodka company, and then buy Lake Hāwea Station, returning to their rural roots. But Geoff Ross and Justine Troy bring some new ways and ideas to their ranching. Net-Zero-Carbon and classical music for the sheep are examples.

The show generated a magazine article (actually, a bunch of magazine print coverage), an unprecedented amount of feedback to TVNZ, and there were hundreds of comments on Facebook.

Are those "LHS" jackets made of wool!?

For WeatherWool, the lesson here underscores what I wrote in yesterday's blog ... that we tell all our Partners what we are trying to achieve, we ask for their help and advice, but we don't tell them how to run their businesses.

2022-07-01 ... JULY! ... ALONE ... Politics
Watching ALONE last night, when they focused on JP at the end of the show, I thought he was going to pull out of the competition. But he didn't. JP brought our Anorak to Labrador, but so far I don't think it's been on the show. He's been wearing rain gear and sometimes a knitted sweater. The thick brush of Labrador does not look like a place where a knit would do well! Congrats to JP and the other six contestants for making it thru about 30 days!!

We try to keep WeatherWool and politics separate. But politics touches a lot of things these days.

• About a month ago, a woman bought two Anoraks, Small and Medium. That usually means one of them will fit better than the other, which will be returned for refund. And that was the case this time. This is routine for any company doing mail-order clothing. A lot of the time, rather than actually pay for the second item, people will ask us to send the 'try-on' for free. We don't mind doing that, except it creates extra bookkeeping. So when the customer returned the Small, we weren't surprised or disappointed. The box with the return contained a note asking for a credit toward future purchase rather than a refund. Our production over the last four years has been so disrupted that we really really don't want to carry credits on the books. So we refunded, and explained. But what was a real surprise was the customer sending a check for $150 because she felt she'd held the Anorak too long. She was right in that we count as USED any item that's been held by a customer for more than two weeks, even if the box was never opened. She was also right in that it will cost us at least $100 when a customer holds a garment too long. But in this case, the garment came back to us in time, and had not been used or worn outside. I spoke with the customer, thanked her for such careful, honorable behavior and explained that the Anorak was still new. And we tore up the check. People reading this paragraph shouldn't feel that we are reluctant to send try-ons. This story is related here because -- political warning -- I'd be willing to bet that whomever crosses paths with this customer benefits therefrom, and if more people were so considerate of others, politics would not extend to virtually all of American life.
• And here's another little bit of politics. Farming and ranching are now somewhat political in that various people have a lot to say about how sheep ranchers should run their business. The wool business in the USA is as old as the country, and WeatherWool is still new and very small. But people know we exist, and there has been some concern about our perspectives. ... I don't know anything about ranching. I'm a guy from the NYC suburbs who knows the kind of clothing he wants to make, and relies to an enormous degree on the help and advice of our Partners. The typical Sheep Rancher is operating a multi-generational Family Business and I'm not going to tell these folks how to do what they do.

WOW ... JULY!! ... I love the summer, even though it's the worst time of year for WeatherWool. People in the Northern Hemisphere don't think about woolens in July. But from our perspective October is tomorrow and there is an awful lot for us to do. The first half of 2022 is in the books. That was FAST! ... as usual!! ... Wishing everyone a great July and a great summer.

2022-06-30 ... ALONE ... Naked and Frozen ... Feedback from Yesterday
A new episode of ALONE airs tonight. Benji was knocked out of the contest last week by food poisoning. Juan Pablo Quiñonez (with some WeatherWool) and six other contestants remain going into Episode 6.

Advisor Bill McConnell was the first person to wear WeatherWool on TV. Based on Bill's Instagram Post from yesterday, it seems he is a Producer of a new episode (or series) of the long-running Naked and Afraid Series ... FROZEN. A previous episode of Frozen and Afraid is available on YouTube. I don't know how similar this will be to Bill's production. Bill's tough to get hold of but I ought to be able to get more info before long. I will likely see him in Bozeman right around the time of the July 31st premier. Advisors Don Nguyen and Melissa Miller have been in front of the camera on Naked and Afraid. Melissa has done at least three of these challenges, although in warm (relatively, anyway) weather. Melissa told me it took months for her skin to heal from the bug bites. It's kind of funny that WeatherWool Advisors have done a show where there are no clothes.

I mentioned yesterday a young lady who now has an Anorak courtesy of her Dad. She is only 7, but old enough to read the Blog and her Dad told me she got a real kick out of being mentioned! And we think that's great!!

2022-06-29 ... Family
WeatherWool is very much a family business, and we love that many families have WeatherWool for more than one family member. Customers tell us they're getting another garment for Husband, Wife, Dad, Mom, Sister, Brother, Son, Daughter. A bunch of times, people have told me they are replacing a garment because 'Dad won't give it back'. Today, a customer purchased a crazy-shrunken Anorak from the Lending Library. This Anorak used to be a size Large, but, I guess, someone washed and dried it in the machine, and it shrunk down to something like an XXXSmall (a size we actually don't make). But it worked for the customer's 7-year old Daughter, and still with room for her to grow. This really puts a smile on my face! THANKS!!

2022-06-28 ... Batch 7 Yarn Delivered
All Yarn for Batch 7 has been shipped from American Woolen Company in Connecticut and delivered to Material Technology and Logistics in Pennsylvania where it will be woven. MTL should have the FullWeight Lynx Pattern greige ready for finishing at AWC by mid-July.

2022-06-27 ... Blogging
We really appreciate that people read this blog. And we really appreciate any feedback we get. Yesterday, "Tim" texted a question that caused me to attempt clarification of what I'd just written about knitted cord.

This blog is a simple webpage. People cannot comment directly on the blog, and that is a major shortcoming.

Shopify, the platform upon which this site rests, offers a blogging application that supports comments. But, as usual, the blogging app seems intended for companies that occasionally post longer blogs. Each blog is a separate page, so reading multiple blogs requires clicking in and out of each one. Our blogs tend to be short and frequent, usually at least five times a week. So clicking onto our Shopify-style blog page would generate a large presentation of tiles, each with a photo and a title and link to a separate blog. If we started now, by the end of 2022 we'd have around 150 separate blogs. And then 2023 would be added on top of 2022.

I sure would like to make it more convenient for people to chime in. But I don't want all those separate pages. That's my present thinking, anyway. So for now, at least, it seems the blog is going to need to stay the way it is.

Any ideas would be much appreciated (as always)!

Blogging is evidently a hot topic these days. A couple of times a week, people contact us asking if we would post a guest blog. We never got these requests in past years. Nobody has ever wanted to guest-blog about anything related to WeatherWool. A few days ago, someone asked to guest-blog about beautiful lawns. The suggested topics are all over the place. How to prepare your home for selling. Tips on relocating. Self-help.

2022-06-26 ... Wool Cord Again
A few weeks ago, Debby worked with Fleck Knitwear to come up with a knitted wool draw cord that we want to use to replace the synthetic shock cord that we have used all along to adjust the Hoods of the Anorak. We like this first-version woolen cord quite a bit. BUT, we are never satisfied ...

Fleck's "string machine" was pushed pretty well to the limit knitting together two ends (two strands) of our weft yarn when we first did the woolen draw cord about a month ago. Debby is always thinking, and she wondered if the string machine could handle three ends of our warp yarn. The warp yarn is worsted. The weft yarn is "woolen", which is sort of confusing, but really just means "not worsted". And the worsted yarn is more compact. So, we paid another visit to Fleck.

Matt Fleck gave us a good look at the hooks on the string machine.

Below, the string machine in action knitting three ends of our warp:

We will use these cords for adjustment of the Hoods of the Anorak and Hooded Jacket and maybe even for the waist cinch of the Anorak and All-Around Jacket.

And ... I recently realized I need to write a page about spinning. The "spinning page" will talk about worsted vs woolen (and yes, the terminology is confusing!). With WeatherWool it's ALL 100% WOOL!

2022-06-25 ... Trending Strong: Sustainability and Made in the USA
Speaking with our Partners recently, I keep hearing people want products sustainably made in the USA.

Demand for American manufacture, at least in the textile industry, is overwhelming capacity. Of course, this is largely due to production capacity being reduced much more than 90% from where it once was.

But manufacture is complex, and it isn't as if the factory lights can be turned back on and production quickly ramped up to where it was. This has been a long decline, stretching over decades, and the USA has little infrastructure left, and few experienced workers still of working age. In addition, textile manufacturers need to compete for workers with manufacturers, which generally can offer higher wages.

We used to work with the famous Woolrich Company, founded by John Rich in 1830 and, until 2018, operating around and in the town of Woolrich, Pennsylvania. In 2016 the Rich family sold control of Woolrich to W.P. Lavori, an Italian company that had licensed the John Rich name for use in Europe. In summer of 2018, Lavori sold to L-GAM (of Luxembourg) in summer of 2018, and L-GAM shut down all US operations of Woolrich. This set us back about 18 months, until we could get up to speed with American Woolen. Now, four years later, there are only four woolen mills still in operation in the USA. And they are all, I think, chronically short of personnel. But it's not just a personnel shortage. Our textile plants didn't just close and sit idle. The equipment was sold and shipped overseas.

Where there is demand, people will at least try to increase supply. But I keep hearing that all costs of operation are soaring -- all WeatherWool's costs have risen sharply -- and that in some parts of the USA, state and local governments are actually hostile to the textile industry.

As for sustainability, our woolens more-or-less speak for themselves. But New Mexico, which produces the lion's share of our wool, has been suffering drought for over a decade. The drought is so severe that ranchers are selling off their sheep because they cannot afford to buy the feed that no longer grows in adequate quantity on the parched range. Our ranchers have typically been on their land for generations (sustainable!!), but weather is a huge threat to their survival. People concerned with holistic agriculture will be impressed by the material from Advisor Andy McMurry. And everybody is impressed with Andy's fiber! (It's a little funny that Andy has provided a lot of information about his ranching, but I've been unable to get him to provide much info for his Advisor page.)

Whenever there is a trend or a buzz, there will be people looking to ride the wave. And "sustainability" has quickly attracted a group of companies that will certify the sustainability of producer operations. This is a topic for another day. But I'm cheered to note that surveys of consumers have found generally low levels of confidence in the ratings. Consumers seem to suspect claims and even certifications of sustainability are just another marketing gimmick.

2022-06-24 ... Beaver Fever?
At the end of last night's episode, after about 25 days in the Labrador wilderness, some kind of food- or water-borne infection knocked Benji out of the ALONE Competition. I have a lot of respect for anyone who even attempts to do this sort of stuff. So HATS OFF to Benji for surviving as long as he did! And I know he is fully recovered. Best of luck to JP, who remains in the competition.

2022-06-23 ... Yarns Scheduled for Trucking ... Carry-Designs
I've been trucking Batch 7 yarn from AWC to MTL myself in order to get weaving started ASAP. So MTL actually started working on our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric nearly a month ago. Today we got the great news that all remaining yarn for our Batch 7 has been scheduled for delivery to MTL next week. Batch 7 was bigger than any of our previous purchases. Batch 9 looks like it will be more than twice the size of Batch 7.

I don't understand exactly what today's Supreme Court 2nd Amendment ruling means, but I think it means that Americans who wish to carry a concealed firearm now have far fewer bureaucratic/legal hurdles to overcome. My only experience with firearms is with long guns, which are the only firearms legal for hunting in New Jersey. New Jersey grants carry permits only to Law Enforcement and those with "connections", and so we at WeatherWool have no carry experience. Today's ruling has us wondering if we should work on concealed-carry designs. If anyone has ideas, we'd love to hear them!

2022-06-22 ... JP's Book Coming Very Soon ... also SUMMERTIME!!
Juan Pablo Quiñonez (JP), who is wearing our Anorak during the current Alone Survival Competition on History Channel, is publishing a book. THRIVE, LONG-TERM WILDERNESS SURVIVAL GUIDE, will be available in early July. You can find more details on JP's website.

Summer is the worst season for WeatherWool sales, but it is also a time for us to get ready for Fall and Winter! And anyway, we LOVE SUMMER! Best wishes to all now that Summer has officially begun. And to our friends on the other half of Earth: Have a great Winter!!

2022-06-21 ... Men Shopping, Buyer Protection and Unwanted Compliments
When Debby read yesterday's Blog about my colleague Cliff, she told me Macy's and Costco place items likely to be purchased by men near the entrance. They know.

WeatherWool tries always to facilitate our customers. We accept trade-ins, returns, whatever, at terms that people almost always (maybe literally always, so far) find agreeable. And we're happy to do so. But we don't accept garments that have not been purchased directly from us because some people have acquired our garments improperly. Last night a customer phoned to replace an Anorak that had been taken in a smash-and-grab from his truck. And we have heard of other stolen WeatherWool. There are also outdoor pros who chose to work with other clothing companies but nevertheless decided to keep our wool. These are compliments we'd rather do without.

There is now on ebay a listing for an Anorak for $500 plus shipping. The seller  seems to be an ebay professional, with 2000+ transactions. The listing states the Anorak is from Batch 6, which has only been available a few months. Whoever bought it from us could have gotten a 100% refund. So I wonder why it would be on ebay? Maybe (hope not!!) the original buyer passed away. Or it could have been acquired through WarriorWool, and then resold at a profit. This has happened. Hopefully nothing dishonorable in this case. Alex has requested info from the ebay seller.

2022-06-20 ... Unexpected
I really enjoy being surprised and learning new things. In particular, I like it (although sometimes ruefully) when my expectations and assumptions turn out wrong (not uncommon) or simplistic (still happens a lot!) or naive (shouldn't be naive at my age, but ...). And most of all I appreciate finding out what I "knew" just ain't so! This last really should never happen, but it does.

I always thought it was Mark Twain who wrote one of my favorite lines: "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." But I was thinking just now that maybe it was Will Rogers. Quickly checking the web, it seems nobody knows where that great line comes from. I did not expect THAT to be today's first lesson!

