Where does my wool come from?
BLF (Bluefaced Leicester)
This wool comes from small farms throughout the UK. The fleece is purchased through the British Wool Marketing Board on behalf of my wool wholesaler. The fibers are then combed and cleaned in the UK. These fibers are then spun into yarn at a wool mill in South Africa. Back in the UK, it is superwash treated to the highest environmental standards.
Merino
This wool comes from various sources (However, not from Australia!). None of the merino fiber comes from farms that practice mulesing. Thus, the merino wool in my store is completely mulesing-free!
Non-Superwash Merino
These merino fibers come from small farmers in the mountains of Peru. The sheep are the livelihood of these farmers, so it is in their interest to take the best possible care of their flock to get the highest possible price for the fleece.
Superwash Merino
These fibers come from Argentina, Uruguay and Europe from a wide variety of farms. Here, too, the fleeces are often collected by small farmers and processed on a larger scale.
Mohair
The mohair comes from Europe and South Africa. The wool mill where these fibers are processed also owns its own mohair farm and is convinced of the origin of its wool and animal welfare.
Cashmere
The cashmere comes from Mongolia and China.
What does Superwash(SW), Non-Superwash mean and what are the respective special features?
To make wool as felt-free as possible, the Hercosett process is used. Wool felts due to its outer structure. The scaly outer layer functions like a kind of Velcro fastener when the individual scales rub against each other. If wool fibers are placed in warm water, the scales stand up. If the temperature now suddenly drops, the scales interlock with each other and thus become entangled. The wool is thus matted. To prevent this process, the wool is pre-treated in such a way that the scales can no longer stand up and temperature fluctuations together with movement no longer cause felting. The Superwash treatment makes the wool machine washable (although I always recommend a cold hand wash), the colors appear brighter and the yarn is more durable.
Due to the nature of untreated wool (non-SW), the overall coloration is less intense. Speckles are more like watercolor detail and variegated colors become more subtle and blur into each other.
What is Dye and Sorrow doing for our environment?
The wastewater produced during dyeing is treated by a small wastewater treatment plant located on our own property. It is therefore absolutely in our interest that no harmful wastewater enters the drain. This plant is also completely checked twice a year and the data reported to the municipality.
The shipping boxes and the tissue paper are FSC® certified products. The FSC® mark is a guarantee that the materials used come from an FSC® forest where only the trees that the forest can reproduce are cut. It also means that plant and animal life are managed more responsibly, forest workers are trained, wear safety equipment and are paid a fair wage. You can read more about this here: https://www.fsc-deutschland.de/
In addition, the shipping boxes are designed so that you can easily tape them shut a second time. Be it for complaint (which I hope of course not) or to give someone a joy. The tags on each Hanks are also made from FSC® certified recycled paper, plus I offset CO2 for carbon-neutral printing.
In addition, all packaging materials are of course properly licensed by me via reclay, which means that a fee for the final recycling has already been paid by me.
