2026-07-02 ... Bugs ... Processing Losses ... Isle of Man
I forgot to mention yesterday that LOSSES complicate the allocation.  The wool goes through many processes between the sheep and the shirt.  And actually, the losses begin before we get involved, because we buy only a portion of each fleece.  Our losses include:

   

• Scouring:  About 40-45%, by weight, is gone.  But this loss is not actually wool (dirt, lanolin, sticks ...), and theoretically we did not pay for it
• Carding and combing into WOOL TOP:  Anywhere from 10% to 20% is removed in the form of short fibers (noils) neps (tangled fibers), vegetable matter
• Spinning Worsted Yarn:  About 7%
• Spinning Woolen Yarn:  Anywhere from 2% to 8%
• Dyeing:  Anywhere from 2% to 7%
• Scouring (again):  2% to 3%
• Dressing:  1% to 3%
• Pre-Treatment:  0.5% to 1%
• Weaving:  Anywhere from 3% to 10%
• Finishing:  2% to 3%

Overall, from WOOL TOP to Finished Fabric, we are going to lose anywhere from 12% to 24%.  In the case of Batch 13, our loss going from greasy wool to TOP was 44%, which is very good (we started with clean, high-quality greasy).

As the processing continues, the losses we experience are subtracted from smaller and smaller quantities (weight) of fiber.  So, in a sense, the loss at each step is not as great as much be expected at first glance.  In very round numbers, our processing will hopefully result in Fabric weighing 35% to 40% the weight of the greasy.

After all these years, it doesn't seem like I should be hearing about new stuff.  But I didn't hear about losses in Additional Scouring, Dressing, Pre-Treatment and Finishing until yesterday, in emails from Arthur at American Woolen.  And I don't know anything about these steps, except for Finishing.  A bunch more to learn, as usual.

A few people have lately contacted me with appreciation that mosquitoes and other nasties cannot bite through the wool.  The Fabrics in reference here were Jacquard (FullWeight, MidWeight) and Denim.  I don't know about Whipcord or Heritage.  I think Whipcord will be OK with bugs.  But Heritage is much thinner ...

I always like hearing from people who have our stuff.  And actually, I am grateful for any bad news, which is thankfully rare.  Yesterday, Debby and I got a call from a gent living on the Isle of Man.  He wanted us to know he's been wearing his Blazer for rugged outdoor play and work and to indoor-office meetings.   Temperatures down to -35C (-31F), fly-fishing in the snow and rain.  Said the Blazer still good as new.  THANK YOU.

I've been aware that there are numerous islands around Great Britain, and that some of them are politically and governmentally separate from England and UK.  So, I just looked it up.  The Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey -- we have customers on each of them -- are all independently governed ... separate from each other and from the United Kingdom.  Although still associated with Great Britain, they function like their own countries.  I'd like to visit some day.

 

2026-07-01 ... Medium Blankets ... Allocating Batch 13 ... MADE IN USA ... 2026 Fade?!
We have a few Medium Blankets on hand now in FullWeight Drab and FullWeight Lynx.  These just came in yesterday, and we'll fill the remaining Medium Blanket pre-orders today.  But there are a handful of extras.  Also going out today will be the FullWeight Lynx King Blankets.  We did have one extra FullWeight Lynx King, but that disappeared overnight, shortly after I put it on the website.  More Blankets coming later this month.

   

Main thing I need to do today is make the Batch 13 Fabric allocations.  That is, we need to decide how much of each Fabric, and each color, we will make.  Or, at least, try to make.   We make five different Fabrics (five different weaves), in ten different colors, woven by two different companies, with three different types of yarn spun by two different companies.  All of the companies upon which we rely have their own timetables and limitations.  And we need to think about what garments we want to make before we know what Fabrics to make.  It gets complicated quickly.  My planning will be assisted a whole lot by Lorelei and Arthur at American Woolen.

