2025-08-24 ... Spinning
Spinning yarn is a hugely important part of what we do.  There are a great many types of spinning, many ways to use the yarn and various ways to prepare the wool for spinning.   And then AFTER the spinning there are various ways to prepare the yarn for weaving. 

Because we are now making several types of Fabric, and in particular because of our Denim, I find myself on the phone with customers talking about different ways to spin yarn and different ways to weave yarn.  I have just updated our page on Spinning.

   

   

   

2025-08-22 ... Intellectual Property
I just updated our Intellectual Property page.   Trademarks, copyright, etc.   That stuff is really important to us, and we are accumulating more of it as time goes by.

   

   

   

2025-08-21 ... Mountain Meadow Wool (Wyoming)
Debby and I visited Ben Hostetler and the team at Mountain Meadow Wool a few years ago.   Mountain Meadow operates out of Buffalo, Wyoming, about 100 miles (160 km) North of Casper, where our son Zack lives with his family.   We spent some time with Ben a few years ago (THANKS, BEN!!) and we need to get back.

This morning I received Mountain Meadow's latest newsletter, and they have surely been busy!    From what I remember (never a sure bet!), they've added new equipment, new services and an updated website.

One thing I really like is that Ben works with local Wool Growers, turning their raw wool into finished products.  Ben focuses mostly on knitting, offering yarns as well as finished products.

We appreciated the time Ben spent with us, and we have stayed in touch, a little, ever since.

Companies like Mountain Meadow (I don't know, actually, if there ARE any companies like Mountain Meadow) are helping wool, American Wool in particular, survive and THRIVE (I hope!).

   

   

   

2025-08-20 ... Jeans Shipping ... CPOs Shipping ... Getting Noticed? ... Chiming In
Recently, the Aussies (Woolmark) posted on Instagram about Denim that has SOME wool in it, and since then several people have picked up on that post.  It seems the world is awakening to Wool Denim.  I'm glad about that, and (I think?) I'm also glad that we seem to still be the only ones taking Wool Denim seriously (as in 100% Wool Denim).   But this tiny flurry of publicity has posed a bit of dilemma for me.    The first such post I saw, linked above, was from Woolmark, the trade group of the Australian Wool Growers.   I always wonder if I should comment on posts from other wool folks, because we are to some degree competitors.  And Woolmark could quite reasonably object to having their account used to intro any company that does not use Aussie wool.   On the other hand, if the idea is to promote wool, then maybe they'd want to hear from me.   So, two weeks ago, I commented:  

YIPPEE and THANK YOU for highlighting Wool Denim!! We've been making 100% Wool Denim for two years and our customers love it. The addition of wool improves the other fibers, but not vice versa ... at least in our totally wool-centric opinion. WOOLMARK IS GREAT. THANKS for what you do!! -- Ralph

Two days ago, Woolmark posted about Denim again ... The evolution of denim and what's coming next ...

 

Princess Di, almost for sure, was wearing cotton denim, but at least a big player like Woolmark is getting the idea!!

 

... so I chimed in again:

It's funny that people (including me until 2023) do not know that DENIM IS A WEAVE and can be woven from yarns of many different compositions. We began testing our 100% Wool Denim in 2023, and have loved it ever since. We've been shipping it to customers since April of 2024, and it has made a lot of "wool converts". Wool Denim -- 100% Wool Denim, if you ask me! -- is going to capture the hearts of a lot of people who have never worn and never even considered wool. We are seeing it every day! .... Keep doing what you do, Woolmark! You have helped us a lot!! -- Thank You -- Ralph

And I sent a Direct (meaning PRIVATE) message:

Hi Woolmark! -- I just commented on your DENIM post from two days ago. Given that we are a 100% USA company, maybe you don't want me on your account. If so, please clobber the comment and let me know to back off. It would be understandable, and no hard feelings. WeatherWool is very grateful for your work and we have gotten a lot of great info from Woolmark. And we completely agree that Denim is going to be a big deal for us in Wool World. THANKS and ALL THE BEST -- Ralph

We'll see if Woolmark responds at all.   My comment from two weeks ago is still online,  Woolmark didn't give it a LIKE, but they didn't clobber it, either.

I feel that the wool market has been beaten so far down that all us wool-people are in the same lifeboat.  But, it's well-known that people in a lifeboat sometimes throw each other overboard.   In a similar vein, a bigtime Wall Street guy I used to work with once told me "The world is built on conflict of interest."

Long ago, I decided that we'd not shy away from mentioning other players in the wool world here, and that we'd even feature all the people and companies (our Partners) that make our work possible.  I've been told I'm making it too easy for other people to compete with us, to copy what we do, to detract from the attention our Partners might devote to us.  But I don't want to rely on secrets.  I want to compete on quality and service.  If we help some other folks along the way, that will help us improve, too.

Our 100% Wool Denim Jeans in Charcoal and in Walnut are shipping now!  And, yeah, we are the only people in the world, near as I can tell, that have such.

We're also shipping some of the newest CPOs in Denim.  Nobody else offering anything like that, either.

Evidently, we are getting noticed more by people in the manufacturing-support space.  I'm being contacted by numerous companies that offer software that helps manage production, inventory, billing, etc.   And I probably should start working with one of these outfits.   I'll be investigating possibilities.

