Prince Charles: Wear Wool, It's Eco-Friendly And Fabulous

Treehugger:

Prince Charles has a new project. He is pushing wool as a fashionable and eco-friendly fabric for clothes. With the trend for throwaway instant fashion, cheap and synthetic fabrics have taken over the market.

So the Prince has taken on the issue (he also owns a lot of sheep) and plotted a revival called The Wool Project.

Read the whole story: Treehugger

Comments

[MyVesta]

11:46 AM on 02/22/2010

Fantastic!

Let's continue to pollute the environment and exploit even more animals than we already do.

Keep the sheep for a year or two, and then either kill them and eat them or ship them off to the middle east, like New Zealand does, where they are brutally, ritually slaughtered.

But won't you just feel so warm in that wood sweater of yours?

[sixyfivepercentwater]

10:44 AM on 02/22/2010

Once it leaves the sheep (and even before if the sheep are not raised organically) wool is not all that green. Care must be taken in the manufacturing process and especially in the dyeing process. Unless the wool is dyed with natural vegetable-based dyes it can become a very ungreen product indeed. The entire process has to be examined: where was the wool spun and woven and under what conditions? Under what conditions is is made into clothing, and what is the total mileage travelled by the wool from sheep to store?

I think a lot of us have a romantic notion of the Irish crofter handspinning wool from his own sheep and weaving it or knitting it into garments which are sold locally. That kind of thing does still happen in a few locations, but it is more likely that wool grown in one country is taken to another for processing, then to another for dying, to another for weaving and then on to another country for cutting and on to the point of sale. There is nothing green about that process.

[Beth Boyle]

11:36 PM on 02/20/2010

I am all for it I wear wool and raise sheep!

[llisa]

12:51 AM on 02/20/2010

Just thinking about it makes me itchy.

[ChelseaC]

02:49 AM on 02/20/2010

Indeed.
I'm a cotton girl--don't like wool--only on the lamb!

[rtb61]

09:51 PM on 02/19/2010

The better eco friendly fabric is hemp (much lower water use). Wool, especially high qualities wools, are largely out of the price range of most shoppers, which is why you often wont see it in discount shopping stores, they can not load it with their preferred margins of 60 percent plus. In European culture countries there is a high preference for natural fabrics, as such the consumers there demand them and willingly pay the price for either natural or an 80:20 mix (increases durability of natural fibre). Even something like carpet selection in the US is different to the rest of the world, US the current fashion trend, rest of the world durability and again optimally either 100 percent wool and an 80:20 is preferred subject to affordability.

[Tulka2]

01:54 PM on 02/20/2010

...also America's conversion to polyester is about the oil wars of the last decade.

[Tulka2]

04:37 PM on 02/19/2010

P.S. National Geographic magazine had a wonderful article not too long ago on the intelligence of animals. They were amazed to discover sheep could tell each other apart, no problem and also differentiate between up to twelve different (i think...?) human faces. It is fun to think what the biological advantage to sheep might be in recognizing human faces.

[robotfog]

07:59 PM on 02/19/2010

Recognizing human faces may be an extension of their ability to recognize other sheep. very interesting.

[Tulka2]

09:33 PM on 02/19/2010

I'll bet that's it.

[Tulka2]

04:29 PM on 02/19/2010

We cannot buy wool in the United States anymore.

I am a wool fiend. I buy old wool, wash it and cut it into strips for hooked rugs. I love wool. It is my favorite textile. We cannot buy it new. Just five short years ago a woman could walk into Penney's or Sears and buy a wool cardigan. Eddie Bauer and Land End catalogues were full of wool sweaters, pants and skirts. It's gone. Walmart certainly doesn't sell wool anything.

Here is my theory about what happened. It's just a theory. Tell me if you know different. Some countries have regulations that wool cannot leave without being turned into a garment or other useful item so as to double the export bang.

Australia and New Zealand DO sell unprocessed wool to China and China makes into clothes to sell to the U.S. and the world....or that's how it used to work. What i think has happened is that China developed a middle class that could afford those wool garments at the same time oil prices made those same products too expensive to export and sell in the U.S.