Some things I have learned lately. Mostly things I had not really thought about:

• There is no "just". This is actually a lesson that keeps coming up over and over and over! A few examples ...
• As someone who knows nothing about photography, I used to sometimes ask Denali, a professional photographer, to "just take a picture!". She won't do it. She very carefully creates images. I talked to my friend Dan, also a professional photographer, about this. Dan said "I know, she won't do it. Me neither." Once, I just wanted to get a post done, so I did it myself. Denali phoned me, saying, "You picked the first font right off the top of the list, didn't you?". She was right, and explained to me why that was a bad idea. OK. But minutes later, I heard from our friend, Trustin Timber, who is a WeatherWool Advisor and another professional photographer. And HE said "You picked the first font you saw, didn't you?". Trustin, at least, thought it was funny. (This reminds me of something even I thought was funny. Debby was watching one of the home-remodeling shows she loves, and I was surprised to see my colleague Cliff and his wife on the tube. Mrs Clifford was carefully planning and analyzing every minute detail of the work while Cliff was completely uninvolved. The TV-host wanted Cliff to have some input. So they decided Cliff would pick the stone for a spot next to the driveway where the trash cans would be placed. Mrs Clifford shrugged and told the TV-guy "He's just going to pick the first thing he sees." So Cliff goes to the stone yard, looks around for a couple of seconds and picks the first thing he saw. Mrs Clifford's use of just was perfect! So sometimes there IS a just! Mrs Clifford was OK with it, tho, because the trash cans were going to be in an enclosure anyway.) If you don't know, you don't know. But as I get older and supposedly wiser, more and more often at least I know I don't know.
• Lately, I've been talking more about the weaving, dyeing, knitting that is so vital to us. And all of these things are highly integrated with spinning, about which I know next to nothing. There is an enormous field of knowledge that has been built up regarding spinning fiber into yarn. The type of spinning used depends upon what you want to do downstream. I had given so little thought to spinning that I haven't even put up any info about it on the website. I need to fix that. There is woolen and worsted-spinning (very different!), and we use both types of yarn. Fiber can be dyed before or after spinning (we use both). The yarns can be spun thicker or thinner, with huge variations possible. The fibers can be twisted to greater or lesser degrees. And there is S-twist and Z-twist (we use both). Plus, the yarn goes through multiple stages in the spinning process ... there are slivers (pronounced with a long I), roving and other states. And even after you have yarn, we don't have the yarn that will go into production, because we use yarns that comprise more than one strand of otherwise-finished yarn. AND ... there are only a handful of companies in USA spinning yarn on industrial scale
• When yarn is spun and twisted into final form, it is spooled onto cones. Different types of cones are used depending upon, for one thing, whether the yarn will be dyed on the cone. Cones that are best-suited for dyeing are cylindrical. But conical cones are best for weaving. When MTL weaves our yarn into greige, they will likely need to "re-cone" our cone-dyed yarn to optimize compatibility with their looms.
• Someone who can turn fabric into a jacket is a TAILOR.
• Someone who works with components of a garment, sewing a pocket onto a shirt panel, for example, is an OPERATOR.
• Some aspects of garment production are handled very well by machines. Once the machine is set up, it can go very fast and with great precision. But the machines, and the technicians that maintain and program them, are very expensive. And so it usually doesn't make sense to automate garment production until you are making larger batches of garments ... well into the hundreds. We are just starting to get to this level of production, and it opens new avenues for us.
• The person who sews the pocket onto the left chest panel may not be the person who sews the pocket onto the right chest panel. These two steps may be totally separate, done at different times.
• As production volumes grow, you work with more specialized companies. Instead of having one shop go from concept to a handful of finished garments, a different company may handle each step of production. First a design and a pattern and perhaps four or five prototypes (sewn by a TAILOR). Then a final pattern is GRADED into the required sizes by a grading company. Instructions from the grading company and a cutting ticket (specifying how many sizes of each Fabric to make) are then printed onto large sheets of paper by computerized systems at a MARKING company. The markers are sent to CUTTERS that put Fabric onto long tables and cut the pattern pieces according to the instructions on the markers. The cut Fabric then goes to SEWING PROFESSIONALS (not sewers!) who put it all together, component by component, into garments
• Denali, my daughter, does the majority of social media posts now. So yesterday I was surprised to find she did a Father's Day post about me! I was also surprised that suddenly friends from high school were chiming in on WeatherWool posts. I don't know how/why this happened. Near as I can tell, Denali didn't do anything that would have brought these posts to the attention of my personal friends. Denali said they must have been following WeatherWool on social media all along.
• It's no surprise that among our customers are many very interesting and well-informed people. And I talk to a lot of them, and get written communication from many more:
• I don't remember exactly how this came up, but Todd S of Washington State told me that collagen might help with the pain in my knee ligaments. And it has helped a lot!! I still want to lose a bunch of weight, but there is much less discomfort since I started using the collagen about 6 weeks ago!  THANKS TODD!
• Any plant growing where it's not supposed to be growing can be thought of as a weed. A rose is a weed in a tulip patch. And this may be stretching the point, but elk can be varmints. There are places where elk can legally be hunted without the paperwork and fees that are required almost everywhere elk are normally hunted.
• Compared to most fabrics, wool is tough on scissors. It dulls them quickly. But still, this post that appeared yesterday on YouTube surprised me. Someone with the handle Malkn_ commented on one of our videos: "Your wool is built tough. I tried using a heavy duty knife to practice cutting buttonholes on full-weight lynx samples... I gave up on the twentieth time- It's as if this fabric can mend itself, and resist lacerations." We certainly have tried to make our Fabric tough, but this was a shock.
• We feel very flattered to have customers in Australia and New Zealand because these countries are so serious about their wool. But the customers have told me the great majority of their wool is exported and they are very short of locally-made garments. This reminded me of my surprise at finding the price of seafood on the Maine coast was no better than here in the NYC suburbs. The Mainers told me their harvest normally is trucked to far-off markets as soon as the fishing boats come into port.
• When we decided on "100% American", we thought that would likely alienate people from other countries. And no doubt it sometimes does. But people from many countries have told me "100% American" is attractive. Some people feel it means quality, some feel it means fair-labor practices and respect for the environment. And some people have told me that in their country, consumers love "American" and want to buy American products! There is a great website, Radio Garden, that lets you tune into radio stations worldwide, live. And maybe it's a little off-topic, but there is an awful lot of American music being played around the world. Maybe Radio Garden over-samples stations that have American influence, but even so.
• People like what they like, and they DON'T want to read that there is something better than their favorite whatever. People who write about dogs will typically go to great lengths not to criticize any breed before discussing the breed they are actually writing about. I remember reading an article by a guy who was attacked by a vicious Labrador Retriever. It was amazing to me how he first praised Labs in general before talking about one Lab that really had a screw loose (or maybe just a bad tooth). But anyway, I know not to say our stuff is better than some specific other stuff -- although I will always say LET'S FIND OUT! I have seen people get indignant with various YouTube reviewers of WeatherWool because whatever they like has to be the best because ... This reminds me of another line that is typically, and probably incorrectly, attributed to Mark Twain: “It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled”. Sometimes I chime in on these written exchanges, informing people who don't know us that our customers are welcome to a refund, even after months of wear.
• I get the strong feeling sometimes that people think we are supposed to "pick a side" ... that we should either be a luxury product or a hardcore performance product, but not both. It was naive of me to not expect this! There are quite a few high-performance, luxury products. But it does appear we are the only woolens, or maybe the only garments, with this objective.

Denali just landed at Newark Liberty International Airport. Got to pick her up!!

Last night, Debby and I attended the wedding of our Cousin Sarah and her husband Gabe. It was a wonderful wedding! We had a great time ... THANK YOU ELLEN and GARY!

The venue was on Brooklyn's waterfront, opposite the Statue of Liberty, which is actually in New Jersey. Typical of the locals, I have never been to Liberty Island except once, when I was about 6, out-of-town relatives took me. Seven of Debby and my grandparents are immigrants, and Lady Liberty must have been among their first glimpses of the USA, circa 1900.

The Statue of Liberty highlighted by the setting sun

By pure lucky coincidence, there is actually a small connection between WeatherWool, the wedding, the Statue of Liberty and the Freedom Tower. Captain Joel Milton, who skippers his vessel along the East Coast and in the Caribbean, always has an Anorak with him. I don't know if Joel was wearing one of his Anoraks last night (it was quite cool and windy for mid-June), but he was working New York Harbor while we were having dinner, and sent me this photo (copyright © Joel Milton):

Just left of center, low in the foreground, is the Statue of Liberty, and just right of center, reaching into the clouds, is The Freedom Tower. Photo courtesy and copyright © Captain Joel Milton.

It was a kick to receive this photo from Joel when we did. Joel had no idea where we were when he sent the text message with the photo. THANKS JOEL!

In 1980-1981, I worked on the 104th floor of the original One World Trade Center, and never tired of the view of New York Harbor from 1300 feet (450 meters) high. It's even more beautiful at night. The Freedom Tower, the new building at One World Trade Center, is 1776 feet (541 meters) and the tallest building in the USA.

Because of the Covid, the wedding had actually been postponed for two years, so there was a great deal of anticipation and pent-up emotion. As we danced the night away, Saturday turned to Sunday, Father's Day and Juneteenth.

2022-06-18 ... ALONE ... Lending Library
It was nice to see Benji wearing our Anorak on Thursday night's episode of History Channel's ALONE Survival Competition. Benji killed a good-sized beaver that provided some much-needed fat. Benji and JP, the contestants who have WeatherWool in their kit, are among the 8 (of the original 10) who remain alone as winter approaches Labrador.

Given the time of year, the Lending Library is pretty quiet now. Not many people want to test our garments in the warm weather. We started the Lending Library in summer of 2021, and it's great to report that EVERYONE has either returned or purchased the borrowed garments.

2022-06-17 ... Another "Collab"
Following on, coincidentally, from yesterday, today I heard from another person who is working with our Fabric! Steven Hill used our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric to cover a smoker (barbecue kettle) in which he smokes meats! Steve is still experimenting with different types of covers, and he is starting a company to manufacture and sell The Original Smoking Jacket. We love when people use our Fabric, and this use was completely unimagined by me. Steve is going to send a Smoking Jacket, and I will to smoke some meats and fish, something I really enjoy but haven't done in years!

The Original Smoking Jacket, made with WeatherWool FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric! Very Cool (HOT!) ... Thanks, Steve!!

Steve said the temperature, for purposes of smoking the food, should be between 200F/100C and 250F/121C. s far as I know, this range of temperature will not be any problem to the Fabric. And so far, it has not been. But this is very much an "off-label" use!

2022-06-16 ... Two Collaborations
Two nice things came up today. Our friends at Heat Straps USA called to plan a collaboration. Heat Straps was founded a few years ago by two young Jersey City, NJ firefighters, and they are making some sweet garments. In the coming weeks, we'll have more info regarding Heat Straps' ideas for our Fabric.

This afternoon I got a message from Advisor David Alexander that a couple who lives nearby are donating a 16-foot (almost 5 meters) canoe to the Essex County Environmental Center, where David is Senior Naturalist. Alex and I picked it up for David, and we'll get it over to the Center soon. The Center is just downstream from The Swamp, and we will be collaborating with David on some fish and wildlife surverys, wood duck houses and other projects along the Passaic and Rockaway Rivers in the Hatfield Swamp, less than 20 miles (30 km) from New York City.

THANKS to Scott and Roz Miller for donating this canoe to the Essex County Environmental Center!!

2022-06-15 ... Liners and Blended Fabrics
For sure, I'm a wool-believer. I talk to people frequently about wool and clothing. A key point about wool is that it is made by Nature to clothe an animal that is very similar to us. Wool enables sheep to maintain a constant body temperature across an amazing variety of conditions with minimal expenditure of energy. And that's what we want from our clothing. Nature has the most sophisticated tools, resulting in the most sophisticated designs. And Nature is a relentless and remorseless tester.

I was watching a video review of a wool jacket, and the reviewer was saying how he appreciated that the entire jacket was lined with a synthetic so that it slides on and off easily. And I agree easy-on and off is great. And that wool does not slide well over some base and mid-layers. In particular, wool doesn't slide over wool. But if your garment has an inner liner, you aren't wearing wool. You're wearing a liner, and the liner is wearing the wool. And this can drastically reduce the performance of the (so-called) wool garment. A few years ago, a company that caters to urban customers bought Fabric from us and made a Peacoat. We loved this, and we still have a great relationship with American Trench. I told them not to line the Peacoat, and they understood my thinking, but said their customers expect a liner. And I have no doubt they were correct. But what was really interesting was that we heard from a couple of customers who had some WeatherWool and the lined Peacoat; both garments made from our FullWeight Fabric. And they believed the liner of the Peacoat resulted in a garment that was actually less warm and less wind-resistant.

Another thing that comes up regularly is blending. Many garments presented as woolen are actually blends of wool and synthetic or cotton. The garment makers say this enables the best of both worlds, but as far as I'm concerned, this is nothing but a way to reduce production cost ... at the cost of producing an inferior garment.

When we began working on WeatherWool, we were surprised to learn that weaving with cotton warp (the yarn running lengthwise through a bolt of fabric) is normal for people making woolen jackets! And so the typical woolen jacket has significant cotton in the fabric and a liner fabric on the inside. It's not really a woolen jacket at all.

Similarly, there are a lot of woolen jackets "featuring" thick flannel on the inside. Much more than just a liner, the flannel is a large structural component of the garment. The classic old red-and-black "Pennsylvania Tuxedo" from Woolrich was a great example of this type of garment. A long time ago, flannel was wool. But now, flannel can be anything, so long as it is soft. My old Pennsylvania Tuxedo jacket, made in the 1940s or 1950s, had lots of cotton flannel on the inside. I never asked it to withstand much rain. Nor did I work hard in it. I just used it for walking around, and it was great for that ... until somebody smashed the window of my car and stole it one night in NYC. Probably a junkie who really needed it.

A woolen performance jacket needs to be nothing but wool.

2022-06-13 ... Road Trip July-August
Debby and I will be driving from our home, a few miles West of NYC, to Casper, Wyoming to see our son and his Mrs. The direct route is pretty much a straight shot on (mostly) I-80, although we'll detour to visit Denali near Milwaukee. From our home to Casper is around 1900 miles (3000 km), but we are hoping to meander North and South to also see friends and customers as we head both East and West.  Plus I'm hoping to see people in Montana, Idaho and other parts of Wyoming, too. If you are anywhere near the cross-country route, maybe we can have a burger? Let me know!

As an older (I have to face it) American, I've seen the country get a lot smaller. Not just because flying is so commonplace, but also because the roads and the autos are so much better than they used to be.

In 1964, my Dad drove us from North Jersey to Key West. The 900 miles (1440 km) from our home to the Georgia-Florida border took about 3 days because I-95 was mostly not yet built and that meant traveling the old US Route 1, with traffic lights and intersections and stretches that went right through towns. Or, at least, that's how I remember it. In the 1990s, it was my turn to drive the gang to Florida ... every year to see the Grands. The roads were so much better. One year, I picked up the kids after school in a serious snowstorm, crossed into Florida around 6 the next morning, and a few hours later we were in semi-tropical South Florida. From real winter to coconut palms in 18 or 20 hours. And things have gotten much better since then!

2022-06-12 … Terminology Can Cause Problems
I spent a lot of years as a technical writer, and precise definitions were always important and often lacking. And not just in the telecom industry. In the wool industry, yarn is spooled onto CONES. I don’t know if, historically, cones were actually conical. But now, a cone can be a cylinder or a cone or maybe some other shape. Our warp fiber is prepared by Kentwool, who sends it to American Woolen Company, where it is dyed. AWC then sends the yarn to Material Technology and Logistics, where it is woven into Fabric. Kentwool uses cylindrical cones, which are fine for dyeing. But MTL’s equipment works far better with conical cones, because the MTL’s creels feed the looms much more smoothly when loaded with conical cones. So … MTL must re-cone our yarn before they can work with it efficiently. MTL is set up to re-cone … the problem is not at all unique to WeatherWool. But if cones were all conical, re-coning might not be necessary. On the other hand, maybe AWC would have problems dyeing on conical cones …

The other bit of terminology is WarriorWool™. We’ve been using the term WarriorWool for 10 years or so, and the WarriorWool plan goes back to the start of WeatherWool. But a few months ago I applied to register WarriorWool as a WeatherWool trademark. And that means we need to be very careful to always use the term properly, and exactly as we wish it to be registered. Some time ago,  the WarriorWool page on this website was created with a SPACE – “Warrior Wool”. And I let that go for a long time, but now it needs fixing. But removing that space means updating every link on this website. Not a big deal, but not a swinging Saturday night, either. BrokenLinkCheck.com offers a nice, free utility to find broken links (THANK YOU!) and it was good that I ran it because for some reason a bunch of links for our CPO Shirt were also broken. I don’t understand that at all. Shopify, the company that maintains the platform upon which our website is built, probably has a utility that would have fixed all the WarriorWool links at once. I’m going to have to ask them!

One other thing I should have written 12 hours ago when I originally did this post ... WarriorWool is not a money-maker for us. The only reason we have applied to register WarriorWool™ as our trademark is to prevent anyone else from commercializing what we've been working on for years.