 

   

   

2025-08-19 ... Toxic Chemical Code Words, Courtesy @HanningDunning11
More and more people -- such as me -- are waking up to the potential harm the wrong textiles can cause.   Given that we spend virtually our entire lives wrapped in textiles, and given that our skin can absorb many different chemicals and even small bits of plastic, what we wear is a big deal.   As far as I know, WeatherWool is in good shape.   And wool is a great foundation.   But I want to know more about our own goods as well as the overall situation.

It's interesting to reflect that, at least in the USA, there is no legal requirement to disclose the chemicals that have been used in processing clothing.  So although we are required to include labels showing place of manufacture, composition of Fabric and care instructions, we don't have to include information about our "ingredients" in the way food labeling must.   I believe that's because we (this is the GIANT COLLECTIVE WE!) have not much paid attention ... we think of clothing as something that sits on our skin but not as something that truly interacts with us, even though it does!   I also believe our perspective is changing very fast.

I've recently begun following Hannah Dunning's Instagram account.  A post from 12 August about Chemical "Code Words" caught my attention.   And for me, it's another one of those situations where, once pointed out, it's going to stay in my mind.   BIG THANKS to Hannah (Ms Dunning?! ... but she seems very friendly) for this post and the info offered.  If Hannah cited anyone else I did not see.  Hannah presents herself not as an authority, but instead as someone trying to find out the story and offering up what info she believes worthy.   The Chemical Code Words that raise Hannah's red flags:

1. Water Proof, Water Resistant, Sweat Resistant likely means a coating with something in the PFAS chemical family.  You can find a ton of nasty info on PFAS
2. Odor-Resistance likely means antimicrobial chemicals which can harm the wearer and harm the many types of beneficial bacteria that live on our skin (this was news to me!)
3. Wrinkle Proof often means treatment with formaldehyde (a primary embalming fluid), which is quite harmful on our skin, lungs, eyes.  It can irritate our nasal passages enough to cause nosebleeds!  I first heard about the nosebleeds from "P", who did an intense, thorough and very entertaining review of his WarriorWool Anorak, and told a nosebleed (literally) story about what led him to search us out!
4. UV Protection can mean the textile is coated with very tiny bits that can be inhaled or absorbed and disrupt normal body functions.   NB:  Wool, on its own, offers significant UV protection because that's how Nature made it
5. Fire Resistance treatments may use chemicals that can cause problems.  Most streetwear is not treated, although some is.   Some workwear is specifically treated to pass "FR" testing, and the needed chemicals can be bad news.  Wool is naturally non-flammable, meaning it will not burn under normal conditions.  We have occasionally considered FR testing, but it would cost a few thousand dollars annually for each of our Fabrics.   And given that wool is well-known as naturally FR, we have not paid for the commercial testing
6. Stain Resistant is PFAS again
7. Easy Care for non-wool clothing usually means wrinkle-free, which brings up formaldehyde again.  Wool naturally resists wrinkling.   But Easy-Care for woolens can mean shrink-resistance, which in turn likely involves superwashing with acid, and then applying a plastic polymer coating on the wool fibers.  Superwashing is a wool-industry standard, but we stopped superwashing with Batch 8.

We have had some testing done, and I don't know of any nasties in our goods.  But I also don't know enough about the testing or the potential nasties to coast on this situation.

   

   

   

2025-08-18 ... Yesterday, Slight Correction and Additional Info
I slightly corrected a little of the info from yesterday.   The American Chestnut Foundation is no longer supporting the restoration efforts at SUNY/ESF, at least partly because the groups are different techniques.   AND ... for central New-York-minded folks, the local chapter of TACF is now independent.

More importantly, Dr Newhouse's effort is ESF's American Chestnut Research & Restoration Project.   The work is privately funded, so donations are vital.

   

   

 

2025-08-17 ... SUNY, SU, ESF, ACF, Trucks and Chestnuts, Black Squirrels and Pennsylvania Tuxedos
[All this actually is wool-related …]

Waaaaay back in 1970, I planned to go to Rutgers U in September of 1971.   Based on my academics, I thought I’d get into Rutgers pretty easily.   But Rutgers, I think, figured out that I had no discipline and no real motivation.   College had always just been what my folks felt was in my future.   What little effort I put into high school pretty well evaporated by senior year of high school, which, I thought, was not relevant to college admissions.   WRONG.  Rutgers asked for my first-semester senior-year transcripts, which were easily the worst of my life.   And I was rejected by Rutgers.   However, I’d been advised to apply to a couple of “ditch schools” … schools you did not really want to attend, but schools that would accept you just in case.   And my ditch school did accept me.   However – this is such a joke! – I had read a magazine article written by a guy who’d gotten his PhD in BOBCATS at Syracuse University.   I wanted to study Biology, so I applied to SU on the basis of that magazine article.   Wish I remember who the author was!