   

MADE IN USA ... I'm glad that, more and more, people want to know where things are made.   Many American companies are offering some products that are made in USA and some/most that are not.  And even among the "Made in USA" products, there is a lot of wiggle room.   Such as "Made in the USA of imported materials."  There are a lot of ways to finesse and obfuscate origins.   It's important to us to be forthright about everything, and we are always 100% USA.  This does not seem complicated.  But how we express it actually is a little complicated, at least from my POV.   Patches (her WeatherWool-name, and she is too shy to actually be intro'd properly on the website!) has been working on reformatting our product pages, along with Cody.   They had suggested a format that follows along with some of the big-company websites.  But I am concerned that a product page with a sub-heading such as:

   

ORIGIN:  USA

MADE IN:  USA

SOURCING:  USA

  

will cause some people to infer that we might offer products that are not Made In USA, or are not 100% USA.  So, I've been difficult to deal with regarding these few words.  Our product pages did not previously have this type of sub-head, we'd just say something about 100% USA somewhere in the descriptive text.   But we're trying to streamline, and present the info in a more-accessible format.   As of this morning, I'm leaning toward a declaration in the form of a sub-heading:

   

WeatherWool is always MADE IN USA 100%

   

Today is July 1st ... half of 2026 is already in the books.  WOW!

2026-06-30 ... Ask AI If We Should Use AI
Well, this is amazing.  I asked perplexity.com (freely available to anyone):

Yes — WeatherWool should use AI, but as a support tool, not as the voice of the brand. Ralph already says he’s seeing customers guided by AI in clothing purchases, and that people have even called because AI answered WeatherWool for questions like “who makes the best wool jacket?”weatherwool+1

Why it helps

AI can help WeatherWool reach people who would never otherwise search for wool, especially as the brand tries to introduce wool to a broader audience beyond existing wool buyers. Ralph also notes that his own recent focus is expanding beyond hardcore users and into style, fit, fashion, and broader education about wool’s benefits.weatherwool+1

It can also improve discoverability and shopping decisions. WeatherWool’s own blog says AI is already affecting buying behavior, and its 2026 posts show the company thinking about automated promotions, collaborator discovery, and how web platforms may increasingly route customers through machine-driven recommendations.weatherwool+1

Best uses

• • Product recommendation help, such as matching a customer to ShirtJac, All-Around Jacket, HoodOrak, or another piece based on climate, activity, fit, and budget.

  • A conversational shopping assistant on the site that answers “what should I wear for X?” and “which WeatherWool piece is best for me?”

  • Search and content help, so customers can quickly find the right blog post, fabric explanation, size guidance, or care info.

  • Customer service triage for common questions, while keeping final answers human when needed.

  • Internal help for drafting product descriptions, summarizing customer feedback, and spotting repeated questions that should become FAQ content.

How to do it

Start small with a website assistant trained only on WeatherWool’s own content: product pages, FAQs, blog posts, and policies. That fits the company’s style because Ralph is wary of handing the brand over to robots, while still being open to using AI where it helps customers find the right wool.weatherwool+1

A practical rollout would be:

1. 1. Add an AI shopping guide on product pages.

   2. Feed it a controlled knowledge base from WeatherWool pages only.

   3. Use it to recommend products, sizes, and use-cases.

   4. Route uncertain questions to a human.

   5. Track whether it increases conversion, fewer returns, and more email/phone leads.

What to avoid

Do not let AI write the brand’s public voice, invent product claims, or automate ads without review. WeatherWool’s blog shows skepticism about fully automated promotions and “robots” making decisions about where ads go, so the safer approach is human oversight with AI assistance in the background.weatherwool+1

Do not use generic AI copy for technical clothing claims either, because WeatherWool’s differentiation depends on specificity: fabric, sourcing, durability, climate performance, and service. If AI is sloppy there, it would weaken trust instead of building it.

Good first experiment

The best first project is a WeatherWool fit-and-use advisor. It could ask three or four questions — climate, activity, layer preference, and whether the buyer wants shirt-like, coat-like, or hardcore outerwear — then recommend 1–3 pieces with reasons pulled from WeatherWool’s own site content.weatherwool+1

Would you like a concrete AI rollout plan for WeatherWool, including the exact chatbot prompts and site pages to connect first?

Perplexity needed about two seconds for this response.  People who are used to AI will not be surprised.   And even ancient-old-me is only half-surprised.   But that doesn't mean I'm not amazed!