2022-06-11 ... The Feds
Quite a few people have asked me about WeatherWool and government contracts, so probably that means it's a good blog topic. I wouldn't be writing about it except that it comes up frequently.

Because of our WarriorWool Program, many people working for the US federal government are wearing WeatherWool. And sometimes this leads people to try get Uncle Sam to buy some wool from us for their unit. The same scenario has played out about 8 times so far.

I'll get a call or email from a unit in the Military or some other group (see the list on the WarriorWool page). Usually they say they're interested in 10 or 20 or maybe 30 Anoraks. And after a couple of weeks or a month, they'll tell me they can't afford it.

Recently, a I heard from a guy who wore our wool in Afghanistan, and wanted to get some for himself and another guy who are presently working for a large branch of the US government that spends a ton of money. (I guess that could be any branch of the federal government.) He asked me about pricing for two Anoraks, and I explained the WarriorWool Program (people spending personal funds for Anoraks to be worn on Active Duty get my break-even price of $395) and that Uncle Sam gets the regular retail price of $625. He asked about a discount for Uncle Sam, but that's not happening for only two Anoraks. A couple of weeks later he wrote me about a discount. And I said if Uncle Sam was paying, the price is the regular $625, and that was that.

Eventually, I suppose Uncle Sam will buy some wool. But so far, WeatherWool has sold a grand total of one All-Around Jacket to the feds. That jacket was purchased by the Air Force for a guy who was doing something I had no idea the Air Force did, and about which I may not have permission to post.

I am concerned about the morale of the guys who get turned down for garments they want. Given the expense of training and deploying the people who are permitted to wear garments of their own choosing, it seems odd these guys are repeatedly told the clothing they'd like to wear is out of the question. It has to be frustrating, but when we talk about it, they only say it's just another challenge to overcome. Part of their training is to adopt the attitude that they can overcome anything. But it seems to me (and them) they shouldn't need to overcome basic supply issues.

2022-06-10 ... Worthless Wool
This post is related to the post from two days ago, Snapshot of American Wool Production. On 31 May, Alex noticed an article in The Guardian about UK shepherds, who are raising sheep for meat, having no market for their wool. The wool produced by these sheep has so little value that it does not cover the cost of shearing.

I asked Ranchers and Advisors Bob Padula and Mike Corn for their thoughts. Their responses give a sense of the complexity of the situation. Mike's input first:

Good morning Ralph --- One thing to keep in mind when talking about different breeds of sheep and the environment that they may have to live in? Fine wool breeds do not perform very well in high moisture areas as the wool will actually mildew on the backs of a sheep and for some reason the feet of of fine wool sheep will actually have higher cases of foot rot.  New Zealand is a good example as a large percentage of the production in New Zealand is 30 to 34 micron Long stapled wool and being produced in the higher moisture areas of New Zealand.. Where as in the drier climate areas of New Zealand they actually have some very fine very high quality fine wool but it's only in small areas of New Zealand with much less precipitation.

Hope this helps with a couple of your questions ? --- Mike

Mike's input makes clear why we have always gotten a large portion of our fiber from New Mexico, one of America's most arid States.

An interesting point Padula brings out is that because wool is durable, in a way, it destroys its own market. Here is what Bob wrote:

For some breeds of sheep - the wool has limited demand - that is the case with most of the wool and breeds of sheep raised in the UK these days.  (and they are not alone, there are many breeds world-wide, including the US).   It’s economic driven and complex/complicated because there has always been “government interference” - wool is not freely traded in the “free market economy” and I don’t think it has been for centuries.  The Spanish banned the export of Merino sheep for years to maintain their superiority and control of the supply of fine wool.           

From a carcass, (depending on the size of the animal), there is 30-40-50 lbs of meat and a ewe can raise at least one, often times 2 or more lambs a year, but only shears 3-4-5 lbs of clean wool per year - so the emphasis is placed on the meat side, because you get more total $ revenue (income) from the meat side, than you do from the wool side.  

Shearing is part of the problem, because it is a cost to harvest a product that has limited demand.  Wages, prices for supplies, travel and it’s hard work....  then if you bring in “foreign labor” to shear - you are taking jobs away....

The UK sheep and wool industry dilemma is an interesting one - and something that goes back a long, long time.  They have suffered with this problem of limited demand for their wool for years and have “ignored it.”  Remember how the English/British (any country you want to consider) colonized the world and created an industrial complex to prosper - (including a textile industry) - They needed raw materials - and often times they “forced” the raw commodity back to the homeland to the keep themselves going.  The Boston Tea Party - what better way to get back at them than to dump their “precious tea” into the harbor because “Tea Time” was a way to get back at the social elites.  Tea was more of a symbolic dump, because the wool trade was very important at that time, and wool was too valuable to dump in the water.   Remember, it was required to send wool back from the colonies, along with taxes and all the rest of it .... this is why we broke away.    

Historically, the British (or anyone for that matter) - developed breeds or “strains” of sheep that survive in their local environments to provide raw materials for their requirements and then have excess for trade.  People have to eat every day - and food is a single use item - whereas clothes can be worn multiple times and wool is durable.   With the seasons, clothing was not always “required” - but people need to eat.  So meat production has always tended to be a priority.  So people made garments out of the sheep wool that survived and thrived in their local environments.   Breeds of sheep were “named” after the regions they were raised/developed (Suffolk, Hampshire, Shropshire, Rambouillet, Lincoln, in the US - Columbia, Targhee ......) and wool was used more “locally” in the past.   If you wanted something that was not available locally - trade was allowing it to be bought or imported from a region where it was in excess.   Think of the penal colony known as “Australia”..... they had a few prisoners on the island and what sheep they didn’t need to eat to survive, the sheep would grow wool to send back to England for the Crown...  Because they had enough “mutton” for the prisoners/convicts to eat - and they could send back wool types not grown back home ..... they were able to focus on sheep genetics more geared towards wool.              

Add in “Government Meddling” ..... to keep the industrial complex going to provide jobs for the masses and $$$ for the “elites” - all sorts of barriers to the free market economy including tariffs, taxes, subsidies, quotas, bans, blockades - all have been used by countries around the world to protect themselves ....   

The UK sheep producers are not immune to this - in fact, they created this mess themselves by focusing on raising sheep for meat production and not wool for consumer demand.  For the wool they needed, they simply imported the wool from a colony or foreign country.   As clothing designs, styles, consumer demand trends have changed over the years, the sheep producers have “clung to their favorite Breeds” and lobbied governments for protectionist policies to keep them and their neighbors employed.  They have been doing since the 1600s .... 

Bottom line, the UK sheep producers have been reliant on their government to keep them financially going for centuries.  They have developed and clung to the breeds of sheep they are accustomed to raising for meat production in their environment, rather than looking at the wool grown on the animal and asking themselves - is this something someone wants?  You can’t make a silk purse out of a sows’ ear..... but that is exactly what they are complaining about.  No one wants “itchy, scratchy wool” any more - and it is far easier to lobby, complain, “play the victim card” that you are not getting paid for the wool, than it is to admit you are growing a wool product that no one wants.      

The US is not immune to this....  we have many different breeds and crosses in the US that have wool that is difficult to find a “use” for and is of limited value commercially.  And because wool is a commodity that is stable, it can be stored and shipped around the world - there is likely someone else in a “third world country” will fill the demand at a lower price - and some broker will make a $ doing it.

Some breeds of sheep are what I call “ornamental” - and raised because people like the looks of them.  And we also have “dog and pony shows” in the US for sheep.....  People get very, very “emotionally attached” to their breed of sheep - and if you make a comment someone thinks is disparaging or critical of their sheep breed, all hell breaks loose. 

The consumer trends for wool are out there, but it takes time and effort to adjust your flock to growing that wool.   Sometimes it means - selling the sheep you have and buying different ones.  And then it is a balance with the meat side - which brings in more total $ revenue.   But it is possible.

Bob               

MANY THANKS TO BOB AND MIKE for a glimpse into the complexity of sheep ranching!

2022-06-08 Again ... Shepherd Humor
Sorry, I couldn't help myself ...

2022-06-08 ... Snapshot of American Wool Production
This is the cover of the latest issue of Sheep Industry News, the monthly magazine published by the American Sheep Industry Association, aka SheepUSA.

Within this issue is the chart below, showing US Wool production has fallen 75% since 1991. And imported wool doesn't have much to do with it. My perspective is that there's nowhere to go but up!!

Clean fiber production has fallen from about 48 million pounds (22 million kg) in 1991 to about 12 million (5.5 million kg) in 2021. Last year, about 3.2 million sheep were shorn in the USA. In 1820 or so, when the US population was under 10 million people, there were about 2 million Merino sheep in New England alone. Now, our population is 332 million (33 times more).

Of course, I don't hear from a representative cross-section of the USA -- or of the world, for that matter. (About 10% of our customers are Canadian and maybe 5% are not from North America.) But I hear over and over and over that people are surprised and delighted to discover wool outperforms the alternative garment materials. And that's without consideration of the many environmental and social factors that are trending so strongly in favor of wool.

We need to get the word out!

2022-06-07 … Guerilla Grazing
Customer Shane B sent a link to a very interesting YouTube video. It’s about 26 minutes. The focus of the video is Aaron Fletcher and his itinerant lifestyle made possible by his sheep and his micro-home-on-wheels. His four sheep provide transportation and food. He calls himself a guerilla grazer -- grazing his sheep wherever he can get permission – which seems to be wherever he asks. Fletcher relies on his sheep for clothing, milk, cheese and butter -- about half of his food. He has also made shelter from his sheep's wool. Fletcher even built an evaporative cooler that supplies enough refrigeration for his needs. And the cooler relies only on the interaction of wool and water. No electricity. Fletcher is a remarkably resourceful, articulate and friendly guy. Although many people would say Fletcher has almost nothing, it seems to suit him awfully well. He even has ideas about the applicability of his lifestyle to aid others who are, in the traditional sense of the word, homeless. Aaron says he is about SURTHRIVAL, not just survival. Advisor Daniel Vitalis would appreciate that. Daniel owns a company, Surthrival, that offers nutritional products. Thanks to Shane for thinking of us and sending this vid!!

2022-06-06 ... 78th Anniversary of D-Day
This post is not wool-related ... As a child of the WWII Generation, June 6th has always been a date to remember. Usually I watch The Longest Day. Seeing that movie in the theaters was a big deal when I was 8 years old in 1962. Seemed like everyone was talking about it. Actors really wanted to be in it. I don't know Hollywood much, but I know these names: Mel Ferrer, Edmond O'Brien, Henry Fonda, Robert Mitchum, Robert Ryan, Eddie Albert, John Wayne, Rod Steiger, Steve Forrest, Don Adams (I need to look again for "Maxwell Smart"), Stuart Whitman, Tom Tryon, Red Buttons, Sal Mineo, Roddy McDowall, George Segal, Robert Wagner, Paul Anka, Fabian, Peter Lawford, Richard Burton, Sean Connery, Gert Fröbe (Goldfinger).

2022-06-05 ... DOs and DON'Ts
A few months ago, I wrote up a page on WeatherWool's DOs and DON'Ts. And I could have sworn I'd already blogged about it, but evidently not. So today's entry links to our page of DOs and DON'Ts. A big reason why I wrote that page -- and the reason we often operate contrary to standard business practice -- is because of what I learned at my first white-collar job, way back in 1977.

2022-06-04 ... Good Delivery
It was a good trip yesterday, transporting yarn for Batch 7 from AWC to MTL, but unfortunately I couldn't quite fit all of the weft yarn for our FullWeight Duff run. But the rig easily handled the rest of the Lynx weft, all the Duff warp and a large potion of the Duff weft. I was tempted to load the open bed of the pickup, but Mee Lo reinforced my worries about rain. And sure enough, I did hit some pretty good rain on the way from AWC to MTL.

I'm standing around uselessly while Mee Lo, Keith and Stuart load my trailer. Keith was prominently featured on Mike Rowe's How America Works a couple of weeks ago, when the show detailed the operations of American Woolen. Now that Keith's a movie star, I will probably have to pay royalties or something for this video.

Shortly after I left American Woolen, Jacob Long, the owner, phoned. He'd wanted to see me. But I had about 350 miles to drive -- after only 2 or 3 hours sleep -- so I was on the road quick. Sorry, Jacob.

At MTL, I usually help unload, but a customer called just as we were getting started. We talked less than 3 minutes (my phone said 2:43!), but long enough for Charles and Mike Hillebrand (owner of MTL) and the crew to have the trailer unloaded and buttoned up for my trip home.

So ... yesterday the former longshoreman (in the 1970s) let other people do all the work. It was nice, but I'm not ready for that, either!

It's great that both Jacob and Mike routinely help me load, unload, catch me up on the latest news from their plants. At MTL, Brian and Rachele also came out to say Hello. Brian and Rachele both handle technical aspects of the weaving, and have been helping us for years. Brian said he reads this blog. All input welcome, Brian!

THANKS EVERYONE for your help. We'll do it again in about 3 weeks, I hope!

2022-06-03 ... On the Road (Posting a little early)
A few hours from now I will be on the road again, pretty much the same trip as one week ago. I will be picking up the last of the weft yarn for our FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric at American Woolen, where it was spun, and delivering it to MTL, where it will be woven into greige Fabric, which will go back to AWC for finishing. I'm also picking up warp yarn for our FullWeight Duff Fabric. If I have the capacity, I will also pick up the weft for the Duff. And then home. It’s about a 500-mile (800 km) trip. Doing it myself saves time and probably a few bucks. Last week it cost about $250 in gas and tolls (and 12 hours in my pickup) but I think the savings in time and freight cost was worth it.

2022-06-02 ... Weaving
MTL is preparing to weave Fabric for us now. I definitely do not understand much about the weaving process, except to say it's amazing that it works. This website has one page about weaving and another page about MTL, the company that has always done our weaving.

WeatherWool Lynx Pattern being woven on a Jacquard Loom at Material Technology and Logistics in Jessup, Pennsylvania

2022-06-01 ... Welcome to June! ... Plastic Perspective
For a long time, I've been amused by the incongruity of people wrapping themselves in plastic to enjoy Nature. There are a great many highly successful companies offering plastic garments, although their preferred term is technical, and they never say plastic. Sometimes they use brand-names for their plastics, although polypropylene and fleece (!!!) are also popular terms. I'm not going to claim garments worn by so many people aren't effective in some ways (although I also think the plastics-crowd don't know what they're missing), but I will say Icebreaker, in this image, has really captured what I see!

MANY THANKS TO ICEBREAKER FOR THIS IMAGE!

BTW, we have long recommended Icebreaker as a base layer under WeatherWool for warmer situations. Years ago, before WeatherWool took over our lives, we were Icebreaker dealers.

2022-05-31 ... Wild Foods Gone Mainstream!
My love for Wild Foods is what eventually led to WeatherWool. I still remember very clearly, back in about 1961, some of the fantastic, freely available wild foods in Lodi, NJ, the NYC suburban area where I grew up. Raspberries, blackberries, cherries, chokecherries, mulberries, apples, grapes ... all these greats fruits were available to anyone. And to my constant amazement, it seemed like I was the only one interested! I didn't know much at all about foraging or wild foods (and still know only a little bit). Berries, grapes, apples ... not heavy-duty stuff, but abundant and tremendous. With the help of my parents, our wild foods also included seafood and game.

During college days, I had an apartment with two other guys and a fairly constant flow of visitors. It seemed everyone was broke and hungry and virtually any kind of food would disappear fast. Whatever it was, you'd better chow down now or it would be gone. And so it was a huge kick for me to discover that NOBODY was interested in my dandelion greens!