Syracuse really wanted me to go, and, so … that’s where I went to school.   Only after starting school there did I learn that, based on bobcats, I should have applied to the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science at Forestry (ESF) at Syracuse University (SU).   SUNY/ESF students, known on campus as STUMPIES, take liberal arts courses and some of the science/math at SU, and ESF offers only the courses that are focused on ESF.   I had actually applied to the wrong school, but it’s also quite possible that I would not have been accepted at SUNY/ESF, particularly as an out-of-state student.   Anyhow, off to SU I went, where I met Debby.   I could not have had a more marvelous result.  And I still have a bunch of close friends from my years at SU.

Starting school, I knew that winter in Syracuse, about 100 miles/160 km South of the Canadian border, would be tougher than the winters in the NYC area.   I also knew that the gray squirrels that are so widespread in the Eastern USA will sometimes be completely black in the Northern parts of their range.   I was startled to see BLACK Gray Squirrels when I arrived on campus.   Winter was indeed significantly more severe but my Woolrich red-and-black plaid (wool) hunting jacket handled the weather very well.   Although I did not study anything related to wool or clothing manufacture, that old “Pennsylvania Tuxedo” jacket reinforced my respect for wool.

In the early 1970s, synthetics were just getting popular, and a friend of mine had a green synthetic jacket.   It was usual in those days for guys to have only one jacket, and one winter for a couple of weeks I switched jackets with a friend who had a light synthetic.   He liked my wool jacket!

But SU days ended in 1975!! ... yeah, 50 years ago.   I tried to get Debby and my friends to attend the 50-year reunion on campus this past April, but nobody else wanted to go!!   I still don’t understand that.   However … fate intervened and I did get my way, a little bit …

Overall, SUNY has 64 campuses and about 375,000 students.   A lot of variety.   Almost a year ago, we placed an ad on the job board of SUNY’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), which is located at the edge of the NYC Garment District.    Since November, a wonderful young woman, Ashley (WeatherWool name is PATCHES) has been working with us, and she’s been great.   Ashley’s major was Textile Design, and she was awarded an Associate Degree from FIT in May (YAY Patches!!).   It turns out that SUNY/ESF also offers Textile Design, and this week Ashley will begin working toward her Bachelor of Science in Textile Design!!  WeatherWool is all about Textile Design, and we love the idea that, possibly, working here will have been a boost to Ashley.   We'll keep working together, somehow, while she studies at ESF.

Chestnuts are another factor in this mix.   They’ve been so long gone that most people have never heard of the fabulous American Chestnut Tree.   It so happens I grew up in a house with American Chestnut woodwork, so I’d heard of it.   The American Chestnut has reasonably been called A Perfect Tree (Susan Frienkel wrote the book).  The American Chestnut produced huge amounts of fabulous, edible chestnuts, great lumber and the most beautiful blossoms you’ll ever see.   The Chestnut was as much as half the Eastern Forest from Georgia to Maine and West to Ohio.   But an invasive blight laid them low … billions of them gone in just a decade or so, about 100 years ago.   They are not quite GONE ... the blight does not kill the roots … so the trees keep sending up new growth, which the blight knocks back before the trees reach reproductive age/size.

Our chestnuts may be (almost completely) gone, but they are far from forgotten.   For many years, I’ve been aware of The American Chestnut Foundation, and how they have been helping to support efforts to breed blight-resistant American Chestnuts.   It so happens that separate restoration work is led by Dr Andy Newhouse of SUNY/ESF.    I’ve been wanting to get in touch with Dr Newhouse for a while.   I love what he is doing, and I knew he’d make a great interview for a WeatherWool video.   So, when I heard Patches was headed for Syracuse, I could not resist putting together a road trip … Dr Newhouse agreed to meet and offered a tour of the research facility, and Ashley and her Mom were good with the idea of using our pickup to get moved in on campus.   And Debby loved the idea of getting Ashley off to school.

They say when you return to your old haunts, everything seems smaller.   That was not at all the case.   Campus seemed as big as ever, but prettier!   What did get smaller/shorter was the ride!   Way back when, neither the roads nor the cars were as good as now, and so the drive was accomplished much quicker.   It’s like Syracuse got a lot closer!

The old truck handled things great until we got Ashley moved in, but the starter quit in the parking lot of the hotel where Debby and I were staying.  If it had to die, that was a good place for it to happen.   Problem was, on Friday, nobody in the area could get it fixed until late Monday afternoon, and we couldn’t stay past our original Saturday morning departure.   AAA did a great job of arranging for and covering half the cost of a flatbed wrecker that carried my truck all the way back to our usual maintenance shop in New Jersey, a distance of 232 miles/373 km.   The old truck is showing its age, and I was thinking maybe it was getting to the end.   But the tow truck driver VERY strongly advised us to drive it for as long as we could keep it going.   He is of the opinion that since about 2020, the reliability of trucks has really nosedived.  He said it’s not at all unusual for him to pick up new trucks with very low mileage.   Good thing I have a weakness for old trucks!

A couple of weeks prior to our trip, I'd sent a Chore Coat to Dr Newhouse, and while we waited for the wrecker to pick us up, I explained to Andy why I couldn't make our meeting, and so instead we had a pretty long phone talk.   I will save that info for the video (in the next few months, I hope!), but will say now that the restoration effort is tantalizingly close to going LIVE, INTO THE FORESTS!