   

People can always phone me, but I know a lot of people would prefer to interact with a chatbot, at least initially, at least sometimes, knowing a human is also always available.   I suppose that's where we start.

   

I'm still far from ready (I think I am!) for the AGENTIC STOREFRONTS that can be implemented on this site with the click of a switch (Blog of 2026-01-13), but it seems time to offer a chatbot ... along with our phone number.

   

   

2026-06-29 ... Sunburn / UPF ... Smuggling Dirty Textiles ... Djibouti ... Desk Deer
Summertime is when people focus most on sunburn, and how to prevent it.  Yesterday, I saw a claim that all UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) fabrics are synthetic.  Near as I can determine, this is NOT so.  Wool is believed to offer significant protection against ultraviolet radiation.   I have not looked into this much.   And I'm actually more on the side of the benefits of sunshine (even though I burn easily) than the dangers.   I'm also not at all convinced the sunscreen lotions are benign.  But again, I don't claim to know anything.  I will offer that we have done some grade-school level research, and we did get approval of the content of our SUNBURN page from a customer who also is a dermatologist.   I know this gentleman a little, and believe his sole focus is the welfare of his patients.

   

Being from Jerseyland, this should not surprise me.   But I'd never thought about mislabeling textile waste in order to enable lower-cost disposal!!  Europe has some strict laws regarding recycling and disposal of textiles.   Authorities in Italy and Turkey have uncovered large-scale trafficking/smuggling of mismarked waste textile.   About 4200 tons of textile waste with a high percentage of non-biodegradable acrylic was mislabeled and sent to Turkey, where it it could be disposed of cheaper than in Italy.  ... Gee, a surprise-reason to be happy we are working with wool!

   

Last night I was speaking with a Navy Vet who ordered an Anorak for himself.   He told me he'd become familiar with WeatherWool in about 2018, when he was stationed in Djibouti (a new country on our list!) on anti-piracy operations.   Some guys from the 5th Special Forces Group (Green Berets) reco'd their own WarriorWool, and let him try it out. 

I've mentioned occasionally that Nature always responds, and adaptation is a big part of that.   When I was a boy, 1960s, seeing a whitetail meant you were in a truly rural area.  But the whitetails have expanded their range into suburbs ... bigtime.  WeatherWool HQ is in South Orange, NJ, which has been fully developed for something like 100 years.  Deer were absent from here for a long time.  When we moved into our house in 1984, there were no deer in the neighborhoods.   But they are here now.   While I was doing this blog entry, I noticed a buck nibbling the shrubs about, literally, four feet (not much more than 1 meter) from my nose:

We do have a DEER IN JERSEY page ...

2026-06-28 ... NEVER MIND THE PREVIOUS ENTRY ... WeatherWool Story
Cody and Debby gave me an earful -- two earsful -- regarding my previous entry about AI.  I'll follow up on this subject, but for now ... disregard the previous.   Way back in my Bell Labs days, we were supposed to keep a record of all our meetings and ideas in the official Bell Labs Notebooks.  Even though my notes weren't RESEARCH, and had little or no value at the corporate level, management wanted all of us to use those notebooks.   And one of the rules was DON'T DELETE.  DON'T ERASE.  DON'T PULL PAGES, no matter how wrong or foolish you think the entry might be.  If you decide something is wrong, make a note of that, or draw a single line through whatever you think is bad.  SO ... the previous entry will sit here.

   

Cody has decided it's time to do The WeatherWool Story.   We'll put it on YouTube, and there will be footage of me talking, plus some stills with text and excerpts of other videos.  We'll probably even badger "volunteers" into participating.  If anyone has an idea for content, please LMK.

  

WOW, Enjoy the last Sunday of June.   July is almost here, and WOW, USA is about to turn 250 years old.

   

2026-06-26 ... AI or NOT AI?
It's very important to me to present clear and complete information here.  Sometimes I feel like that results in TMI (Too Much Info), which is a separate, related issue.

  

This morning I was looking at the photo below, which was part of a real estate listing.  