Getting out into Nature, hoping to bring home some dinner, is the biggest factor behind my interest in All-Purpose Outerwear.

In 2016, my friend Dan and I got a huge surprise-indication of how interest in wild foods had grown (pun not intended). I had met Dan in summer of 2010. I was hiking in a local woodland and I saw three people scratching around in the weeds. Dan was teaching his friends about wild edible mushrooms, and they kindly didn't mind my intrusion. Dan invited me to join them again the next week, when he expected much better foraging. I told him I'd be in Maine the following week, and Dan said he loved Maine and wondered about my plans. When Dan heard I was going moose hunting, he was all over it. He'd long wanted to hunt, but hadn't quite gotten started because he didn't know any hunters. So, I helped Dan get started hunting at The Swamp, and he taught me a lot about wild mushrooms and wild plants that are great eating.

I don't remember how it happened, but one fine day in the Spring of 2016, Dan and I were foraging with a reporter from New Jersey's largest newspaper. Dan was the real host and I was just tagging along. But we had some fun and gathered some great stuff, mostly ramps. We were shocked when, a couple of days later, our little outing was given half the front page of New Jersey's largest newspaper! Dan is actually now a professional forager, with restaurants relying on him for wild produce and many retail customers at the local "farmer markets".

And foraging has really gone big-time! There are several TV Shows dedicated to Wild Foods ...

• WeatherWool Advisor Daniel Vitalis hosts WildFed on the Outdoor Channel
• Meat Eater with Steve Rinella is a primary one. But all the "hook and bullet" shows (and magazines) devote some space to food preparation
• Andrew Zimmern has a relatively new show focused on wild foods worldwide
• Gordon Ramsay has a TV show focused on wild foods and culture
• There are a TON of people on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook and books coming out constantly

But the reason for this entry today is my surprise at seeing both Woolrich and Canada Goose pitching clothing specifically to foragers!  Canada Goose pictures a woman foraging on Staten Island (that's part of New York City)!

2022-05-30 ... Nice WWII Story ... MADE IN USA, Wool, too!
A couple of things that seem appropriate for Memorial Day.

More and more, Americans are looking for products that are MADE IN USA. We are hearing this from not only our customers but also our Partners who help us make WeatherWool. When we started working on WeatherWool, suppliers seemed surprised that we insisted on 100% American materials. And customers sometimes seemed to doubt that all our materials and labor are USA. The doubts and surprise are gone. Interestingly, it is not only Americans who are happy to buy a 100% American product. Some of our friends in Asia are very keen on American-made.

We also have heard there are some big-money people looking to integrate sheep and wool into large, diversified agribusinesses. Sounds great to me. Here's hoping! The US sheep industry can really use some investment.

And the nice World War II story ....... During the early days of WWII, the US Navy stationed my Dad in New York City, and he would hitchhike to get around.  It worked really well for him because anyone in uniform would get a ride immediately.  Pop thumbed a ride one day and didn't really notice the driver of the car that picked him up. But eventually he was startled to see on the steering wheel the most absolutely fearsome pair of hands ever.  So he looked over at the driver and it was Jack Dempsey.

2022-05-29 ... Ancient, Fermented, Dyed, Knotted-Pile Wool Rug
This post doesn't directly relate to WeatherWool, except that some day we hope to use natural dye (or no dye) instead of the reactive chemical dye that is the best option for us now. I doubt we'd ever be involved with fermented wool dyeing, but ... maybe? And maybe someday we'll have a use for knotted pile, too!

Two of the main problems in dyeing wool are getting the wool to accept the color and getting the wool to hold the color over time. And it turns out that fermenting the wool prior to dyeing can be a fantastic solution to both those problems.

Alex found an article on the Pazyryk Carpet, one of the oldest carpets in the world, dating to about 2400 years ago. Just from the standpoint of archaeology, the article is interesting. Also interesting is way the carpet was made. I just learned (I'll forget by tomorrow, probably) that a knotted-pile carpet is a woven carpet with knots tied between the warp and weft. The knots cause parts of the surface of the rug to stand up (pile) above the rest of the weave. At MTL, who does our weaving, we learned there are many ways to weave. But knotted-pile is something I never even suspected. I wonder if MTL has a loom that can do it? The possibilities of weaving just go on and on and on ... which is not surprising after thousands of years of work among many separate cultures.

WeatherWool thanks Wikimedia Commons and the Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, Russia, for this image of the ancient (about 2400 years ago) woolen Pazyryk Carpet, whose brilliant colors are attributed to a dyeing technique that involves fermenting the wool.

The fermenting process changes the wool in a way that enables the dye to penetrate more deeply, and bind more tightly, than it otherwise would. But the downside is the wool may be ruined if the fermenting is not done just right (to the surprise of no one!).

The Pazyryk Carpet features not only the fermented, dyed wool, but also an extreme level of pile, with about 360,000 knots per square meter (430,000 knots per square yard). Given that this carpet is 6 feet by 6'7" (183 x 200 cm), the rug has around 1.9 million knots.

WeatherWool thanks Wikipedia for a very clear explanation of what knotted-pile carpet is, and Wikimedia Commons for a diagram of knotted-pile carpet weaving

How long did it take to make this rug? What did it cost? And how many more similar rugs must have been made, given the slim chance of this one being preserved for 2400 years?

Lined from the article Alex found is an article from Nature, published in March 2021, with a lot more information.

2022-05-28 ... ALONE and a Review
Andy Nicholls, out of UK, runs a website, GearAssistant.com, dedicated to "provide you with everything you need to know in order to make informed decisions about your choice of camping and hiking gear." Andrew just published his list of favorite Anoraks, which included his review or our Anorak. Andy has not yet personally tested our Anorak, but I hope that will change soon! THANKS ANDY!

This morning, I spoke with Benji, one of the contestants of the ALONE Survival Competition that just began airing on History Channel. Benji is a really friendly and energetic guy, and very interesting to talk to. He surprised me by including a 3-pound block of salt in the very limited amount of food (it counted as a food item?) he was permitted to bring. Benji explained the salt would help his body keep electrolytes in balance. Benji is a former world-champion (220 pounds / 100 kg) powerlifter (!!!!), so he is very in tune with his body. He also surprised me when he said he'd worn his Anorak more than the Mouton Jacket in the photo. I didn't even remember he'd gotten an Anorak. Sometimes what I forget is distressing!

2022-05-27 … TV Last Night … On the Road Today
Five hours ago, I turned on the History Channel a few minutes before the season premiere of ALONE. As soon as the TV came on, it was really nice to see on the screen our friend Mountain Man Joshua Native Kirk in our All-Around Jacket.

We’ve been looking forward to ALONE because two of the contestants chose our wool. As it turned out, our garments didn’t appear in the first episode because it was so warm. So THANKS to Josh (and a MOUNTAIN MEN rerun!) for getting our wool on TV last night.

But winter comes early and hard in Labrador and the wool will soon be key.

Today I am on the road, picking up warp yarn at American Woolen and delivering it to MTL. And then home. MTL will need about a week for warping (basically winding the warp yarn on a gigantic spool), and I will make another run sometime next week to deliver the weft. It’s about a 500-mile (800 km) trip. Doing it myself saves time.

2022-05-26 ... ALONE (and other TV Shows)
We are very much looking forward to tonight's first episode of Season 9 of History Channel's ALONE $500k Survival Competition. Click the link for  plenty of info.

Although we have never paid anyone to wear WeatherWool, we have been, and will be, on other television shows:

• National Geographic's LIFE BELOW ZERO, NEXT GENERATION
• History Channel's MOUNTAIN MEN
• Outdoor Channel's WILDFED
• Fox Business, THE LEGEND OF BEAR GULCH GOLD (I think filming is starting about now. I need to make a couple of phone calls for update.)
• Discovery Channel, DUAL SURVIVAL

Getting high-profile people to wear your garments is "a thing" in the garment industry. Two people who are admirers of WeatherWool have told me other companies are paying them well over $100k annually to wear only their camo garments when filming or appearing in public.

And it's a similar story with magazines. A buddy of mine is a magazine executive, and he's been a friend of WeatherWool since before we had any products. He wears our wool, and has given us a boost here and there in his pubs, but he explained that a magazine needs to take care of the companies that keep their lights on. He also told me a large clothing company will typically spend 10% of their annual sales on advertising.

I don't like the idea of paying, not only because it's far beyond WeatherWool's means, but also, I tend to believe people promote the product because of the pay, rather than because of the product. But lately I have realized the flip-side, also. SOMEBODY is going to pay well-known people, and we can hardly expect them to decline big money just for wearing something that they don't even have to explicitly endorse.

A few WeatherWool Advisors represent other companies and are not normally photographed in WeatherWool. One former Advisor had to separate from us because of an endorsement arrangement.

A guy I met as a result of the wool has become a good friend over the years, and he does some big work in Hollywood. My friend had been working on a very popular cable series, and when a woman on the show admired an outdoor clothing brand, I naively asked him about it. He laughingly told me that dialogue was doubtless the result of a bunch of money changing hands.

We feel really good that people who can wear anything they choose have chosen our wool.

2022-05-25 ... CPOs
We've been busy shipping CPO Shirts and trying to catch up with people who placed backorders. A few people have asked for CPOs with longer sleeves. If you would like a CPO with extra length in the sleeve, please let me know right away. I don't know the price yet, so it's not a commitment for anyone.

2022-05-24 ... American Woolen on TV ... CPOs in Stock
We now have MidWeight CPO Shirts in stock in almost all sizes. Better Team has done a great job on these and we will have all the sizes shortly. Website will accept payment for anything we have in stock. Anything not in stock is still priced at 0 to enable no-obligation backorder.

It was a kick last night seeing American Woolen Company on Mike Rowe's current show How America Works. I've been at AWC many times, and have met with all the people that were featured on the show. Kirk, the head of maintenance, is the only one I have not actually worked with. I was not aware how varied are Keith's responsibilities. It was not shown last night, but Keith also runs the loading dock, and helps me load/unload. Jay actually wrote the material that appears on our Finishing page. And I am in touch with Giuseppe a couple of times a week. Giuseppe and Jacob appear on our American Woolen page, and have given me some great material for the website.

What I like best about AWC -- besides they make fantastic Fabric for us -- is how Jacob Long (Owner) and Giuseppe Monteleone (Production Manager) truly value the entire AWC team. I don't think Jacob was even mentioned on the show last night. And whenever I speak with Giuseppe, he is always very emphatic about the contributions of his entire team.

Mainly, tho, without American Woolen, I do not think we would have a company. As stated in the intro to the show last night, there are only four woolen mills in the entire USA. Great show, great work AWC.

A roll of our MidWeight Drab Fabric as labeled by American Woolen

2022-05-23 ... Mountain Man Josh Kirk and Advisor Fisher Neal
Yesterday, Fisher and his Mrs stopped by with their new pup, an Irish Water Spaniel. Fisher loves waterfowling, and he's got some serious plans for the young "Snug"! Fisher also picked up a CPO Shirt. Yesterday was HOT and Fisher was comfortable (in the shade!) in the CPO without a base layer.

Last night I had a great talk with Mountain Man Joshua Kirk. Joshua operates out of Lander, Wyoming, and I'll probably be visiting Josh again this summer, when Debby and I will be in Wyoming. The new season of MOUNTAIN MEN on the History Channel will begin in late summer.

2022-05-22 ... American Woolen on HOW AMERICA WORKS
Mike Rowe has become very well known because of his TV Show Dirty Jobs. Mike has a newer show, How America Works, on Fox Business. Tomorrow (Monday 23 May 2022, 8PM Eastern time), How America Works will feature American Woolen Company, the mill that spins our yarn and finishes our Fabric. After having worked with American Woolen for almost four years, we've gotten to know them very well, they are friends, and we rely on them very heavily. We are really looking forward to seeing this show. VCR is set to tape it! Is it proper to say "Break A Leg" even though the footage was taped a few months ago?

MidWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric in "finishing" at American Woolen

The Wikipedia entry on Rowe that I linked above pretty well buries Rowe's current work with Fox, and does not provide a link to How America Works. Wikipedia is a fantastic source of information on a great many subjects, and we support and admire their goal of putting all human knowledge at everyone's fingertips. But even  Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger knows Wiki is not always even-handed. And my apologies for a para that has nothing to do with wool, but it seems necessary.

2022-05-21 ... Armed Forces Day
I was out front filling the bird feeder when my friend Allison drove by. He pulled over to tell me about another neighbor he wanted to introduce to me because she is interested in our wool. And that is the only wool-connection to this Armed-Forces-Day-entry.

Perhaps because today is Armed Forces Day (SOMEONE at DoD needs to keep this page current???!!!), Allison was wearing a Tuskegee Airmen hat. I asked him if he knew our neighbor Fred is the son of a Tuskegee Airman, and the nephew of another. Allison knew Fred, but didn't know about Fred's Dad. Allison's own connection with the Airmen comes through his Mrs, who is the daughter of Army Colonel Thoedore Lumpkin, an intelligence officer who worked with the Tuskegee Airmen. One of Colonel Lumpkin's friends and contacts in the Airmen was General Charles McGee, the only pilot to fly in World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam. Allison's father-in-law passed away only lately. It's pretty great that children of these tremendous Veterans have lived and raised their families on our block!

Debby and I also have our own distant connection to the World War II flyers. We have some involvement with Seamans Airport (9N3), a small general aviation airport in Pennsylvania; Seamans Airport, on Seamans Road in Benton Township (Northeastern) Pennsylvania. We were told the Seamans Family was granted their land by William Penn himself. Sounds great, but I haven't tried to verify that. In any case, nearly 100 years ago, two of the Seamans boys got their hands on an airplane and began barnstorming in the area. Both of the boys eventually became very serious professional flyers. Bobby Seamans had a long career with Pan Am. Bobby died a few years before I ever visited Seamans field. But his brother, whom everyone called Uncle Bill, was still doing really well in the early 2000s. Uncle Bill was telling us stories about his days with the Flying Tigers, and as a Military flight instructor. Because of our neighbor, Debby asked if he'd trained any of the Tuskegee Airmen. Bill was a big guy, and he had a lot of steam well into his 90s. But he was very hard of hearing, so he didn't talk so much as shout. And he was always emphatic, so his response to Debby was HELL, I TRAINED ALL OF 'EM!!

And it turned out that Uncle Bill not only remembered my neighbor's Dad and Uncle, but Uncle Bill and Uncle Roscoe were friends and had stayed in touch, regularly corresponding via snail-mail. A great little circle that both my neighbors enjoyed hearing about.

Uncle Bill and Col Lumpkin both lived almost 100 years. General McGee died in January of this year at age 102.

2022-05-20 ... Shipping CPOs
We are now shipping MidWeight Lynx Pattern CPO Shirts in sizes Medium, Large, XLarge and 2XLarge, and website will accept payment for these items. The other MidWeight Lynx sizes should be completed next week, as well as the MidWeight Drab. When the rest of the CPOs come in, I will update the website to accept payment. Of course you can also order over the phone.

Some people have backorders as old as 2019, and we have raised prices since then. We will of course honor price at time of original order.

We have no plans to make FullWeight CPOs this year. We are really thinking of the CPO as a MidWeight garment and the ShirtJac as a FullWeight garment. We hope to make ShirtJacs a few months down the road ... but as usual, I can't promise anything not already in my possession.

THANKS to everyone for your patience! We are really happy with this Batch 6 Fabric made for us by American Woolen and MTL and the tailoring from Better Team USA!!