   

   

   

2025-08-14 ... ROAD TRIP! ... Fine, Funny Ending (for old chairs)
Debby and I will be on the road until Saturday Night!!   Back in the office on Sunday the 17th.   

We've been cleaning out and sprucing up our basement because we need the storage space.  We're heading into the "wool-months" with more inventory than ever before, and our usual storage spaces are completely filled, with lots more inventory in the works.  So, our basement, which has been something of a dungeon since we moved here in 1984, is being semi-finished.   And of course, having been here so long, the basement has filled up with all kinds of stuff.  Now that we need the space, we are trying to get rid of a lot of whatever has been down there for years and decades and, probably even a century!

There were four heavy, wrought-iron chairs that I brought up from the basement and placed on the front porch.   I knew better than to set them out on the curb (where someone driving by would scoop them up) before getting the final nod from The Big Boss of the Household.   Debby reluctantly agreed they could go, but then decided instead we could use them on the living room porch.  (The house is a turn-of-the-previous-century Colonial-Revival, and the Freemans, who built our place, evidently loved porches.)  We'd just lately gotten rid of the stuff that had been on the living room porch, and so Debby decided to fill that vacuum with these chairs that came oh-so-close to a new life among strangers.   Immediately after Debby issued the Living Room Porch Decree, a wonderful local customer, Bill H, stopped by.  Bill took one look at the old chairs and announced they needed to be re-upholstered with (WeatherWool 100% Wool -- sorry!) Denim!   Brilliant!   THANKS, BILL!  Even I liked that idea, and we did need a couple of chairs for the Showroom (formerly the living room).

 

Debby very expertly re-upholstered these heavy iron chairs in our Moss Green Denim, and they have a new life and are very reasonably part of the Showroom, showing the Denim.   On one chair is the time-clock faceplate (Blog of 2025-07-19) which had likely been in the basement over 100 years.  On the other chair is a WeatherWool Pillow that will likely be offered on this website because The Big Boss of the House and of WeatherWool IS A GURL.  (And she is NOT going to like this photo, but it will do for now.)

   

   

   

2025-08-13 ... Wool Performance with Water ... (and SLO-MO) ... Sun Dog
Wool is one of my favorite things, for a bunch or reasons.  But if it wasn't for the way wool performs as clothing, I wouldn't have done WeatherWool at all.

One of my other favorite things is learning new stuff, particularly if the new info is surprising, or, even better, confounding.   A few days ago, I came across a video of a SLINKY (the "toy"!) falling.  This is definitely confounding for me!   For those who don't want to visit YouTube ... if you hold a Slinky vertically, and let go, the bottom of the Slinky does not fall until the top of the Slinky falls down to the bottom!

    

I bring up the Slinky here because the behavior of wool confounds so many people.   The folks who offer alpaca products say that alpaca does not absorb water, and seem to believe that to be an advantage alpaca has over wool.   And sometimes that might be an advantage.  From my perspective, though, the fact that wool does adsorb water is a great feature, and not a drawback.  But wool's behavior in the presence of liquid water and water vapor is confounding to a lot of people ... to the point they refuse to believe it.  

We've released videos on our YouTube Channel and on this website about how wool can save your life if you get dumped in a winter river.   And there is written info about what the scientists say is happening.   But we are about clothing, and so what really counts is the SUBJECTIVE experience, and if a science-mind claims the subjective experience is wrong, I think it's the science-mind that is wrong.

People have absolutely insisted wool simply cannot generate heat (comments on the linked video).   When people contradict and ridicule our info publicly, I feel I must respond.   I'm OK with being personally ridiculed, but don't ridicule my wool!   Plus I need to make sure the written record is as correct as I can make it.   So, I did yet another round of defense today, responding to a comment I'd just seen, even though it was a few months old ... reproduced here to illustrate the story, but also to illustrate an attitude I fear is my own, sometimes:

      

@mastpg:  Wool is warm, but claims of a "chemical reaction" generating heat when wool is wetted is nonsense. Don't know why an actual company would make bogus claims like this. It's complete nonsense.  
WeatherWool
    
@WeatherWool:  Hi, We could delete this, but we stand by it. By all means, prove us wrong. We're here to learn together. Not trying to sell bogus claims.  No one here at WeatherWool is claiming to be an expert. We're all just trying to better understand and constantly improve our product.  - Cody
   

@mastpg The release of water vapor's latent heat when it condenses to liquid or forms polar hydrogen bonds with one of the three amino acids making up keratin (~90% of wool by weight) happens only with water vapor. When liquid water swaps intra-water hydrogen bonds, all of which are O-H...H, for hydrogen bonds with the guanidinium group in arginine, the carboxylic acid group in alanine or the S-H, N-H, C-H or carboxylic acid groups on cystine...leucine can't form hydrogen bonds...that process actually requires energy, as all those structures are less polar than O-H. Thus, all the hydrogen bonding between liquid water and polar sites within the wool fiber is endothermic. It REQUIRES energy. It does not release it.

Please just stop and retract this video. It is completely absurd in both tone and content. If you take it down, I'll do the complete calculation for the maximum theoretical amount of latent heat released by water vapor forming hydrogen bonds with the carboxylic acid and guanidinium groups, S-H, N-H and C-H sites and try to find out how quickly this happens at varying humidity and temperature levels.

