The Process
At Fairy Tale Wool we pay attention to all processes, starting with the quality of the sheered fleece and ending with appeal and convenience of the finished product. All wool is carefully selected, sorted, washed by hand, naturally hand dyed, and finally teased/ carded and packaged. For environmental sustainability, it is important to us that we can source wool fleeces from within 100 km or less. We offer a variety of carded wool which is suitable for felting, spinning and crafting. We offer it as batted roving. Locks, which are not carded, are offered from the Cotswold and Mohair breed as we love their silky and shiny properties. Natural browns and greys come from the Gotland and Cotswold breed as well as Islandic breed and from Alpaca. We sometimes offer specialty wool in small amounts which are usually posted on our home page ore in the Etsy shop. All dyeing is being done with natural dye substances such as onion skins, madder root, annatto seed, indigo, logwood, fustic, osage, sander wood, marigold, henna, walnut hulls, rhubarb root, cocheneal and lac. We dye in small batches of 500g, and shades can be subject to slight variations due to seasonally changing ph in our wonderful water on the Sunshine Coast, BC. Even changes in growing conditions of the dye plants can have an effect on the dyes. Some plants can be grown in our garden, such as onion skins, marigolds, walnuts, poke berries and rhubarb, but all others come from warmer climates. Due to the ph sensitivity of some of our dyed shades (reds in particular), we strongly recommend using ph neutral wool washing detergents such as Orvus paste, available at Maiwa on Granville Island, Vancouver, BC. After washing and rinsing we recommend letting the wool sit in a bath with a shot of white vinegar for approx. 10 minutes in order to set the dye again. |
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