Sheep grow many different colors of wool.  On the industrial scale, they don't want to know about anything but "white wool".  But I'm convinced Naturally Colored Wool is going to be very big.  This stuff is beautiful!

Photos from the fiber contest at the 2024 Garden State Sheep Show:

Not only would Naturally Colored Wool fabrics and garments be crazy-beautiful, but they would also be free from any of the chemicals associated with dyeing.  And more and more people are interested in removing and diminishing unnatural chemicals from their clothing, bedding and environment.   Quite a few of the people who are interested in our Natural White Fabrics are less-interested in the color than in the lack of dyeing.

The fiber in the photos will be much-appreciated by hand-spinners and knitters, but only on the small-scale.  The industrial-size processors will not handle anything but "white wool" because even very tiny residual amounts of naturally colored wool will be viewed as contaminants by those focused on the white wool.  The usual approach is to start with white wool and then dye to create the desired color.  And wool can be "dyed darker", but it can't be "dyed lighter".  You can start with any color and dye it black.   But black or brown can't be dyed white, or blue, or green, or red.

For us, focused on making our own Fabric from fiber we source ourselves, we need to work with Batches of 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) minimum.  But the people who will process naturally colored wool are focused on extremely small quantities of a couple of pounds, maybe up to 10 or 20 pounds (10 kg).  It seems that an entirely new scouring (initial cleaning) facility will need to be built before industrial quantities of Natural Colored can be handled.  This would necessitate a multi-million dollar investment, plus probably years of paperwork.  It would also require growth of Natural Colored production.  At present, only small quantities of the Natural Colored are produced.

I continue to believe/predict that consumer desires will force the industry to develop Natural Colored ... and I intend WeatherWool to help that push.

15 September 2024 --- Tilting at Windmills --- Ralph