    
@WeatherWool:   Hello, anonymous theoretical authority.  This is Ralph, founder of WeatherWool and never anonymous.    .........  Similar comments have been made previously on our wool/water/heat videos, and I respond when I see these comments (just saw this exchange between you and Cody) because I think it's necessary.

If I didn't believe what we post, we would not post.   And our post is supported by our actual experiences.

Stop with the THEORETICAL!!  ..... What makes you so sure you understand what is possible, or what Nature actually does?   Startling!   And so so so authoritative!!!   What an attitude?!!   "If you do as I say, I'll treat you to some more of my THEORETICAL CALCULATIONS!!" .... "Nature can behave only in the ways I imagine it can behave."   How Humpty Dumpty of you!!

Tell you what ... Keep your THEORETICAL and try an actual observation.   A very simple experiment.   Take some dry wool.   Stick a thermometer in it.   Put it in a humid room, keep an eye on the thermometer.   This is not new stuff.    Here is a link to some research from Australia's CSIRO (national science agency):    https://www.woolwise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/03.2-The-Wool-Fibre-and-its-applications-Notes.pdf ... take a look at page 6.

If you want a more relevant experiment, get a serious wool jacket and take it outdoors when it is near-freezing and humid.

We're concerned with real-world, subjective experience.   That's why we've jumped in freezing rivers.   We love the science and the theory and the experiments because we want to understand.   But all the books and theories are rubbish compared to actual people doing actual things in actual Natural conditions and reporting their actual experiences. 

      

And sorry if this was tedious but the way wool behaves with respect to water is so integral to what we are doing ... and if you don't believe it, test it!  It's very simple.  We've occasionally bandied the idea of offering a test kit to help people see for themselves.  We rejected the idea as being too far afield from what we do.  But ... 

As an aside ... there are a bunch of SLINKY FALLING videos on YouTube.  A nice one is done by two young guys, THE SLO-MO GUYS, who have 15 million people subscribing to their YouTube Channel!   This is a wonderful, shocking sort of info for me!

We love that so many of our customers use our wool for photography.     Decades ago, before we had slo-mo video, we had Harold Edgerton, whose high-speed photography surprised and sometimes confounded my expectations of physical behaviors.  You can find lots of Edgerton's work on the web.  I just had a really nice talk with Richard Mills (the SUN DOG!) earlier today.   Richard doesn't do slo-mo, as far as I know, but WeatherWool was with him when he snapped this tremendous Sun Dog in Yellowstone National Park when the temp was -31F/-35C.

A couple of years ago, I was telling people to call me SUN DOG, but nobody did.

   

   

   

2025-08-12 ... Garden State Sheep Show ... YouTube Channel
My little old New Jersey, "The Garden State", does not have any large wool producers, but there are lots of small flocks here, with fine animals growing some gorgeous wool.   Every year in September, the Garden State Sheep Breeders holds their Sheep and Fiber Festival at the Hunterdon County Fairgrounds in Ringoes.  This year, September 13 and 14, Saturday and Sunday.   I love seeing the youngsters showing their animals, the fleece competitions, and the dogs herding the flocks.

In June I was happy to see that our tiny YouTube Channel -- 3500 subscribers -- had slightly more minutes watched than minutes in the month (44,300).  But we had a big jump in July, up to 162,800 minutes.   Given that July is the worst month for wool sales, this seems a really good sign.

I don't know my way around YouTube very well, even as a user, let alone a publisher/creator.  But YouTube makes some interesting stats easy to find.  What is not so easy is figuring out what people will watch, and why.

• We have published about 50 videos
• Our most-watched and most-liked video, by a wide margin, is "Brook Trout & Sinking Lines with Jim Abbott".  Jim has become a friend (thanks to WeatherWool) and the video was done by Cody.  This video is all about fishing and nothing about wool, except that Jim is wearing his Anorak.  Jim has a fantastic voice and bearing and it's easy to see he is the genuine article
• Our second most-watched video is Cody's 10-minute presentation of the South Shore Chore Coat, from August of last year.  This is all about the wool, and nothing else.   Sort of the opposite of the Brook Trout video.  Looks like we need to do more product videos ...
• Our oldest video is from April of 2015.  I did not realize it's been that long.  Thanks to Advisor Darrell Holland for this review
• The video that generated the most comments is "Water+Wool=Heat".  A lot of people simply do not believe that wool generates heat when it adsorbs water vapor.   The way that wool handles water is one of the most important reasons for wearing wool.   And anyone who doubts what wool can do can easily test personally by wearing some serious wool!
• Almost all our videos have a likes/dislikes ratio of 99:1 or 98:2

YouTube is a fantastic way to introduce ourselves to people, and to provide information about what we are doing.  We need to find a way to make our content much much much more interesting!!