Viola. No wool clothes in the U.S. My husband hunted everywhere for my annual wool Christmas sweater. He found it at the mall in one of those seasonal booths. It is a beautiful rough wool, hand-knit sweater made in Nepal. The only sweaters to be had in this Northwest U.S. town.

[llisa]

12:56 AM on 02/20/2010

Lane Bryant catalogs always have wool coats, blazers, and sweaters each fall. Don't know where they are made since I am allergic to it and avoid it at all costs.

[Tulka2]

02:16 AM on 02/20/2010

Thank you for your suggestion. I went to the Lane Bryant web site and though they have many "knits" believe me, none of them are wool.

[sixyfivepercentwater]

10:38 AM on 02/22/2010

You can certainly buy wool yarn to knit with, and it's available in fabric stores by the yard. You can also find plenty of it in thrift stores, if you're interested in making braided rugs out of it.

[Tulka2]

02:45 PM on 02/22/2010

Yes, i do comb thrift stores and am here to tell you wool is disappearing. I have not been in a fabric store for years, but i very much doubt pure wool by the yard is available at any mall fabric store. There are three woman's part wool sweaters at www.woolrich.com and all three cost over one hundred dollars. Eileen Fisher is very high end. They have wool clothing and again, it is extremely expensive. Fishermen, farmers and hunters used to wear wool. It was and remains the best outdoor clothing. When the oil dries up we will feel the lack of it.

[BannedNBoston]

04:03 PM on 02/19/2010

Sheep love having their wool cut in the springtime.
Hemp should be legalized too.

Chemtrails are back send your photos too nhchemtrails AT yahoo DOT com.

[seakat]

02:34 PM on 02/19/2010

Wool is grand - unless you're allergic to it.

[robotfog]

08:01 PM on 02/19/2010

Wool is nice. Ultra warm in winter and it feels real unlike whatever is being used for blankets and coats in general.

[LyssaBarnes]

08:35 PM on 02/19/2010

I am seriously allergic to wool. Have they found a way to process or blend it without the horrible effects?

[Tulka2]

09:42 PM on 02/19/2010

It's called cashmere, m'dear. Cashmere is a so-called "luxury" fiber because it does not wear well. It's nice and soft but wears like Kleenex.

[ProfessorBrooks]

12:34 PM on 02/19/2010

This isn't my area of history, but I have heard that there were major battles between cowherders and sheepherders in the 19th-century because each saw the others animals as messing up the grazing land for their animals. The cowboys won and now we are a beef eating nation and this is perhaps why wool is not more common just as mutton is extremely hard to find in restaurants or the butcher shop.

On a side note, if anyone out there ever finds themselves in Owensboro, KY (where my clan has lived for generations) you would be doing yourself a disservice not to go to the Moonlite BBQ and have a genuine mutton sandwich. One of the last of the sheep herders settled along the Ohio river near Owensboro and began smoking mutton (which is quite common in England and other parts of Europe) and so this tiny part of the country is still steeped in this food tradition.

[grumpyfarmer]

02:47 PM on 02/19/2010

I know about the range wars Professor, but during my 14 year sheep raising experience I was told the real culprit to the demise of the US sheepman was none other than the good old US army. Seems back in WW2, somebody procured a very large amount of very raunchy mutton(in the lore of the US sheepmen it was Australian, but who knows) and fed it to the troops, turning an entire generation of young men into mutton haters. It would be interesting to hear from anyone else who might have some knowledge of this, I have always wondered if it was true. I do know the number of sheep on US farms and ranches has been on a steady decline since the 1880s, there are less sheep in the USA than there have been since the early 1800s.

[JennaBeanzzz]

12:05 PM on 02/19/2010

This isn't a panacea. The deforestation necessary to create grazing fields for the sheep that will supply billions of people with eco-wool is a good idea? We're going to need more AR-15 to kill the coyotes stalking these tasty beasts as well. What about the run-off of sheep poop in the watersheds? The green movement is such a joke. Everything in moderation and we will all be just fine.

[urchinsadrift]

12:43 PM on 02/19/2010

You are clueless. Try gardening. Work your way uo to farming. No fair taking money from daddy while you do it. Write back in 20 years. We'll be waiting.

