The Pure Grow Wool Story
Premium Eco Wool
|
The Pure Grow Wool project is a unique program that emphasizes a long-term commitment with local ranchers
to insure pure, clean wool for our products. The "Pure Grow" wool ranchers are asked to follow healthful farming
practices such as:
|
- Utilize year round rational grazing and responsible land
management. Good nutrition to maximize animal health.
Non-crowded conditions, fresh air, daylight, clean and
roomy shelters.
- In the shearing process, use a clean room and a surface
free of dirt, dust and pests. Clean shearing produces
clean wool.
- The wool is removed in a single fleece and placed on the
skirting table; there it is inspected for length, strength, dirt
and pests. Care is taken to keep the wool as clean as
possible during shearing to eliminate any need for
chemical treatments to remove burrs, brands, dirt and
other impurities. Only top quality wool is used in our
products.
- Shorn wool is immediately separated by color and placed
in clean dry sacks.
- The wool is taken to a scouring mill where it is soaked in
hot water to remove loose matter. Then it is washed a
minimum of two times in hot water with a safe,
biodegradable detergent, rinsed in hot water and
wrapped into large bales.
|
|
- The clean wool is then shipped to manufacturing. Several lots of wool are blended to insure uniform
quality and then carded. The carding process involves mechanically combing the wool fibers into smooth
bats.
- The shorn wool goes into our products including pillows, comforters, wool pads, and for comfort as well
as a natural fire retardant in our organic cotton and natural rubber mattresses.
Wool is a springy, resilient fiber that contains an abundance of air. This fiber/air combination acts to cushion the
body and prevent the formation of annoying and painful pressure points.
Wool has the ability to absorb large amounts of moisture vapor without feeling wet and clammy. The average
person gives of a pint of vapor as perspiration during an eight-hour sleep period under a comforter. The ability of
our wool fiber to handle this moisture is very important. Wool handles body moisture under warm and cool
sleeping conditions in a manner superior to cotton, down, or synthetic fiber.
A study conducted by the Ergonomics Unit at the Polytechnic Institute of Whales confirmed that a wool filled
comforter is more comfortable that the equivalent weight and construction of synthetic comforters. The
physiological data showed: The heart rate under the wool filled comforter was significantly lower 100% of the
time. The humidity next to the skin above 91 degrees, which is considered to be the optimum level for sleep
comfort, was significantly higher under synthetic fill comforters 80% of the time.
|
Why is it better than certified organic wool?
|
Organic wool is processed (carded) in a facility where other fibers are processed. We are the only facility which
processes wool from the organically raised sheep in our own facility. The wool is washed, then it is fed into our
machine which shreds the wool in order to separate the fibers. It goes into a long tube which carries it to another
machine where it is further cleaned and separated. It then comes out into neat folds of carded wool. The machine
does not process anything but our Pure-Grow Wool so it does not get contaminants into the wool.
Ginny with Ecobaby did try other organic wool, but found that there were contaminants such as poly fibers in the
wool. It is important to know what other materials are currently being used, or were used, in the same machine
that processes the organic wool. For example, one of Ginny's machines was purchased and dye was put
through the machine. It took a couple years before there were none of the dyed fibers. Companies that send their
wool out to be processed or use their machine for other items do get a good amount of contaminants from the
various other items that were processed before. You can ask for a ball of the carded wool from a company and
maybe you can see some of the foreign fibers.
|
|