 

   

   

   

2025-08-11 ... ROUGHNECK WOOLSTOCK
This is a longer entry than usual, and it’s not entirely wool-related.   But it is part of WeatherWool, so it is appropriate.
--------------
 
As a result of him wearing our wool on TV’s MOUNTAIN MEN series, I’ve known Josh Kirk for five or six years.   WeatherWool recently had a place on the beach in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.  One fine evening, around midnight, we were enjoying some bourbon, some music and the sounds of the Atlantic surf.   Josh is a terrific musician, singer, songwriter, and so music and performing was a natural part of the conversation.   Josh lives in Wyoming.  So does my younger son, Zack, with his family.   And Wyoming is now, by far, the most important source of our wool.  (The upcoming Batch Innes-1 is sourced entirely from the Innes Ranch of Gillette, Wyoming.)
 
Musical events are in Josh’s DNA, and I told him about an idea I’ve had since 2010 or so.    [The following may offend some people’s politics.  But it does come back around to wool!]    Beginning in 2007, I began to see how the American Energy Business can completely transform the fortunes of families, towns, and even regions.  “Land Men” from the oil and gas companies began knocking on doors in 2007 in Northeastern Pennsylvania, looking to negotiate leases between energy companies and landowners.  The enormous Marcellus Shale formation, underlying parts of PA, WV, OH and NY, had long been known to hold stupendous amounts of natural gas, but extraction was not economically feasible.  However, new technology and rising prices changed the situation.  The price of natgas had roughly tripled in the first few years of this century, and at the same time, horizontal drilling was developed.  The convergence of these events caused a land rush in the Marcellus.  Here’s a favorite story, as told to me by a friend:

    
 
A guy was employed by my friend as a forklift driver.   A very hardworking, dedicated guy.   Like many people in Northeast Pennsylvania, this worker lived on a farm that had been in his family for generations, and he loved his land.   But changes in America’s farm economy made huge numbers of family farms unprofitable, and there is no end to the numbers of small farmers who had to sell their land, give up farming, take jobs in town to (barely) hang onto the farm.  So, this forklift driver would get up extra-early every morning, work his farm, then drive a forklift, then work the farm again after his day-job.   And he spent his weekends working the farm.   This is a hardworking guy, and you’ll find people like this, in this situation, all over the USA.   But for farmers whose land happened to sit on top of the prime parts of the Marcellus, the situation changed drastically in 2008 or so.   My buddy’s employee signed a gas lease, got a big signing bonus – probably more than he’d earn in 10 years driving the forklift – and monthly royalties started coming in.   He was suddenly making more each month on royalties than he’d been making in a year working his job.   But he kept driving the forklift, and my friend kept waiting for him to resign.   One day, he walked into my friend’s office, wanting to talk.  My friend figured he’s going to give him notice.  But NO!  He wanted a new forklift, with heat and air conditioning, so he could work more comfortably.   And he said HE’D BUY THE FORKLIFT!!

    
 
There are many, many similar stories in the Marcellus, and many similar stories all over the USA where resource extraction has immensely improved the financial situation for people who had been land-rich but otherwise poor.   And for the rest of us, the price of natgas has fallen by two-thirds or even more in the last 15 years or so.   Most American homes are heated by burning natgas.   [The political part is that many people believe burning carbon-based fuels like natgas will cause the earth to overheat.  On the flip side, other people think plants are currently starved for the carbon dioxide produced by burning natgas, and that more CO2 in the air is a good thing.]
 
The Marcellus and the energy industry have been transformative for many parts of the country, for my family, and even for the wool business.   As a result of the wool biz, I spoke with a bunch of customers who were energy workers or business folks.   Zack had been unhappy working in New York City, and I’d been telling him to HEAD WEST, YOUNG MAN, where things were booming.   In 2012, Alex and a friend were about to drive off to Wyoming on a hunting trip.  A couple of days before Alex left, I got a call from a customer who told me he worked in oil and gas in Wyoming, and he could certainly get Zack an interview.   Zack spoke with him, and two days later, he drove off with Alex and … he’s made a wonderful life for himself in Wyoming.   As for WeatherWool, a lot of our customers work in energy.  As for the wool industry … it’s VERY difficult to make a living as a Sheep Rancher.   Like the family farms that are struggling nationwide, so it is with ranches … particularly Sheep Ranches.   In Wyoming, energy royalties and jobs make it possible for many people to keep raising sheep, as their ancestors have done for generations.
 
Despite being the American State with the smallest population (more antelope than people), Wyoming is America’s leading State with regards to the production of fine wool … the type of wool we need.   And because of its small population, wool is more important in Wyoming than any other State.  Wyoming is our biggest source of wool.   Remarkably, Wyoming also leads all States in the production of wind energy, coal and uranium.    On a per capita basis, Wyoming is among USA’s leading oil and natgas States.
 
Circling back to the surfside talk with Josh, the subject of musical events came up, and I told Josh that I’d long believed the American Energy industry has the power to continue to change the USA in a very very positive way, and that this ought to be celebrated.   So, we decided to do exactly that.   Adding wool to the mix, Zack’s wife, Carla, came up with the name Roughneck Woolstock.   ROUGHNECK for the workers in the energy fields, and WOOLSTOCK pulling together WOOL and WOODSTOCK.   A big THANK YOU to Carla!
 
Brenn Hill, a friend of Josh who has a lifetime’s experience as a composer, performer, and promoter of musical events, likes the idea enough to join us in putting together the first Roughneck Woolstock in September of 2026, probably in Lander, Wyoming.   
 
This HAS TO BE the most-unexpected direction in which WeatherWool has led me!
 
