[Here's a first cut at this new page.]

It was very early days for WeatherWool, in 2011, in Roswell, New Mexico.  Alex and I were having dinner with Mike Corn, one of our first Ranchers and Advisors, and I very clearly remember Mike telling me how it would mean a great deal to any Rancher to know that his or her fiber was a component of a specific garment.

Mike recently retired from Wool Ranching, mostly due to the long drought in New Mexico.  But Mike still operates Roswell Wool, and he is still a primary wool broker for us.  Mike explained that, for an American grower of larger quantities of wool, the typical scenario has the wool going to a warehouse/broker like Mike, and then to a bulk buyer who will mix large quantities from multiple ranches for downstream processing.  So the connection between the Rancher and the wool is lost.  In general, the larger the operation, the more likely the Rancher will lose track of the product.  I think it's the same with people raising cattle or pork or corn.  It can be very different for smaller operations.  New Jersey's wool producers mostly sell small quantities of their fiber to individual knitters and spinners.  Way back in the 1930s, my Dad was a small farmer and his family was proud to pick corn twice a day for delivery to a local restaurant.  Kind of like bakers in Paris delivering fresh bread twice a day -- breakfast and dinner -- to the same families.

It's always been important to us to get to know our Ranchers, and for them to experience garments made from their fiber.  But until WeatherWool grew, it wasn't possible for us to make Single-Source Batches.   A Single-Source Batch requires that both warp and weft (the vertical and horizontal yarns) both come from the same Ranch.  And we can't make our own warp unless we process at least 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) at once.  Batch 9 was our first batch that met the 40k minimum, but Batch 9 has fiber from a few Ranches.

Our first true Single-Source Batch is Innes-1 (Batch 11), which we are processing now (December 2024).

Here is draft-version of our first Single-Source garment label:

In the center of the label is the Innes Ranch Brand, used with permission (and THANKS) of the Innes Family.  The Brand is legally registered with the State of Wyoming.  It is not normal to brand sheep, but Innes Ranch uses the brand on cattle ... so ... I couldn't resist!

We will continue to buy fiber from the smaller Ranches that have supported us all along, but we are also delighted to produce Single-Source Fabrics.

Looking forward to these next steps!!

18 December 2024 -- Ralph