2022-05-19 ... QR Code
QR (Quick Response) Codes have been around a long time, although I haven't paid much attention. But the cellphone-for-everything crowd, which grows every day, is very fond of them. And Alex decided to generate some QR Codes for us. From a few minutes reading on Wikipedia, a QR Code can contain a lot of information. Very sweet that QR Codes can be freely generated by anyone (THANKS to Denso Wave, the company that invented them!) and readable worldwide.

Alex decided we needed to experiment with QR Codes, and he made one that points to the page on this website that covers our Anorak:

I pointed my phone's camera at this image (here on the Blog), and my phone read it, displayed the Anorak link and brought up the Anorak page when I gave the OK. If anyone tests this and it doesn't work, please LMK!

Great work, Alex! ... Now we have to figure out how we might use the QR Codes. WeatherWool is not in retail stores, so we don't have hang tags. But I have been thinking about doing "trunk shows" (meaning you park your vehicle and pull things out of the trunk) on the sidewalks of NYC, and mannequins wearing garments with hang tags and QR Codes would be useful in that situation.

2022-05-18 ... Replacing Shock Cord with Wool!
We have Hooded Jackets in MidWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric coming in a couple of months. Until now, the cords that we have used to adjust the front of our Hoods have been make of synthetic shock cord. The shock cord worked well, but when the Hoods are snugged to the face, the shock cord, being somewhat stiff, sticks out and can be inconvenient. The wool cord is limp and will lie flat. Also, some people like to adjust the Hood by tying the left and right cords together under their chin. The wool cords will tie off much better than the shock cords. We will use the same cord locks as before.

This wool cord is made from the same fiber, same yarn, we used for garments. We had some brown (is Debby going to correct me on the color?) yarn left over, and we brought it to Fleck Knitwear. Peter did some work tuning his "string machine" so that it could handle our yarn, and by the end of the next day, we had enough wool cord for the run of Hooded Jackets. Great work, Peter!!

2022-05-17 ... Batch 7 Update
Just got a production schedule update for Batch 7. It looks like the first Fabric will be FullWeight Lynx Pattern, completed about 5 August. I also updated the overall story and background about Batch 7 production (and Batch 8). We still have not quite nailed down the purchase of the greasy wool for Batch 9.

As for Batch Numbers themselves ... WeatherWool believes it is important to share  information with our customers, and identifying the specific Batch of our 100% Wool Merino Jacquard Fabric from which each garment was made is an interesting way to track any differences in wool, processing and tailoring. We strive to maintain our original standards, so these differences should be minimal, but we also always strive to improve. The Batch Number of each WeatherWool Merino Jacquard Fabric Batch has been sewn into every WeatherWool Garment beginning with Batch 5 in 2021. The Batch Number Tag is usually located under the Size Tag or the MADE IN USA Tag.

2022-05-16 ... Nice YouTube Review
Kirk, "Back In The Woods", just published a nice YouTube review of WeatherWool. About a year ago, Kirk bought an All-Around Jacket and Anorak for himself, and an Anorak for his Mrs. Until quite lately, I did not know (or maybe I forgot!) Kirk has a popular YouTube channel. Kirk is a longtime wool-lover, and that informs his review, because he is able to speak from long experience with other brands besides ours. And he does make some direct comparisons. The WeatherWool review is his Video #182. THANKS, KIRK, for the review, and for giving us a try in the first place!!

2022-05-15 ... THE BEST
Yesterday, Denali asked on Facebook and Instagram for people to name their favorite purchases. We didn't get many responses, partly because these companies (both owned by Meta) are not showing us to nearly as many people as they used to. That's probably because we don't advertise, and so I can't blame them. But I just reworded these posts to make it clear that we are wondering about people's favorite companies and products across the entire marketplace ... not restricted to WeatherWool or clothing. We'd like to know what companies and products are most-admired. Cars, trucks, boats, optics, breakfast cereal ... We want to be THE BEST at what we do and knowing what companies and products our customers see as THE BEST will help us. THANKS. A while back I created a page, With The Best, showing our garments with a handful of products that are often cited as The Best. I'd love to grow that page, and I'd love to look at the products that most inspire people.

2022-05-14 ... "It's awful"
We do everything we can think of to make garments people want to wear. And we regularly (gratefully!!) receive wonderful feedback from people who have our garments. But sometimes someone really surprised me, such as this note sent yesterday by Minnesotan Arrio Farugie: "I haven't been able to wear any WeatherWool for almost a week. It's awful. Should be back at it with lower night temps next week tho!" THANK YOU, ARRIO! ... Until I started working with woolens, I had no idea how many people love the cold and really look forward to winter.

2022-05-13 ... CPO Shirts and Hooded Jackets ... Sigma III and GI Bill
Better Team USA is hoping to finish work on the CPO Shirts next week, and we will ship as soon as we check them! The CPOs are being made in MidWeight Solid Drab Color and MidWeight Lynx Pattern. Factory8 has just shipped to us what is -- hopefully -- the last prototype of the Hooded Jacket. We will probably receive it on Monday.

Congratulations to longtime WeatherWool Friend and Advisor Rob Allen and Sigma III Survival School on the acceptance of their offerings into the GI Bill Training/Education!! Rob was working on this for four years!

2022-05-12 ... The Swamp
Something came up which caused me to re-read, and update, the page on The Swamp, our little bit of swampy heaven here in North Jersey. It's a great place and crazy that it is so close to NYC!

2022-05-11 ... Phenix Threads and WeatherWool Fabric
We really like that other people enjoy working with our Fabric, and the Collaboration page shows some of what others have done. People interested in having custom garments made from our Fabric should get in touch with Ruby at Phenix Threads.

2022-05-10 ... Inflation and Price Hikes -- Last Year
I guess to every cloud there is a silver lining. We have had so many delays in the last four years and so many cost increases in 2021 that we won't need to raise prices this year. And WOW! ... inflation is in the news now, but we saw a lot of this last year ... price-hikes of 10 or 15%. And shortages. And unusually long delivery times. But ordering last year set us up pretty well for this year.

ALSO ... many people have placed backorders with us in 2021, 2020 ... and even pre-Covid in 2019 and 2018. For all backorders, the original price at the time of the order remains in effect.

Stopping off at Costco this morning, the gas line was so long we had trouble getting into the parking lot. (And we didn't even want gas.)

2022-05-09 ... Delay
The flooding of Littlewood Dye House caused by Hurricane Ida is really hitting our calendar now. The floods delayed the dyeing of our fiber by about 6 months, and now it is looking like September before the Batch 7 Fabric is ready for the tailors. I was really hoping to get at least some of Batch 7 in June. And of course, once we do finally get the Fabric, the tailors need significant time.

2022-05-08 ... Mother's Day ... VE Day
Wishing all the Moms a super day!! Here at WeatherWool, we couldn't function without the help and support of Debby and Cecy!

We have always been a little bit distressed that WeatherWool is yet to offer anything designed specifically for women. We have made some prototypes, but never anything in production. This year, we fully intend to make our Women's Blanket Coat.

Today is also the Anniversary of VE Day. For people born in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, the end of World War II in Europe (Victory in Europe Day) in 1945 is never to be forgotten.

2022-05-07 ... Shoddy
We try to keep up with what other companies are doing. We're a tiny family business and we have a lot to learn. Watching what the big companies do seems like a good way to get some lessons. But actually, I usually wind up thinking WE'RE NOT GOING TO DO THAT! And that's my reaction when I see others offering shoddy.

SHODDY ... Noun ... "an inferior quality yarn or fabric made from the shredded fibre of waste woollen cloth or clippings". I've blogged about shoddy before; the word that is now synonymous with poor quality comes from 200 years ago, when relatively low-priced, inferior "shoddy" garments were well-known in London. The first time I saw shoddy was, amazingly, the line of woolens that were offered for a couple of years by the famous Weatherby, a company known for high-quality rifles. Of course, they didn't use the word shoddy, but the tags stated the garments were made from recycled wool, and they didn't feel like something I would want to wear.

In general, longer wool fiber makes nicer garments. Maybe there is another way now, but historically, recycling woolens involves chopping and shredding and therefore making the fibers shorter. And in some cases, the shoddy garments were actually glued together.

I bring this up now because I was surprised to see Canada Goose, surely a high-end brand, offering garments made mostly from recycled wool. They describe KIND FLEECE as "our next generation of fleece, an ultra-soft and breathable fabric made with 62% recycled wool, 18% wood-based TENCEL™ Lyocell, 13% partially bio-based Sorona® Polymer and 7% Polyamide." They are also featuring recycled polyester in some garments. They explain their motivation is sustainability, lowered carbon-footprint, fighting global warming ("keep the planet cold and the people on it warm"). And the garments are definitely not shoddy in the traditional sense of being inexpensive.

These products have been available for a few months, but very few reviews are published on the website. I'd be really interested to hear what people think.

2022-05-06 ... "Good as NOW?"
Yesterday a customer wrote me that the seam attaching the Hood to his Anorak had separated a little. I apologized for the failure, sent him a return shipping label, and explained that we'd get his Rak back to him quickly, "as good as now", which is a funny sort of typo. I don't really know if that even counts as a typo, given that the E (for NEW) and the O are typed with different hands. But in any case, it was a funny mistake.

The Hood seam failure is the only known problem with the Anorak, and we have really bolstered the construction at that spot, so, mostly a legacy issue. The Anorak in question yesterday had been shipped about three years ago. Nevertheless, we are still mindful of this, and we do suggest everyone doff the Anorak by pulling from the shoulders rather than the Hood. And fully unzip the sides first!

2022-05-04 ... "WeatherWool Wednesday"
@66grinch, a great customer in Chicago, tends to do Instagram posts in our wool on Wednesday, with the tag #WeatherWoolWednesday! THANKS GREG! ... or should I say THANKS GRINCH!! (I should ask Greg where the GRINCH handle comes from.) Greg has friends in the Chicago Fire Department, which is why a Chicago FD Truck is in the background. Here is the photo and text Greg posted today:

2022-05-03 ... "Are You Padula from WeatherWool?" ... AAJ "on skin"
I rarely wear my All-Around Jacket without a base layer, but when I arrived at The Swamp today, the temp was about 70F/21C, and AAJ-on-skin was the way to go. All good, except there was no sign of turkeys, a gobbler being the reason for my visit. The mosquitoes are just starting to feel their oats, and it's nice they can't bite through the wool. Funny thing happened. Something came up, and I needed to get to the tailors quickly, so I was in a hurry when I got back to the truck. I loaded up the pockets of the AAJ with everything I needed for the next turkey hunt, and THOUGHT I pulled out my phone and wallet. But when I got home, no wallet. I looked through the pockets, looked all through the truck, checked my clothes about 8 times, looked around the house ... no dice. So I went through the cargo pockets of the AAJ AGAIN, and there was my wallet, along with so much other stuff I had missed it the first time I checked. This AAJ is the original AAJ, the first garment made from Fabric that passed my field-testing, in 2012. The newer AAJs have bigger cargo pockets, plus a bunch of other pockets.

Advisor Bob Padula, upon whom we have always relied to guide our purchases of "greasy" wool, went to dinner last night with some long-time friends. But among the group was someone Bob had not met, a friend-of-a-friend. When they were introduced, the new guy said something like "Are you Bob Padula from WeatherWool?" ... "WOW, I'm meeting a celebrity!"

2022-05-02 ... No Pants or Woven Hats this Year
I'd been hoping to make more Pants, and more of our woven Hats this year, but there is too much else to do. And although we are making a large quantity (for us, at least) of Fabric, it's been so long since our production was really rolling that we need to focus on Jackets. Woven Hats and Pants will have to wait until 2023. We are working on knitted Watch Caps for October 2022. And we will make Double Hoods this year, because many people who order All-Around Jackets also order the Double Hood.

2022-05-01 ... WELCOME TO MAY! ... Testing Outerwear
Here in North Jersey, May is such a wonderful month!! Hope everyone has a great May!!

Searching online for "Best Winter Jackets" brings up lots of ads. But also, Outdoor Gear Lab. I really admire some elements of their approach. They conduct what seem to be thorough tests of outdoor clothing, and post the top-rated items. They don't accept advertisements or content from manufacturers. Nor do they accept free items for testing. They buy and test standard items. I also like that they are out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, where the weather is really serious and highly variable. My younger son has lived in Wyoming since 2012, and I've been there many times. Wyoming is mostly high plains, and the weather can change from mild to SEVERE very quickly.

Outdoor Gear Lab tested men's winter jackets, and posted their list of Best Winter Jackets for Men of 2022. Everything on their list is synthetic. And this is where many people would advise me not to bring up the comp, let alone point out a website where the comp is touted. But as usual, my perspective is we are happy to compete with anyone. (And actually, I still don't know of another company offering Hardcore Luxury ... so I'm not sure we really have a direct competitor.) In that spirit, about two weeks ago, I filled out the contact form at Outdoor Gear Lab (I did not see any actual email address or phone number), asking them if they ever test any woolens. I also wrote that I'd give them a week or so to respond before making this post. But I did not hear back from them. Their top-rated piece is Arc'teryx Camosum Parka: "This stylish jacket is the closest thing to perfection we have tested." I discuss their evaluation criteria toward the end of our Testing Outerwear page (which I just updated), and will only say here that I would love to test against Arc'teryx, or anyone else for that matter.

A few years ago, an official tester for Big Army did an unofficial test of our Anorak. (He told me an official test would require about 10 pieces and a bunch of money.) His unofficial results were that WeatherWool has too low a warmth:weight ratio. I asked him when is the ratio calculated? Not after a long, double-time march. And not after swimming across a river. But anyway, the bottom line in this case came from the casual side. He did not return the Rak, and told me he wears it every day.

2022-04-29 ... How Many Fibers in Yarn?
A few days ago, Barnes (the guy who made the Swamp Stew in the Blog of 24 April) asked me "How many fibers in a cross-section of your yarn?". And I was surprised that I'd never (as far as I remember) thought to ask this myself. So, I asked Giuseppe, Monteleone, Plant Manager at American Woolen. Giuseppe oversees the spinning of our yarn and the finishing of our Fabric.

Hello Ralph. 

A perfect section of woolen yarn is made with about 100 fibers. A perfect section of worsted yarn is made with about 60 fibers.

Best, Giuseppe 

Update after some followup ... the situation is not as simple as the foregoing exchange presents it. Of course I have a lot more to learn!! Looking forward to posting more complete info.

2022-04-28 ... WeatherWool Trademark in Canada
Polson IP Law, on our behalf, has filed for registration of the WeatherWool trademark in Canada. The World Intellectual Property Organization has accepted our submission and the application will be forwarded to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for processing.

2022-04-27 ... ALONE
Today Benji Hill told me the 9th Season of the $500,000 ALONE Survival Competition will debut May 26th, 9PM Eastern Time, on the History Channel. This Season, two of the contestants chose to wear WeatherWool. The contestants are very tight-lipped about the outcome of the contest. All I know now is that everyone survived.

Juan Pablo Quinones (second from left in front row) wore our Al's Anorak in FullWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric and and Benji Hill (top right) wore our Mouton Jacket, also in Lynx Pattern.

We first heard from an ALONE contestant in 2018 (see following section on Brady Nicholls). And so when Benji phoned in summer of 2021, telling me about the situation he would be in, but unable to give particulars, it sounded familiar. I told Benji it sounded like he was going to be on ALONE, and that I understood he would not be able to comment. We talked a long time and decided a Mouton Jacket would work for Benji, who was most concerned about saving calories when the weather turned brutal. About a week later, Juan Pablo called, giving me the same basic info as Benji, and also wanting to wear Lynx Pattern. I told him it sounded to me like he was going to be on ALONE, and that I understood he couldn't really talk about it, but also telling him that I was pretty sure another contestant was going to be wearing Lynx and suggesting he check with the producers to make sure two people in Lynx would be OK. Juan Pablo called again a couple of days later and ordered the Anorak, along with Reversible Watch Cap and Neck Gaiter.