A couple of days ago, the poem below just sort of poured out of Brenn, and it may become the lyrics to an original composition.   Maybe Brenn will debut it at Roughneck Woolstock!
 
Heart of Wool

Grandpa had a heart of wool
Spun strong through the Depression
When hunger pains left mental scars
To waste was indiscretion

No one had in excess here 
You learned that things that last
Are not to be discarded ever 
And damn you learned that fast

For though the man was kind to all
His temper had a blade
Respect and honor mattered most
It’s how the man was made

Horses, sheep, and cattle were 
A way of life for him
Land and water sacred gifts
And all life came therein

And so I can remember still
Now thirty years have passed
His coats and hats were made of wool
For wool is made to last

He was not a man of wealth
Of any worldly measure
Though if an honest life is gold
The man had endless treasure

He feared no one but the Lord
He owed no one a dime
He would not suffer fools 
And Grandad never wasted time

And I will not ever forget
That snowy Autumn morn 
We rode far down in Yellow Creek
My coat was wet and torn

And that old Wyoming wind was bitter
I was only twelve years old
Grandpa must’ve seen me shiver
Wincing in the cold

He reigned up hard and started 
On the buttons on his coat
The old striped blue one made of wool
That collared round his throat

So many times he’d worn it 
On the coldest nights and days
He said it owed him nothing
Though he’d not throw it away 

He motioned to me with a nod
To ride up on his side
And handed me that old blue coat
With just a hint of pride 

It was wet with snow and heavy 
But damn it got me warm
While Grandad in his old wool shirt
Rode headlong in the storm 

We found the heifers that we missed
While on the big fall gather
And through his hard set jaw
He said “I’m glad that we’re together”

Now Grandad has so long since passed
The world has changed so much
Expendable, disposable,
And all so out of touch

With all the things I learned from him
The code of work and grit
You set your heart and mind like stone
And by God never quit

Grandad had a heart of wool
Pure fiber woven strong
And like the woolen clothes he wore
His memory lives on 

- Brenn Hill

Brenn Hill’s Grandpa and big Sis (1970 something)

   

   

   

   

2025-08-08 ... Denim World
WeatherWool has surely led me to some unexpected places and a prime example would have to be the "Denim World".   

It's come up here a bunch of times that as a result of stumbling onto the fact that Denim is a way of weaving, I'm now getting into the World of Denim.   I knew Denim was big stuff, much beloved, but I didn't know HOW BIG!

I've been visiting the site of Denim Hunters occasionally for a couple of years, and I've learned that (Cotton-Jeans) Denim is even more of A THING than I knew.   We would never have gone into production with our own 100% Wool Denim if I didn't really, really like it.   But part of the reason we did the Denim in the first place was that I hoped The Denim Lovers would, in their searches for new types of Denim, find our Denim.   And that is happening, with happy results all around.   But also, I'm learning that Denim World is wider and deeper than I'd suspected.   

The Denim Hunters has a very active website, patrolling Denim World, reporting on what's new and interesting and who is doing what.   They are also publishing a newsletter, to which I subscribed a few days ago.  Today's edition had news about Denim Dudes, another Denim Destination, but this one mostly for professionals.   The main Dudes are actually Dudettes -- NICE! -- describing themselves as "... THE DENIM INDUSTRY'S LEADING CONSULTANCY FIRM." ... "UNCOVERING CULTURE TODAY TO HELP YOU DESIGN TOMORROW."  The Dudettes subscription plans start at $500 annually.

One thing that has bugged me and even saddened me a little since I've become part of the garment biz is that SMILES are almost gone from the photos.   Very few of the models or the designers look happy.  I don't get it.  I was brought up to say CHEESE for the camera.   It's nice to see happy people.  The Dudettes photos have big smiles and they look happy and that makes me want to get in touch!

Denim World has already begun to welcome, on a very small scale, some Old Youngblood.  This is going to be interesting, exciting, and fun!

 

 

   

   

   

2025-08-07 ... Looms Update ... US Import Tariffs
In order to get our looms working properly, we need to buy new harnesses.   And because I have only the most general idea of what harnesses do, I checked with GROK:

In weaving, a harness (also called a shaft or frame) is a key component of a loom that controls the warp threads. It holds a set of heddles, which are metal or string loops with eyes through which individual warp threads are passed. The harness raises or lowers these threads to create the shed, an opening through which the weft thread is passed to form the weave.

Functions of a Harness:

1. 1. Lifts Warp Threads: The harness raises or lowers specific warp threads according to the weave pattern, creating the shed for the weft to pass through.
   2. Controls Pattern: By using multiple harnesses (common in multi-shaft looms), different combinations of warp threads can be lifted, allowing for complex patterns like twills, satins, or intricate designs.
   3. Organizes Threads: Each harness holds a group of warp threads, keeping them aligned and organized during weaving.
   4. Facilitates Shed Creation: The movement of harnesses, controlled by the weaver (via treadles, levers, or a dobby/jacquard mechanism), forms the shed, enabling the weft to interlace with the warp.

