Fibre

100% wool, from mixed sheep.

Your jumper is knitted using remnant yarn. All the yarn is 100% wool, and it’s mostly from Australian sheep (about 20% is from the UK).

Wool is a fibre that has been used across the world for centuries - and for many purposes. For you, this is a jumper that you’ll wear to keep you warm, but wool is has also been used by humans . Australia produces about 90% of all the world’s wool that is used for clothing.

Wool has amazing properties. It is natural (from an animal), renewable (sheep grow wool every year) and biodegradable (it’ll break down at the end of tis life). The lanolin in wool (a thick waxy substance) gives it a slightly waterproof property - it doesn’t retain water and get very heavy, which means it’s also resistant to odours. It’s extremely breathable, soft and flame-retardant. On a molecular level, the wool fibre is coiled like a spring, which means it doesn’t wrinkle.

Growing wool is also a sustainable practice, if done well. Sheep herding doesn’t require prime agricultural land - we don’t have to use spaces that could otherwise be used to grow food. When rotational grazing is practiced, sheep help regenerate the soil by fertilising with their poop and wee and their feet naturally plough the soil. When we want to use wool, we shear it off their back, wash it and spin it into a durable fibre.