Benji and Juan Pablo purchased WeatherWool after a lot of research.

I didn't hear from anyone about the show until early February of 2022, when Teimojin Tan phoned. Teimojin, a medical doctor, was a contestant along with Benji and Juan Pablo, and had been impressed with the wool. So I knew the wool had performed well enough that Teimojin wanted to test it himself -- his medical specialty is survival -- and that all 10 contestants had survived the competition.

We will surely be watching History Channel 9PM on May 26th!

2022-04-26 ... Blankets
Suddenly we are doing a little work on Blankets. We had a few yards of MidWeight Undyed Fabric that had been left over from a several years ago, and we are making three Crib Blankets. If we like these enough, that may be sufficient reason to make Undyed Fabric again. We've also shipped a couple of other small Blankets in the last few days, and we're looking forward to any feedback.

2022-04-25 ... Advisor Leo Grizzaffi Among Veterans Honored
Honor Flight Southland is an organization that flies Veterans from Southern California to Washington, DC, where they tour the monuments erected to their service. This screen capture below is from KTLA TV (Los Angeles) coverage of the welcome ceremony given to the World War II and Korean War Vets upon their return to LA. Thanks for Honor Flight Southland for their great work. The emotion of the Veterans is clear, and I know Leo, who has previously spent a lot of time in DC, has been looking forward to this trip for weeks.

Advisor Leo Grizzaffi, 87, is a Veteran of the Korean War

Leo told me South Korea has a special program for those whose service prevented the country from being overrun.

2022-04-24 Again ... "Swamp Stew" for Dinner Tonight!!
My friend Barnes has been interested in wild foods for many years, but had never hunted until 2011, when he bagged a deer at The Swamp on his 2nd-ever hunt. Since then, he has become an avid hunter, and has added a great deal of meat to his wild menu. He also is an end-to-end wild foods guy. By that, I mean he butchers his animals himself, and then puts together some very seriously fine dining.

A few days ago, he stopped by with a meal he'd prepared for Debby and me. Wine, artisan bread, a tantalizingly-filled heavy enamel casserole dish (I think that's what it's called), and a beautifully printed explanatory sheet detailing the "Swamp Stew" and the final baking step that would make it table-ready.

The Swamp Stew is properly referred to as Cassoulet au Confit d'Oie Sauvage et Saucisses de Toulouse, "au Marais".

From the explanatory sheet: "Confit of Canada Goose legs, wings, gizzard & skin | Toulouse sausage, made with Canada Goose breast \ Coco Tarbais beans, braised in Canada Goose stock | Berkshire Part ventreche, poached in Canada Goose fat".

Barnes shot the geese at The Swamp, and I really admire his use of the wings, gizzard, skin and fat, parts of the goose that many people will discard. Some people even discard the legs. Barnes believes using as much of the animal as possible is a way of showing proper respect for, and appreciation of, the quarry.

The Cassoulet was super rich and delicious and my photograph does not do it justice by any means. THANK YOU BARNES!!

2022-04-24 ... 50th Reunion
Last night I had some fun seeing the old gang at my 50-Year High School Reunion. It was actually closer to 51 years ... Class of 1971 ... event postponed because of the virus.

Of course everyone asked each other what have you been doing and what are you doing now. Everybody is 68 or 69 and most are retired but quite a few still working. When asked, I told people I make clothing, which naturally enough leads to some other questions. I said I wasn't satisfied with the woolens that were available, so I decided to make my own. That led to more questions, and this is where I felt funny. Our goal, to make the best All-Purpose Outerwear ever, still sounds -- even to me! -- crazy and arrogant. So I didn't say anything like that.

Two days ago (yesterday's Blog) in posts seen by thousands of people, I asked on Instagram and Facebook what other companies make Luxury Garments with Hardcore Performance. So far, only one name has come up.  The folks at Hardenco replied "We're working on it". They mostly work with cotton.

2022-04-23 ... Who Else?
I'm still not aware of another company offering Hardcore Luxury® garments, particularly woolens. Seems like there must be some, but I don't know who they are. And actually, this goes back to why I started WeatherWool in the first place. Last night I posted on Instagram and Facebook asking for names of companies offering luxury garments with hardcore performance. The folks at Hardenco replied "We're working on it". I was not familiar with their products, and took a look. They seem very different from us, and don't offer any woolens. But, like us, emphasize craftsmanship and quality. Some of the old-fashioned European makers of woolens offer garments that handle weather, and they are often pictured in a nice shirt and tie. But they always use tweed, from what I see. And tweed incorporates short, thick woolen fibers that are not comfortable on the skin. So I don't see that as luxury, regardless of how great the tailoring is.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised by this situation, but it still amazes me. Why wouldn't a big-name fashion designer offering $3000 woolen jackets make something that can perform? If the big-name woolen companies offered luxury (and enhanced their performance), they have to raise their prices. But again, why not? When we started WeatherWool it was not at all clear that a soft, tough and highly weather-resistant woolen fabric could be made. We did it. Lots of others could have. Or at least I think they could have.

2022-04-22 ... Canvas Rebel Interview
The nice folks at Canvas Rebel e-Magazine published a very short written interview with me. And some photos showing both the Hardcore and Luxury aspects of WeatherWool. THANK YOU, Canvas Rebel!

2022-04-21 ... Power Out Again
Public Service predicts outage will last until late evening.  We can't do much without power.  I am writing this from my phone.  Looks like shipping will not be possible today.

2022-04-20 ... Suggestions!
We love getting suggestions and ideas from our customers. We are grateful for all input! And we have a place in our filing system where we save every idea and suggestion. Ideas/suggs are filed/saved by garment, accessory (cord locks, zippers), Fabric, fiber, dyeing, customer service ... whatever the idea is, we probably already have a place where it belongs.

Whenever we prepare to make something, we evaluate and re-evaluate all the ideas we have stored away. We always implement any idea we think will improve our products or service, so long as it does not violate our 100% USA policy.

We've been doing this for 13 years, and we have received a great many suggestions. And so at this point, almost all the ideas people send in have already been considered. One giant suggestion we did implement was Slot Buttons, which we had never heard of until Shannon tipped us. Slots are the only buttons we have used since then.

Most ideas are good. BUT most ideas also have secondary effects, and so usually it's a question of whether the pluses outweigh the minuses. For example, people frequently suggest making our Fabric more wind-resistant, like the traditional Loden. And maybe someday we will make an additional Fabric that is tighter. But the "minus" of wind resistance is breathability. The more wind resistance, the less breathability. We want our Fabric to be highly breathable, because we prize versatility. Our MidWeight Fabric actually came from suggestions that we make something lighter and less wind-resistant than our original Fabric, which we started calling "FullWeight" once we had developed our MidWeight. And so we have never tried to make our Fabrics tighter than the original spec.

We also get suggestions about ways to make our garments warmer. And again, we appreciate the suggestions. But we don't necessarily want to make any particular garment warmer because that would almost surely mean the range of comfort for the garment would be shifted toward the colder end. If the suggestion expanded the range of comfort, THAT would be a great sugg. But we don't want to gain 5 or 10 or 15 degrees of comfort at the low end if we lose the comfort at the higher end of the temperature range. Instead, we would come up with another garment.

I doubt we have ever found a change that is both better and cheaper. It seems in this biz, better is always more expensive. That, and our 100% USA requirement means that costs mount. For a long time I've been saying that the only areas I can think of where costs are dropping and quality is increasing are electronics, computing, telecommunications. And sometimes I would add that, over the decades, the relative cost of chicken has dropped substantially. I once mentioned chickens to a caller who, unbeknownst to me, was in the chicken business. WOW!! I got an earful from him. He agreed you can get some remarkably inexpensive chicken, but he was adamant that these mass-produced birds are trash compared to a roaster than has been raised properly. So I don't talk about cheap chicken anymore. And I didn't have any suggestions for the chicken pro.

2022-04-19 ... Viking Wool and Sheep
I heard recently that the Vikings, whose historical impact is inseparable from their sailing ships, made some, and maybe most of their sails from wool. The Vikings were dominant for a few centuries, and well-traveled. So techniques and materials must have varied. Sheep do well in the difficult climate of the North Atlantic Coast, and have provided meat and woolen clothing in that area for thousands of years. But the use of wool in sail making is less understood, and something of a surprise. I would have guessed that the weight of woolen sails, up high on a mast, would not have been helpful. But the other choice of material, flax, rots. Also, people will use what is available, and wool was more available than flax. No Wool, No Vikings, written in 2016, is an aptly-titled article about the importance of wool to the Vikings, and about some Norwegians keeping alive the old ways of producing wool and woolen goods.

2022-04-18 ... NZWTA
Our greasy (raw) wool purchases will again rely upon the services of the New Zealand Testing Wool Testing Authority. Thanks to our friends in NZ!! We purchase greasy based on careful evaluation of extensive lab testing. For many years, the USA only had one lab doing the tests. This lab closed a couple of years ago when the proprietor, Angus McColl, finally retired at age 86 after 56 years in business. Angus had warned for years that he was planning to retire, but we (the American wool industry) still were not prepared. The fact that American Ranchers relied for many years on, basically, one individual for their testing is something of a shock. And now we must send samples to New Zealand for testing. Luckily, NZWTA has a great reputation. I'm very grateful they are there to help us. And for sure nothing against our colleagues on the other side of Earth! But the USA ought to be able to handle this work internally, and the fact that we cannot is indicative. We are growing some great fiber here, and potential for growth in the American market -- for clothing alone -- is huge. Americans spend about $400,000,000,000 (four hundred billion) dollars annually on clothing, and wool is only 2-3% of that. The global clothing market is over $2 trillion.

Doing testing in New Zealand goes against the grain of our 100% American philosophy, but, this is testing of samples, not production. The only thing that comes back from NZ is an email with the results of the tests.

2022-04-17 ... Happy Easter and Passover

2022-04-16 ... International Trademark and Intellectual Property Page
The WeatherWool® trademark has just been granted a big step forward toward international registration. We have received the Certificate of Registration from the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization for this international trademark registration. This trademark has an effective registration date of December 02, 2021. David Orms, attorney at Polson Intellectual Property Law, explained:

The Trademark Offices in the countries we designated in our application - Australia; EUIPO [European Intellectual Property Office]; Japan; United Kingdom - will now process the application as if we had filed it directly with their office. It could take up to eighteen months for these offices to process the application. If there is no refusal, then you will automatically receive the trademark rights.

As a result of this development, I have put up a page on our Intellectual Property. These two little stories appear at the end of the IP page:

When "Average Joe" starts a business, the usual situation is that more money goes out the door than comes in. So, from even before WeatherWool, I have interacted with USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) directly in an effort to cut costs. Their lawyers have been very helpful and friendly, and they tend to be animals working 60 and even 80 hours a week. I've spoken with two or three of them on Saturday nights. One night I was talking with a trademark lawyer, and he was really going out of his way to deal with me. But finally he said something like: "You really should retain an Intellectual Property Attorney. I promise you, it will be the best money you ever spent." So I took his advice.

But before I had routinely brought all my IP issues to Polson, I had registered WeatherWool on my own. The trademarks don't last indefinitely, tho, and need to be regularly renewed. At one point, the PTO sent me some kind of renewal notice, and I did not handle it properly and in a timely manner. So I was horrified to receive a notice from the PTO telling me that registration of the WeatherWool trademark was ABANDONED. At that point I asked Polson to re-register WeatherWool and to handle all my IP. The advice from the USPTO lawyer was spot-on!

2022-04-14 ... Outdoor Pro Cleans his Anorak
We posted on April 4th about how the wool fares when left out in the weather for a year or two. One of our customers, Brad, is an outdoor pro who wears his Anorak all over the world doing all kinds of stuff. He definitely is not worried about how he takes care of the wool. Brad thought I'd be amused to see how he cares for his Rak:

This is how I "wash" my anorak. I leave it hanging in a tree over night after I beat the dust out of it with a stick. Sometime the wind and snow blow it around and off the tree. It's like a cold dry spin cycle, hahaha! - I didn't really mean to leave it out [in the snow] but we had some freak squalls blowing around recently.

2022-04-13 ... New Jersey
This isn't wool-related, but some people will be amused. ... Yet another example of New Jersey's hostility toward taxpayers and business owners. WeatherWool is a partnership, and must file partnership tax returns with Jersey, which assesses a filing fee (!!) based on the number of partners. The pols here are not satisfied that partnerships have tax liability (congrats if you live in one of the 9 states that generally don't have income tax!), but a partnership is also assessed a $275 fee per partner, per year, for filing the required forms. WeatherWool has 7 partners (the five of us in my immediate family, plus two friends with tiny ownership), so the annual filing fee is $1575. Last year, I got signals confused with my accountant, and both of us paid the partnership filing fee. We notified the state, and got no response until now. New Jersey refunded the extra filing fee, but CHARGED INTEREST. It was only a few bucks, but they actually charged interest on an overpayment. I would love to hear the logic behind that law. I'm born and raised here in North Jersey, and Debby in NYC and Long Island, which is basically the same thing. It really seems like they are pushing people out of here.

2022-04-12 ... Nice Field Test
Dramatic photo from Michael Riddle, United States Marine Corps Veteran, who purchased through the WarriorWool Program when he was on Active Duty:

Michael testing our wool:  “No gloves. No layers. Just a cotton shirt and the FullWeight Duff XL Anorak with your Watch Cap and Neck Gaiter, in a Utah squall at 5-10 degrees F [about -14C] with 35-40 mph [about 60 kph] gusts of wind and heavy snow. Stayed toasty and bone dry.”

Michael is a big guy, and has experienced severe conditions in the Military. Most people would not be comfortable in the weather and clothing he describes. And he clearly was not far from shelter. Michael's test illustrates a major goal of ours: We hope people will wear WeatherWool even in mild conditions because they like it, and if circumstances somehow get nasty, the wool can make a huge difference.

2022-04-11 ... CPOs, Hooded Jackets, FullWeight Fabric
The CPOs are well under way at Better Team USA, which is managing the process of turning our MidWeight Fabrics (both Solid Drab Color and Lynx Pattern) into CPO Shirts. We expect to ship these garments around the end of this month.

Factory8 is completing the 3rd prototype of our Hooded Jacket. We are hoping to ship these in late June. This run of Hooded Jackets will be made in MidWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric, which is the only Fabric we have available to work with now.

Giuseppe, production manager at American Woolen, tells me he expects to receive our dyed fiber from Tintoria Piana, the dye house in Georgia, next week. Then .. spinning and weaving and finishing and tailoring! We will be making all four of our FullWeight Fabrics (Solid Colors Black, Drab, and Duff, plus Lynx Pattern).

2022-04-10 ... Collaboration
The great majority of companies that make garments don't also make fabric. We aren't unique in this regard, but we don't have a lot of company, either. For us, the Fabric is what it's all about, and years ago, the guys at American Trench, who made a Peacoat with our Fabric, told us they think of WeatherWool as a Fabric manufacturer who also makes garments. It is an apt description. There have been many people who bought a yard or two, and even a few companies that have bought larger quantities of Fabric. And we love to see what people do with our Fabric! So I should have put up the Collaboration page a long time ago. But ... I didn't do so until a few days ago. We hope to see a lot more people working with our Fabric, and THANKS to everyone who has taken a shot!

