The miracle fibre (plus blanks)

Well, in my recent weeks since moving to England I am discovering what the Brits, Scots and Welsh have known for centuries: Wool.

Now, we do get the occasional (quite straggly and rather hot-looking) sheep in the tropics but given the heat, of course nobody needs to wear wool.  So upon coming to the UK I have been delighting in building up a wardrobe full of lovely knitted things.  It's warm, it's fuzzy, it's knitted!

In this part of the world, wool has a long and lauded history.  People get downright poetic when it comes to their wool, like the lovely folk at www.sheepcentre.co.uk, who say:

"It is a fibre fit for heroes-and for more ordinary folk. As modern as moonflight, and as ancient as the hills.
Man can never match it. No other material, natural or man-made, has all its qualities. "

Now isn't  that lovely?

In the way that students sometimes surpass their masters, the folks over in New Zealand have taken the craft one step further with the wool from Merino sheep.  The folks over at Icebreaker call it "the miracle fibre".  Merino wool is breathable, machine-washable, dries quickly and doesn't retain odours - so they have made it into a year round fibre.  Yes, that's right - not just winter wear, but merino traveling t-shirts, tank tops and sports wear, spun so fine it could almost be cotton - but drier!  And here's the yoga link: I have a tank top of their thinnest wool and I have even done yoga in it... in 36 degrees!

The best part - it's 100% animal friendly (all the Merino sheep in New Zealand live to their natural lifespan, unlike a lot of wool producing sheep in other places), environmentally ethical (read about it onn their website) 100% biodegradable, and long-lasting.

Icebreaker adds one more little extra: what they call the "Baacode" - a unique code that links your product to your very own Merino sheep-donor!!  You can track your individual garment to the sheep station(s) that it originally came from,  Cool.

Guess now all I have to do is take up knitting!

Perhaps instead I'll fill in the blanks...

1.   If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab: My cat, my laptop and I guess my passport!


2.  A smell I really like is: vanilla. Yum!


3.  Something you might not know about me is: I have rosacea, a skin condition that in the extreme causes people to have constantly red, chapped skin, especially cheeks.  It can be really aggravated by diet, so to manage it I avoid red wine, all hard alcohol and liqueurs, and don't eat too many red berries. (Not an issue in the tropics but a bit harder here!)


4.  Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are:  yoga blogs of course!


5.  This weekend I will: be chilling in Oxford and hopefully taking my new camera out for a shoot!


6. Nothing makes me happier than: love! Sunshine! Fluffy kittens! LOL.  Actually I'm quite easily contented.


7.  A bad habit I have is: burying my head in the sand in the hopes that if I ignore things, they will go away.  It doesn't work. ;)

Do you love wool?