 

I'm guessing, paying some respect to Mr Murphy, this pushes us into November before we are weaving on our own looms.   It doesn't change anything else, though ... Jacquard-loom weaving (FullWeight and MidWeight Fabrics) will continue as before at MTL and Dobby-loom weaving (Denim, Whipcord, Heritage Fabrics) will continue at American Woolen.

Tariffs remain big news.  They don't seem to have affected us much, actually.   Somewhat less business with our Canadian friends, maybe, but it's hard to be sure because there are so many other factors involved.  If tariffs in EU really remain at 0, that will certainly help.  We have growing numbers customers in EU Countries.  In any case, whatever tariffs are assessed are added to the retail price and paid by our customers to their own governments, so we are not involved.

But I'm actually thinking about the effect of tariffs on people importing into the USA.  We don't import anything (except, recently, looms, and we did pay tariff of about 3%), but if we did, the tariff would be applied to our wholesale price, not the retail price.

Friends of ours have worked for some of the very big retailers of outdoor-oriented clothing.   And I expect what they have told me is not typical.  But it's interesting and kind of amazing and relevant in the tariff context.   Some of these famous retailers will purchase shirts made in Asia at $10 and offer them, at first, at $100.   So even if the tariff is 20%, they'd be paying $12 instead of $10.   It's virtually irrelevant with a 900% pre-tariff markup.  They don't sell all the shirts at $100 ... but they sell some ... then they start marking down ... and marking down some more ... and ... it keeps going.  

And while $10/$100 sounds extreme, I've been told as low as $6/$100.   This is hearsay, but I know the people who told me believed it, and had an insider's view.

 

   

   

   

2025-08-06 ... Batch Innes-1, Whipcord Shirts, MidWeight Lynx Anoraks
The first pieces of complete Batch Innes-1 Fabric, in Drab Whipcord, are waiting for my pick up at American Woolen.  WOW, this has been a long time coming!  More than three years since we first visited the Innes Ranch (Wyoming) and more than two years since we purchased the first fiber for this Batch.

I didn't expect Whipcord to be the first Fabric completed from this Batch.  But that's how the logistics worked out.

I also didn't expect to be offering Drab Green Whipcord Shirts so soon, but, no point in sitting on the Fabric.  And so, our first pieces offered from Batch Innes-1 are Whipcord Shirts in Drab Green and Anoraks in MidWeight Lynx Pattern.

It was with great pleasure that I just sent a swatch of the Whipcord Fabric, complete with an Innes Ranch Label, to Bob Innes,   The Innes family has not yet seen anything made solely from their wool.  That will change very soon!

WeatherWool is delighted to sew this label into all garments made solely from wool grown on the Innes Family Ranch in Gillette Wyoming!  The label features an Innes Brand, registered with the State of Wyoming.  Thanks to Bob Innes for allowing us to use his brand!

 

   

   

   

2025-08-05 ... Woolmark Highlights (Part) Wool Denim
We remain huge fans of Woolmark, the marketing arm of the Australian Wool Growers ... BUT ... sometimes I feel even Woolmark doesn't really GET IT.   Woolmark keeps publishing pieces on wool combined with other fiber. 

Woolmark has just published a piece on Wool Denim, but their focus is on adding wool to other fibers ... cotton, cotton fleece, TEC/cotton, polyester, Lycra, hemp, viscose, polyamide, elastane, linen, silk, paper.  At least they mention 100% Wool Denim, but the only two suppliers, Zegna (Italy) and Miyuki Keori (Japan), are not offering it yet, and evidently plan to offer only suiting (lightweight) fabric.  Nothing wrong with suiting but I think people normally expect Denim to be heavier.  (YEAH, people also expect Denim to be cotton!)   The suiting is 240 grams per square meter (7 ounces per square yard).    Our Denim is about 440 gsm / 13 opsy.

I may be jumping into quicksand here, but I commented on Woolmark's Instagram (Wool Denim) post:   

   

Woolmark might reasonably clobber my comment because they are all about AUSTRALIAN WOOL.  But I cite them often because they are such a great resource, and I really appreciate what they do!!  

   

   

   

2025-08-03 ... Versatility ... Newsletter/Email
I forgot to mention in previous entry, but the easiest way to get on our mail list is to send a note to Ralph@WeatherWool.com

We design for VERSATILITY more than anything else.  If someone asks what we are about:  always 100% USA, always 100% wool, always VERSATILE:

• Comfort across a wide range of Weather
• Appropriate in a wide range of social settings
• Appropriate across a wide range of outdoor and even indoor activities
• Serviceable across many levels of physical exertion, from sedentary to vigorous
• Skin-soft but also tough and durable

Our trademark HARDCORE LUXURY® is my attempt to put all that into two words, but people don't really pay attention, or think about it.

A few days ago, we were thinking if a picture is worth 1000 words, a photo montage could be a good way to convey the VERSATILITY concept.  Here is a first take at some concept art from Cody:

We (mostly Cody!) will be updating this image with new photos and would very much appreciate any contributions photos if you have cool photos of you wearing WeatherWool walking towards the camera or have and words/experiences/ideas.  Thank You.

We intend to get photos of our Ranchers and their sheep in all kinds of Weather.

For a long time, we've had a page dedicated to Versatility, and we've always welcomed material here, too!

 

   

Blog 2025 Part One