2022-04-09 ... Long-Overdue Welcome to Leo Grizzaffi
Leo has been a great friend to WeatherWool since about 2014. We met Leo way back when we were offering our earliest garments at "The Shows". Leo took an interest in what we were doing, and he's been helping us in various ways ever since. Because of his long career and significant involvement with much larger companies, I somehow automatically assumed he wouldn't want to be formally (to the extent we are "formal") involved with us. I should have known better. WELCOME, ADVISOR LEO, and THANKS for your thoughts and for introducing WeatherWool into some very interesting places!

2022-04-08 ... Advisor Daniel Vitalis and WildFed TV Show
My love for Wild Foods is what led me, eventually and indirectly, to start WeatherWool, and so I love that with WildFed, Daniel is "reconnecting people with wildness through food". And I also love having a Wild Foods Professional as an Advisor!

WildFed airs on The Outdoor Channel (and frndlytv.com) on Mondays at 7:30PM.

In this episode, airing Monday night, Daniel and a friend turn some Maine beaver into a great dinner!

Here, Daniel picks some wild Swamp Rose Hips that will lend some flavor -- and a lot of Vitamin C -- to the beaver dinner.

2022-04-07 ... Infrared
It's been a few years since we've seen infrared images of our garments. This morning, a customer in South Korea sent this IR photo of an All-Around Jacket. South Korea has a strict virus protocol/quarantine in effect and IR cameras are mandatory at the entrance of every building.

The image clearly maps the heat loss from the AAJ and the layers of wool from which the AAJ is constructed. Color tends toward orange with one layer of Fabric, and pink with three layers:

• The arms have a single layer of our FullWeight Fabric. Heat loss is reduced where the sleeves are folded/wrinkled
• Parts of the midsection of the AAJ also have just one layer of Fabric
• The top of the chest mostly has two layers because of the Double Yoke (cape)
• But the inside chest pockets are under the Double Yoke, making a 3rd layer in those places
• The Storm Flap forms a second and third layer of Fabric over the wool surrounding the Center Front Zipper
• The area of the Cargo Pockets mostly has four layers. We didn't really want this much Fabric, but we very much wanted Cargo Pockets, Handwarmer Pockets and Inner Pockets, and all this wool creates the brightest pink in the photo

Best wishes to our customers and everyone in South Korea (and elsewhere!) still fighting the virus. And MANY THANKS to our customer in South Korea for a really cool (hot!) photo!!

2022-04-06 ... Some humor from 2019
This Instagram post from @bushcrap101 is actually from 2019, but I just stumbled across it again. We felt they wouldn't have lampooned us unless we were pretty well known in the Bushcraft Community ... sort of a validation.

We got a good laugh over being lampooned by @bushcrap101 on Instagram

@bushcrap101 is a private account on Instagram, so you'll need their permission to see posts. And on March 28 of 2022, we did post Drew Gray's "ice-covered lake" test!

2022-04-05 ... Terrible ... and Terrific
A little bit ago a customer notified me that he had two Anoraks that had a problem with the Hood separated from the back of the Anorak. This is the only known problem with the Anorak, and we've been addressing it steadily while at the same time trying hard not to add more bulk to the hood-shoulders seams than necessary. The fail-rate is about 3%. And of course we will always, replace, reimburse, repair ... whatever the customer would like. But this was the first time I'd ever heard of a customer having TWO Anoraks that failed. I sent back an email as soon as I'd read the customer's note. And I phoned him a little later. Luckily for me, the customer was quite understanding and not upset at all. Still TERRIBLE, tho, that one customer had experienced two failures! This customer and his wife actually have three Anoraks. The TERRIFIC part is that the original email also said he wanted a fourth Anorak, which will be delivered tomorrow.

2022-04-04 ... Weathered Wool
In late 2020, or maybe even 2019, just out of curiosity I put a little pile of wool scraps under the trees in the backyard. I wanted to see what would happen over time. I thought animals would probably carry them off for nesting material. And that may have happened a little, but not much. The scraps were definitely moved around, but only a few feet (a meter) at most, and I am guessing that was from the wind. The surprising thing to me is that these scraps do not seem to have been affected at all by full exposure to the elements for at least 16 months, and two winters. I expected the colors to fade (not a lot of sun under the trees, tho, even in winter) and the Fabric to seem brittle or weak or rough. But it is indistinguishable from the tailor-remnants we use for Sample Packs. I am really surprised and admit this makes me happy!

I have just begun another experiment. I've read that when buried, wool will completely decompose within a few months ... we'll see!

2022-04-03 ... Wool and Fire
In winter, we burn close to two cords of wood a month. We keep the house pretty cool, at least by typical American standards, at about 57F/14C. But I crank up the fireplace in the office, where I spend a lot of time, so the temp is about 75F/24C and sometimes even 82F/28C. If the temp is below about 70F/21C my fingers slow down and I can't type well. How do musicians manage to play outdoors in cold weather? This time of year, with outdoor temps roughly the same as the usual setting on the thermostat, it's tempting for me to kill the central heat entirely, and just rely on the fireplace.

We burn wood in a large, open fireplace. It's nowhere near as efficient as a stove. BUT the fireplace makes a real fire part of the room ... accessible to us. We feed it a lot. And we can hear it, fiddle with it, and occasionally must deal with an ember that pops out.

People who come into the office like to sit in low chairs placed close to the fireplace, soaking up the warmth. But it's more than heat. People love and are enchanted by a fire. Even in hot summer. All over the world, and for thousands of years. If you want to provide a focal point for a gathering, start a fire.

And what I'm getting around to is ... watching people creep right up to my fires really drives home that wool and fire are very compatible. Recently, a reviewer posted video of himself standing with his feet nearly in a campfire, and his Anorak opened and spread out directly over the fire. He said the Anorak was capturing the rising heat and casting it onto his body. The way wool handles fire is a gigantic advantage sometimes. And the flip side ... the way some materials burn or melt very easily, can lead to horrors.

I need to do a video comparing the fire-behavior of wool, cotton, and some typical synthetics. But here are three professionally-made videos on the same subject:

• About three years ago I posted a link to an IMPRESSIVE video on YouTube showing how amazingly fast a single match can create a disaster if dropped on a synthetic couch ... and showing how a match (or even a blazing paper) dropped onto a woolen couch is a non-event. Many thanks to the government of New Zealand (in maybe the 1960s?) for this video.
• Thanks to the government of Great Britain for a similar video made in 2014, this one focused on bedding.
• A year or two earlier, the Brits produced another video along the same lines, but with more drama.

2022-04-02 ... WeatherWool On the Water
I've mentioned a couple of times lately that wool doesn't get out on the water as much as I think it should. Generations ago, sailors relied on wool to an amazing degree. Wool (and astounding fortitude and resourcefulness) enabled Shackleton and his team to survive near-impossible trials on their famous Antarctic expedition. One of the people who wears WeatherWool regularly on the water is Tug Captain Joel Milton, who also does a lot of photography. Joel works up and down America's East Coast, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Captains can't sleep the way most people do, so Joel has sent us some great photos taken at unusual hours. This morning, Joel sent Alex and I some commentary, and this beautiful shot:

Joel captured this image of "Gotham's Sixth Borough" (local mariner’s slang for New York Harbor) last night. Photo copyright © Joel Milton.  Used with permission and THANKS!!

2022-04-01 ... No Joke!
Today may be April Fool's Day but what I am hearing from our Partners is extremely encouraging and no joke! The demand for MADE IN USA is booming. People are looking to make fabric and sew garments in America. Since our founding in 2009, WeatherWool has always been 100% USA in materials and labor.

2022-03-31 ... Kosher?
Not long ago we were contacted by a guy who wanted to know if our products are Kosher. This was a surprise question for sure, but we learned wool is Kosher unless it is mixed with linen. Another customer was focused on the frequency of wool. He said wool fiber vibrates at a frequency that is compatible with people. When we mentioned to him about the wool-linen Biblical prohibition, he said that made sense because their frequencies would cancel each other out. He also believes the frequency of synthetic clothing is not at all in harmony with the human body. I guess vibration frequencies are something to look into ...

2022-03-30 ... Just In Case Ordering
I was speaking with Rancher and Advisor Bob Padula a few days ago. Although Bob spends a great deal of time with his flock, he also works full-time-plus for a large company that builds modular homes. Part of Bob's job includes making sure components are on-hand when needed. Bob says supply chains now are so disrupted that he is ordering more than he needs, and months in advance. He said everyone is switching from Just-In-Time inventory to Just-In-Case ordering. And that is certainly what we have been doing. Some of our components normally have long lead times, so we are used to ordering well in advance. But now we have on-hand and on-order more than ever before. It takes a few months, at best, for us to make our Fabric. And once we have the Fabric, we may need to wait weeks before the tailors are ready for us. It would drive me right up the wall if, after all that, our production was held up because we didn't have buttons or thread. So ... we have a LOT of buttons and thread on hand. In fact, a couple of months ago, we bought all the Slot Buttons that US Button had available.

2022-03-29 ... Replace Shock Cords? (And More Video)
We use synthetic elastic shock cords to adjust the our hoods and waist cinches. Yesterday we were at Fleck Knitwear, working with Peter and Matt Fleck on custom knitted cuffs for our Hooded Jacket. Debby spent many days with her Dad in his factory, and she always loves to visit the people who make things for us and see how they do what they do. And she is always trying to figure out new things for them to do for WeatherWool. So when she saw some knitted "strings" hanging on Fleck's wall, she asked about them.

Peter explained these "strings" are small cylindrical knits, very much like shoestrings. Debby asked if the strings could be woven with our yarn, and if they might be used to replace the synthetic-elastic shock cords we've been using for years. So Matt and Peter immediately put some of our yarn on the machine ...

After we handled some of the string-knit, Peter and Matt showed us a little more of how the string-machine operates and what it can do:

Matt and Peter quickly made enough of the string-knit in our own yarn for us to do a little testing:

This is a very intriguing development. The string-knits have enough elasticity and strength to replace the shock cords. The string-knits are less bulky, and would lie flat against the garment instead of sticking out conspicuously (to me, anyway) like the shock cords. We will need to experiment and test for a while. But at this early stage it certainly looks really good. This was totally unexpected ... we were supposed to be working on cuffs. Debby's curiosity and imagination just might lead to a really nice enhancement!

2022-03-28 ... OK, Another Video!
Drew Gray, an Interior and Architectural Photographer from Minnesota, purchased an Anorak in mid-February. Yesterday he surprised us with a very thorough video review, which he has kindly given us permission to use. Drew is a family man, a gentleman and a real beast. In some of this footage, he pushes the MidWeight well beyond my design parameters. So this video comes with a "don't try this on your own" warning.

 Huge Thanks to Drew for this video!!

Drew brought up a couple of points in the vid that I can address here. He mentioned the cuff adjustments don't hit the sweet spot for him. It is possible to flip the strip in the other direction for additional cuff sizes. Drew also mentioned that maybe the side zips could go all the way up the side ... a few inches longer than they are. We have considered this, and we may even do it. Our concern is that if a zipper fails, the side of the Rak may be left wide open. And the longer the zipper, the worse the failure. We have hears of only a handful of few zipper failures (which kind of amazes me), but that is our concern. If we had zips running the entire length of the sides, we'd probably add Slot Button backup, which could be uncomfortable when people lie on their sides.

We've used Drew's video in a few places ...

• the Performance Videos page on this website
• the Civilian Anorak Reviews page on this website
• Our YouTube Channel
• Our Facebook Page
• Our Rumble Channel
• We'll probably also use a little of it on Instagram and Facebook

So, again, BIG TIME THANKS to Drew for taking a shot with us (didn't mean that pun!) and for making and offering to us a great vid that must have taken a lot of time and effort, even for a pro!!

2022-03-27 ... Not Terrible!?
The experts all believe people are demanding more and more video. And video does convey information in ways the printed word cannot. So we will be working to put more and more video on the website.

Because we are on television, it seems like we should have a little video from those TV shows. So here is a (not terrible?!!) video I took off the TV screen with my phone:

The guy on screen is Alex Javor. We have a still shot of Alex among the carousel of photos on this website's Landing Page. Alex wrote me that his All-Around Jacket is the best garment he's ever had, and he gave me some review material that's posted on this website. The video is from an episode of National Geographic Television's Life Below Zero, Next Generation that is airing this week. [The original link to Nat Geo's site has been taken down.]

We will appear on other TV Shows before long, and I'll post about it when they begin to air.

We have never paid anyone to wear WeatherWool. Although clothing makers will sometimes pay big money for "influencers" to wear their products, we are worn only by people who choose us. Alex did get his WeatherWool free of charge. But he could have gotten any brand he wanted free of charge.

2022-03-26 ... Confusing Terminology!
It's really important to know how much Fabric is needed to make any given garment in each size. And of course everyone tries to reduce waste as much as possible. So it's a surprise to me that when the tailors tell me they have reduced the yield, it's good news. The tailoring is computer-aided now, and their systems know the shapes and dimensions of all the pieces of any given garment, in all the sizes. The software arranges all these pieces to minimize waste. In our case the software also understands that our Fabric has an "up and down" because our nap runs downward to help water flow off our garments. Great stuff and really important. But what's odd is that decreasing waste also decreases (in tailor jargon) yield. If we go from 2.6 yards to 2.5 yards to make a given garment, the tailors tell me the yield has gone down. I'm not aware of any other field where decreasing the yield is good news.

Another confusing bit of terminology is the way people usually quote the weight of woolen fabric. Unless the weight of something is specified along with the quantity, it doesn't mean anything. Woolen mills will normally refer to "22-ounce" or "26-ounce" fabric. But they are referring to "running yards", which are always 1 yard long but unspecified width. This terminology makes sense within a specific mill, where everyone knew the equipment. But in general practice, 22-ounce wool can actually be heavier than 26-ounce wool, if the 22-ounce wool is on a narrower bolt. Unless the fabric weight is stated as gsm (grams per square meter) or opsy (ounces per square yard), comparison is misleading. But also, weight is NOT an indicator of the performance of woolen fabric. Our goal is to reduce weight while increasing performance by using superior fiber, spinning, weaving and finishing.

2021-03-25 ... Like a BIG Company
A customer wrote wondered why we hadn't shipped his Anorak, given that I'd told him it would be shipped right away. Turns out we had two customer with the same name and the same order! That seems like the kind of problem that would only happen with a BIG company.

We had a similar incident years ago. I asked Alex to send something to Mike Cramer but Alex sent it to Mike Kramer. We didn't figure that one out until Cramer followed up months later. And it took some real head-scratching. I guess you could say we had a Kramer vs Cramer story of our own. (Kramer vs Kramer was a pretty big movie in 1980 or so.)

In about 1983 I was going over some software designs at Bell Labs. The guy who was running the project was going to great lengths to make sure the software could handle situations that I thought were just crazy-unlikely. He told me his software needed to handle anything short of fire or flood. Big companies safeguard against even very unlikely events. In our case, I checked off both orders from the like-named customers without comparing the email addresses and phone numbers. My mistake!

2021-03-24 ... Spamming Getting Worse
For a while it seemed like the spammers, at least the telephone spammers, were easing up. But it's worse than ever now, with more kinds of spam than ever ...