   

The geese look fake to me.  I think this is an AI image.  Maybe there is a way to be sure, and I'd like to know how.  I asked grok.com if the image was real, and grok thought it was.  Then I told grok the geese looked fake, and grok said something like YEAH, ON CLOSER EXAMINATION, THE GEESE LOOK FAKE.  Grok explained that real estate agents frequently "enhance' photos by inserting images of animals.  My guess is that nothing in this image is real.  Maybe they started with a photo, and had AI touch it up in various ways.  The grass looks too lush and too perfect.  I feel like it's been touched up or faked entirely.  And the tire tracks in the foreground?  The reflections in the water?

   

I've already decided that we WILL use AI-generated imagery because it's >99% cheaper and 1000 times faster than using an actual model and an actual photographer on a real location.  (Apologies to the models, photographers and travel industry!)  But when we use artificial images, we'll add an AI label in the corner of the image.

   

This real estate photo, and the rapidly growing use of AI imagery has me thinking we will also need to add a "NOT AI" label in the corner of actual photos.  That seems kind of crazy, and I expect it's not going to sit well with Cody, but I don't want people wondering if we've faked stuff.  This exact situation has already come up, and I was the one who thought real imagery was fake.  In a month or two, we will release a video with some extreme content that is real, and some routine-filler imagery that is AI.  We've added explanatory text to the video to make clear what is real and what is AI.

   

2026-06-25 ... Stridewise Photo ... DOs and DON'Ts ... Debby Strikes Again!
Nick (pls see entry from yesterday) reminded me he's sent a flock of great photos that we are welcome to use.  AND I really should have used a photo yesterday ... so ...

ALSO ... Nick and Troy are smiling!  Hooray for that!  I don't understand it, but for clothing, anyway, somehow the idea is that models should not smile.  Cody tells me it's because a smiling model distracts from the clothing.  Well, maybe a smiling model would attract attention of people who might not otherwise notice.  But also, I hope people LIKE wearing our clothing.  One customer actually wrote me that he feels like he is wearing HAPPINESS.  What could be better than that!!??  For us and for anyone in our clothing?  We're planning on more and more smiles ...  Along these lines, I updated our DOs and DON'Ts page, which describes some of our contrarian ways.

My Sweetheart loves machines, having worked with her Dad in his factory since childhood ... and she is a lifelong knitter ... AND ... there is a long-established, very friendly, very flexible knitting factory a short drive from our home.  So, Debby disappears herself to Fleck Knitwear pretty often.  Matt and Peter have done a bunch of custom and experimental work for her on their many machines.  (This is how Debby was able to replace the synthetic shock-cord with our own wool yarn on the pulls for the Anorak Hoods.)  One of the latest is a knitted scarf with a sort of sliding color scale.

Weaving our Jacquard Fabrics requires an astounding (to me!) array of cones holding the thousands (literally) of warp yarns that run lengthwise through our bolts of Fabric.  When the weaving is done, there is inevitably leftover yarn.   Maybe not much on each cone.  But there are A LOT OF CONES!   And generally, the remaining yarn would be waste.  But Debby is using the leftover warp yarn to do various things, and the scarves in the photo above are an example.  I love the way the colors/contrasts shade from one end of the scarf to the other.

Knitting is so different from weaving, and offers so many additional possibilities.  In many ways, getting into knitting is like starting a new company.  But the possibilities, including a great outlet for (expensive!) yarn that we could otherwise not use, is irresistible.   GREAT WORK, DEBBY, PETER, MATT.

2026-06-24 ... Instagram / Stridewise ... Three Generations ... Transatlantic Wool
Several months ago, we hosted Nick English (Founder) and Troy Barmore of Stridewise.  Nick and his team scour (and travel) the globe looking for serious footwear and apparel.  They purchase and test the objects of their attention, and publish reviews on their website as well as social media.  Today, the Stridewise Instagram account posted a video of their interview with me.  They really picked up on the concept that I think is key to wool:  Wool is clothing made by Nature.  We use wool for the purpose intended by Nature.  It was great meeting you guys!  Thanks for the time and efforts to get to know us and what we do.  Hope to see you again. ... Lastly, Nick just bought a Chore Coat, which he had us ship to him in Australia, where Winter is just getting started.  (I love our wool being in the Southern Hemisphere!)   THANKS AGAIN and All the BEST to Troy and Nick and the Stridewise Team!