[ilexwhite]

12:55 PM on 02/19/2010

We're going to need all the sheep poop we can get when we no longer have petroleum-based fertilizer. Farms used to be a closed loop- there's no runoff when you use manure to feed your topsoil. It's the way a correct system works, and the way we did it for 10 millennia. So-called "conventional" agriculture is the most polluting industry on the planet. The green movement seeks primarily one thing: to restore proper biological balance.

And we're about 5 billion humans beyond carrying capacity for this little planet.

[JennaBeanzzz]

04:45 PM on 02/22/2010

Well, why don't you start a Jonestown of your own and convince the mob to kill themselves so we get to your notion of "balance" with just about 1 Billion people. Come on Mr. Utopian, Hitler thought as you did. Let's just kill the non-arians and we won't have pollution and inbreeding and canned baked beans. Your elitism is disgusting.

[KIVPossum]

11:53 AM on 02/19/2010

Wool is an almost perfect material. Long lasting and can be worked in different ways to be extremely warm, or for summer wear. I have a wool shirt that's as thinn and soft as my wife's silk blouse.

[grumpyfarmer]

11:52 AM on 02/19/2010

Good for Prince Charles. I sold my sheep 15 years ago, but the last two years the wool brought only 5 cents a pound, yes, you read that right, a nickel a pound. You couldn't even pay the sheep shearer with the wool. Sheep can turn grass, hay, and grain into lamb, milk, and wool. It doesn't hurt the sheep a bit to be sheared, and it is totally renewable. Sheep manure is also excellent fertilizer, and sheep will graze plants cattle often won't, meaning you can run a few sheep with your cattle and get more out of your land.

I can't imagine why the green movement hasn't embraced wool a long time ago....remind me again, what is the base material for most synthetic fibers, altogether now Huff posters.......................

[ProfessorBrooks]

12:26 PM on 02/19/2010

Petroleum! (What did I win?)

[grumpyfarmer]

02:23 PM on 02/19/2010

Sorry Professor, no cash award on this one, just an A+ from your favorite grumpy farmer.

[urchinsadrift]

12:41 PM on 02/19/2010

They havent embraced it because they are clueless about how the world works. They think water that goes down the drain is lost forever. They think raising animals for foid is cruel. They think your sheep are ruining the environment with their fartsand droppings. They think farmers should be TAXED because your sheep fart and poop. There goes your 5 cents per pound! Sorry.

[SaltyLassi]

11:02 AM on 02/19/2010

Not a fan of royalty, but I like how Prince Charles is pro-environment. If only he could stop his stupid fox hunting habit, all would be well.

[WayOutHere]

04:29 PM on 02/19/2010

Fox Hunting was banned in Britain in 2004.

[lisakaz2]

04:47 PM on 02/19/2010

I never understood the fox thing. The elite fought hard to avoid the ban on it.

[Angie Cordeiro]

09:13 AM on 02/19/2010

Wrong, how about Prince Charles think hemp...not more suffering animals for the pleasures of the elite.

[ilexwhite]

10:50 AM on 02/19/2010

I agree, we do need to grow hemp, but wool has many properties as a fiber that hemp lacks. It wears extremely well and insulates even when wet. We have been unable to reproduce its properties in any manufactured fiber.

While industrial-scale breeders can be guilty of abuse, small-scale sheep herding is every bit as sustainable, cruelty-free, and nurturing as small-scale organic agriculture; just as an organic farmer takes good are of his soil, a shepherd takes good care of his sheep. Please don't dismiss wool out of hand. Our very important relationship with these remarkable creatures goes back 20,000 years.

[sabelmouse]

11:13 AM on 02/19/2010

absolutly right. it's the factory system that brings the cruelty and there must be regulations just like everything else. also sheep can live and graze where many other animals find no or little food and provide manure.

why do people see wool as elitist. poor people used to wear it. it's warm and can be durable and even waterproof if felted and some of the lanolin remains.
warmer then fleece which is name after sheep, and much more pleasant to wear.

[grumpyfarmer]

11:55 AM on 02/19/2010

It appears to me that sheep are one area where there is plenty of room for expansion in the USA without damaging the market. I am thinking of buying a few more myself, after a long absence.

[deluk]

03:23 PM on 02/19/2010

Huh? wool is a "pleasure of the elite"?