• Phone Call Spam: I try to always answer phone calls, but I do have a spam warning set, so I can decline calls flagged as spam. I get a couple of these per hour during the day. At least they don't call all through the night
• Voice-Mail Spam: Spammers use SlyDial (ShyDial), an app that lets them bypass the actual phone call and go directly to voice-mail. My voice-mail got so bad with spammers I haven't listened to a message in years. The rare caller that gets my recorded message is asked to phone again later or send a text (973-943-3110)
• Text-Message Spam: This is a more-recent trend among the spammers. Probably a dozen or so of these daily
• Email Spam: Dozens of these every day. Haven't been hearing much from the "Nigerian Ambassadors". The main spammers now are people claiming various kinds of expertise ... they can boost our search rankings, make our website much more attractive, triple our "conversion rate" (the rate at which website visitors place orders) ... We get a lot of people telling us they are wizards at advertising and pay-per-click strategies (we don't advertise at all). Almost all these spammers are writing from gmail, yahoo and outlook accounts. Nothing shouts "credibility" like someone claiming technical expertise and using a free email account
• Contact Form Spam: Our Contact Form supports an option that requires people to prove they are human by clicking a NOT-A-ROBOT button or maybe identifying all the photos that show a car. But I disabled that test for the convenience of our customers. So now we get 10 or 20 spam contact forms per day.

All this spamming must be achieving something positive for the spammers, because they surely seem committed to the strategy.

We really really REALLY don't ever want to be seen as spammers, so we send only a few emails a year. Less than one blast-mail per month.

A couple of days ago, I sent text messages to the many people who had Anoraks on backorder. (Most backorders are frivolous. I don't know why they bother.) I had already emailed this group of people, and didn't want to delete their orders without being sure they knew the garment they were supposedly waiting for is available. One of the recipients of my text replied STOP. I wonder if he also flagged me as a spammer.

2021-03-22 ...  Fishing (Again) ... and Big Camo
Advisor Bill McConnell was wearing our CPO Shirt in Lynx Pattern when he recently caught a beautiful rainbow trout. Bill posted this photo to his Instagram account the day after I wrote here that I'd like to see more people fishing in wool.

Bill has been an outdoors professional for decades, working with the Military, television and feature-film production, and running his own Primitive Skills school. He is a great flintknapper and on my desk I keep an arrowhead he made for me. Bill is under contract with a large camo-clothing company, but they said it's OK if he appears in WeatherWool because we do not make camo. One of the other large camo companies said the same thing to another of our contacts. This might mean that Lynx Pattern is officially "camo-camo" ... But it might also mean that the big players don't want to step on us. Either way, we appreciate it because they could certainly have prohibited their representatives from appearing in WeatherWool.

2021-03-21 ... Shipping!
Since we picked up the MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anoraks at Factory8 2 days ago, we've been really busy shipping. Yesterday, I sat down at my desk early, and it was nice to see the Forsythia bushes across the street seemed to be showing just a little hint of yellow. Here in North Jersey, Forsythias are the first spectacular flower show of spring. But I was kind of shocked to actually watch the yellow become more pronounced through the day. First time I ever watched a plant grow.

Zabz (Alex's daughter) is a hard worker and loves to help however she can. When the UPS truck backs into the driveway, there are lots of packages going out. As soon as Zabz saw Alex and I ferrying packages to the porch, she pitched in without being asked. Zabz can carry two Anorak-boxes at once!

2022-03-20 again ... WarriorWool Purchase Limit Removed
It's a giant kick to me that some Military people have wanted to buy for themselves more than one WarriorWool Anorak. These are the same Anoraks offered to the entire world, but WarriorWool is priced at break-even for those purchasing with personal funds Anoraks to be worn for Active Duty in service of the USA and our Allies. Now that we have our production rolling again, I'm really happy to be able to remove the one-per-person limit. Anyone can donate as many Anoraks as they'd like -- there's never been a limit on that -- and there is a separate page that shows WarriorWool Donations. I've also noted on that page some instances where people purchased for themselves. It's on my mind now because we filled a bunch of such backorders today.

2022-03-20 ... Salmon
Wool doesn't get out on the water as much as I think it should. My guess is this is another situation where most people don't know how well serious wool performs. So I do love it when we hear from anglers. These (delicious!!) California Salmon were taken only an hour North of the Golden Gate Bridge.

2022-03-19 ... Garment District Drop-off and Pickup!
First thing this morning, I made a run to Factory8 in Manhattan's Garment District to drop off Fabric and notions (zippers, cord, cord locks, etc.) to make Hooded Jackets and to pick up MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anoraks. And now we are shipping the Raks!

We've been making Anoraks since 2015 and the tailoring (by Factory8) and Fabric (made to our specs by American Woolen) is the best yet! Great work!

2022-03-18 ..."Rustique, Increvable" (Indestructible Rustic)

This is from an Instagram "story" posted by @BenoitWo ...
We have never described ourselves as RUSTIC or INDESTRUCTIBLE, but we are not complaining and we definitely THANK Benoit Wojtenka!

2022-03-17 ... Pennsylvania State Troopers ... St Patrick's Day
We love that our wool is appreciated by a Pennsylvania State Trooper! And actually we have four Advisors who are Law Enforcement Officers.

Today we were surprised and honored to receive Patches and a Challenge Coin from a Pennsylvania State Trooper!

We can really use the LE connection, too, because Zabz is convinced leprechauns are snooping around WeatherWool HQ. She is finding tracks all over the house and really wants to figure out exactly what is going on!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!!

2022-03-16 ... MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anoraks to ship March 19th
Factory8 is doing final Quality Control checks on MidWeight Lynx Pattern Anoraks. I will pick them up in New York City's Garment District on Saturday the 19th and we will begin shipping Saturday afternoon, as soon as we complete our own QC. If we do not already have your SHIP ASAP order, please place a "live order" now. Website will accept payment. Thank You!

Rows and rows of Anoraks! Photos courtesy Factory8

2022-03-15 ... More about Fleece
This post continues a topic started on the Blog of the 12th.

We operate out of New Jersey, but Americans raise sheep in all 50 States. We would be happy to work with local ranchers, but ranchers in the Eastern States tend to have smaller flocks and focus on the fiber-arts market, selling their "clips" in small quantities to many individual buyers. We need relatively large quantities of wool having very specific qualities, which requires careful sampling of the wool followed by detailed  lab testing. Ranchers with smaller flocks are not as geared toward this approach as are the Western States ranchers where some very large flocks are located. But we'll see what we can turn up.

Also, the economic and political situation in the world now is a huge concern, and really must be factored into any decisions we make. It seems to me that our customers have suddenly become much more cautious.

On the lighter side, our sugar-season (maple syrup season) in North Jersey ended a few days ago ... meaning the sap stopped running. A little early, but with no freezing nights in the 10-day forecast I decided to pull our taps. We have only 9 taps on our little suburban "sugar bush", so it's not a big chore. But this was the first time I pulled the taps at 3:30AM. I was wide awake and the full moon gave me plenty of light. Something special! We usually get between 1 and 1.5 gallons (around 5 liters) and that's plenty. For us, sugaring is mostly a way to watch Winter turn to Spring, and I love that.

2022-03-14 ... More info from Padula
Following on the posts from the last two days ... Rancher Padula told me this pictured fleece is from one of his new rams. Bob never stops working to improve his flock's genetics, and we are lucky WeatherWool's future needs are among his priorities. The fleece from this ram weighed over 20 pounds (over 9 kg), and Bob planning/hoping to use this ram for the fineness of his fleece ... and that he will be the start of a line that WeatherWool can use for manufacture of base layers.

Base layers have long been on my mind because the base layer is so important and because the base layer influences the way people perceive our outerwear.

For us, there are two problems with making base layers. First, base layers need to be somewhat elastic, which means they are knitted. We don't do much in the way of knits, and base layers would be very different from the knitting we do. But also, we accept returns for any reason, even months after receipt. I don't know how we could make this return policy work with base layers, and I don't want to have a different return policy based on the product.

2022-03-13 ... REAL FLEECE COMES FROM SHEEP!!!
The people selling synthetic petrochemical fabrics and clothing have done so much advertising and pushed so deep into media that some people think that the petrochemical polymer fluff the manufacturers call 'fleece' really is FLEECE! The gorgeous, pasture-grown, natural product pictured below is REAL FLEECE, from yesterday's shearing at PM Ranch in Minnesota (see previous Blog).

REAL FLEECE is grown by SHEEP!
(and NOT manufactured in a chemical plant!)

2022-03-12 ... Shearing Begins at PM Ranch
Advisor Bob Padula tells me he is shearing at his family's PM Ranch in Minnesota! We will probably be buying PM's entire clip. Even though we need to await the results of actual lab tests, the lab mostly confirms what the Ranchers usually predict with great accuracy from knowledge of their flock, the conditions of the previous year and the way the fleece feels in their hands.

2022-03-11 ... NGLBZNG ... Crazy Cold MidWeight Anorak
We really like it when people tell us they saw WeatherWool somewhere. Today we got a note from a customer telling us he saw our All-Around Jacket on National Geographic's Life Below Zero Next Generation last night. We've been on the show for a couple of winters now, but I had lost track of the airings because the virus caused the footage to be shown out of sequence. So we'll need to watch what Alex Javor has been up to! Alex is currently shown on one of this website's Landing Pages, and he gave me an extremely strong review to publish, which I have linked above. Alex deals with some frightful conditions. It is a little bit funny though because now he is a TV personality with a production crew, so his situation isn't as dangerous as when he was doing the same things in the same extremely cold winter, but completely alone, living far from other people.

Speaking of brutal weather, I got another note today from a customer in Minnesota. He said he's been testing his new MidWeight Anorak and has been out for hours in -15F/-26C (including windchill). I've gotten reports from this gent before, and he usually wears two base layers, but three wool base layers in this case. He said when the wind kicked up to 20mph/32kph he felt a chill. But the Anorak, particularly the MidWeight Anorak, was designed for much more moderate temps with one or maybe two light base layers. So it's nice to hear from people who push it. He also has a FullWeight 'Rak, but wanted to see what the MidWeight could do. I'm going to add this info to the FullWeight-MidWeight page, but I'm not so sure it's a good idea because few people are as cold-tolerant as today's correspondent.

2022-03-10 ... Semi-Open House
This Sunday will be the last Open House of the season. For this Open House we are asking anyone who wants to come to please let us know in advance. Usually, we don't request any advance notice on Open House days. And you are still welcome to make an appointment to visit almost any time/day that is convenient for you. The monthly Open House Days will resume Sunday, August 28th.

2022-03-09 ... Outage Damage
Although our power was restored after about 12 hours, some of our electronics were damaged and we're a little behind processing orders and responding to emails. We need to replace some hardware. We should be back to normal within a few days. Thanks/Sorry -- Ralph

2022-03-08 ... Power Out
We lost electric power about 10:00 p.m. Monday night and Public Service tells us we'll be without power until about 7:00 p.m. tonight. So we may not be shipping today. Thank you.

HAHA ... Power was restored about 10AM ... the moment I ran a line from my neighbor's house! An occasional loss of electric power really gives some perspective on how important it is!!

2022-03-07 ... Hooded Jacket Sample Approved
Today we pretty-well approved the Sample of the new Hooded Jacket. Only minimal changes from previously. We made the Hood bigger, with adjustments similar to the Anorak. We are adding longer cuffs, with a thumb-hole ("Monkey-Paw" in US Army lingo). And the inside pockets will be made from our own Fabric, rather than the mil-spec wool-poly blend we had used previously. We use the blended fabric solely to reduce bulk, but I decided in this case -- MidWeight Hooded Jacket -- we can use nothing but our Fabric. I'm not sure we'll be able to do that later this year when we make FullWeight Hooded Jackets. The present run of Hooded Jackets will be MidWeight Lynx Pattern Fabric only, because that's the only Fabric we have on hand now. There is a lot of Fabric in the works, tho!

2022-03-06 ... Fail??!
Yesterday, a customer returned an All-Around Jacket and Double Hood because he is comfortable loafing for hours in his Anorak (with a couple of base layers) in -20F/-29C.

Also yesterday, another customer returned his MidWeight Anorak because he felt his All-Around Jacket was just as comfortable as the MidWeight Rak in warm weather.

We strive for versatility in our Fabrics and garments, and we try to make every garment significantly different from the others, avoiding "overlap". And so these two returns, expressing somewhat opposite viewpoints, surprised me ... but only a little, because we've heard the same things previously.

2022-03-05 ... Samples!
Been out of the office for a couple of days during which our tailors delivered Samples of the Hooded Jacket and CPO Shirt. This brings us a bunch closer to putting these items into production! We have only MidWeight Fabric on hand now, but it's a start ... We'll make these pieces in FullWeight also, but the next run of FullWeight Fabric is still three months or so away.

2022-03-02 (Again) ... Mark In the Wild Podcast
Mark Greene bought some wool from us in 2018, and in 2022 he began his Mark In the Wild Podcasts. WeatherWool is the subject of his fourth podcast, released today. THANKS MARK!

2022-03-02 ... New Advisor
We are delighted to welcome Noah Neigh as our newest Advisor. Noah is a Law Enforcement Officer in Pennsylvania, as well as an all-around outdoors lover, runner and triathlete. Noah will give us feedback on our wool in the course of his LE work, and will also help us develop the Runner, which I am looking forward to putting into production. Great to have you, Noah!!

Incidentally, Noah is the fourth LEO to join us as an Advisor. The others are Mike Pimentel from California, Jim from Connecticut and Eix from Estonia.

Also, I have just updated the Advisor News page with some really nice items!

2022-02-28 ... Mail List
A few hours ago I added a Mail List Signup widget to our Home Page. Probably should have done this a long time ago. But at this point 2022 looks like it will be our most productive year yet (I admit to choking a little as I write that), so sending out an update every couple of weeks seems like a good idea.

The first person to sign up is from Barrow, Alaska, which is pretty great. Barrow is "serious Alaska", as far North as you can go on the North American mainland.

2022-02-27 ... MidWeight Boonie Hats
Our Boonie Hats have been made only in FullWeight Fabric, but we've been thinking about offering MidWeight Boonie Hats and I just put them on the menu.

I'm tempted to say we'll also make MidWeight Big Brim Boonie Hats, but I'm concerned the brim will not have enough stiffness in MidWeight Fabric. I will say we'll give it a try ...

2022-02-26 ... Camo-Camo, according to Big-Camo
Over the years we have worked with people who have exclusive contracts with major camouflage companies. Interestingly, the Big-Camo people do not see WeatherWool as camo, and have told our contacts it is therefore OK to work with us. Of course, we have always thought of our Lynx Pattern as "camo-camo", meaning most people will not even realize a major part of the design of Lynx Pattern IS to function as highly versatile camo.

But large companies have been so nice to us that I can't help but wonder if the Big-Camo guys took the stance they did at least partly because they don't want to stomp a startup.

2022-02-25 ... Import Yeti
Denali found an interesting website, ImportYeti.com, that lets anyone look up a company and see what it imports.The site was created by David Applegate (THANK YOU!), and here is how he describes it:

ImportYeti is the combination of some downtime created by the Corona Virus and my desire to give back to the eCom community that has given me so much.

Bill of ladings are public information that every large eCom owner or FBA seller I know uses but they are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti's goal is to solve that problem.

There is a lot of information and a lot of detail available at ImportYeti. A search for WeatherWool turns up nothing. Some of the big makers of outdoors-oriented apparel are also big importers.

I checked one American company that offers wool base layers. This company states on their own website that their products are all made in China, but ImportYeti has no info on their imports. It may be that they import under different names. Or maybe something else is going on. There is a crazy amount of import data and this site is new.

2022-02-23 ... WarriorWool for US Law Enforcement
We now offer WarriorWool to US Law Enforcement Officers.