   

Tracy Machle (names used with permission!), once-and-future owner of a Women's Chore Coat, on Monday decided she needed to exchange for a smaller size.  Yesterday she told me that her daughter commandeered the Chore Coat and that her Dad, Barry Richmond, would buy another for Tracy.  Barry has some of our wool for himself, also.  Except for people inside WeatherWool, I don't remember any other families with three generations in our wool.  HUGE THANKS for this!! 

    

About an hour ago, David from Yorkshire, England, sent an interesting note:

In the mid 1970s, an adventurer called Tim Severin decided to try and demonstrate that a 6th century Irish monk called Saint Brendan the Navigator really could have sailed to North America, as folkore claims.  He and his team built a traditional, 32 foot curragh - think long and broad birch bark canoe, but with an oxhide skin and carrying masts and sails.  The vessel departed from County Kerry, Ireland in May of 1976, intending to follow Brendan’s most likely route Westwards via the Hebrides, the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland to Newfoundland.  They successfully reached the Faroes where they “acquired” a storm-hardened fisherman, Trondur Patursson, as an additional crew member.  The account of the next leg of the voyage records the following: 

Trondur would emerge bear-like from the forward shelter to take his turn at the helm, and on the first windswept evening he taught us another useful trick.  From his pocket he pulled out a pair of shapeless oiled wool mittens.  To our astonishment, before he put them on, he leaned over the side and dunked them, warm and dry, into the water, squeezed them out, then put them on half-sodden.  “It’s better,” he said. ’Not so cold later.”  He was quite right; the gloves acted like wet-suit gloves and reduced the wind’s chill.

I thought you might find the above interesting.  Neither Trondur's behaviour, nor its recounting were influenced by the high-tech fibre vs. natural-fibre wars, and nobody was trying to plug a product!  It was just a man guided by tradition, upbringing and direct personal experience.  By-the-by, in June of 1977 the Curragh made landfall at Peckford Island, Newfoundland.  They had some “scrapes” along the way, but made the journey unaided.  Naturally their feat did not prove that the Irish reached the New World before the Vikings, but it brought the possibility into the realm of proper debate rather than wild imaginings.

   

From the wool perspective, I definitely find Brendan and Trondur interesting!!.   Before WeatherWool, when we were distributors of woolens made by others, one customer bought a crazy amount of socks.  They told me a group of them would be trekking a long way in the Canadian Winter, without boots.  They would wear layers of wool socks.  They said their technique was to dip the socks in water, so they froze, and layer them.  (??? I know, but that's all I remember.)   Trondur-style gloves are not unbelievable to me, particularly because they probably had plenty of lanolin still in the wool.  The Vikings routinely used wool for sails.

I'd never heard of Saint Brendan or of Tim Severin, but I am a big believer in the possibilities and the achievements of long ago, and this wonderful Irish folklore is believable to me.  Built into us is a strong drive to test limits, to see the unknown, to leap without knowing where we will land.  Only a little bit ago, Artemis II/Integrity and her crew returned from a voyage to the Dark (far) Side of the Moon.   A bit of searching turns up claims that Columbus relied on Brendan's logs for his own plans to travel West by a Southerly route and East by a Northerly route, to take advantage of favorable winds and currents.  I loved Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki, and wish I'd known about Severin at the time!  I have no doubt that huge numbers of voyagers made all sorts of land and sea voyages through the ages.

Debby and I had a wonderful day or two in York/Yorkshire in 2009.  One highlight was the locals, and Debby, having good sport with me because I'd driven the wrong way down a somewhat congested parking lane that was full of pedestrians.  All in slow-motion and all in good fun.  I was off-balance keeping left and driving from the right side of the vehicle.  I did find it easy to shift left-handed, and it was a good way to help Debby learn to drive a four-on-the-floor ... she could just rest her right hand on top of my hand while I shifted.   That evening, at the hotel, I wanted to order blood pudding at dinner.   The waiter saw Debby's reluctance, so they brought the blood pudding at no charge.  I remember the kindness, and don't remember the pudding.