New wool blanket Nepal

This virgin wool blanket comes up with two special features. The first you feel immediately when you grip the fabric: it is extraordinarily soft, supple and fine, as is otherwise only known from alpaca or cashmere blankets. Nevertheless, this is pure new wool. The raw material comes, and this is the second special feature, from sheep that live and graze in the heights of the Himalayas, but are not actually native there. Pesticides and feed additives are unknown there and cannot be afforded anyway. The fine, long-fibered wool is sheared primarily in the spring, when the animals change their coats, and is first combed and machine-carded. Before further processing, it wanders into a kind of tumble dryer and is treated therein with cold air, which makes the fibers particularly soft and gives the fabric from it this fabulously silky-fine quality.

The blanket is woven by hand on an old handloom in a social workshop in Kathmandu. The twill weave shows the characteristic diagonal twill ridge, which also gave this type of weave its name: "Keper" in Dutch means "beam" or "rafter", which is why the twill weave is sometimes called beam weave. If the direction of the ridge changes at regular intervals, the result is the classic herringbone pattern. Incidentally, another very well-known, typically robust twill weave is denim, the blue and white jeans fabric. Because of the somewhat looser interweaving of the threads, the weave allows more warp and weft threads to be used than, say, plain weave. For this virgin wool blanket also stronger yarns with a yarn count of Nm 28/2 are used, it is therefore very densely woven and durable, yet supple and has a soft flowing case.

Designers Camilla Gullits and Pernille Pold are behind the Danish label Care by me. In their designs, Danish design and the traditional craftsmanship of India and Nepal come together, because their concern is to offer not only high-quality and durable, but also sustainable and fairly produced textiles. In Nepal, for example, handmade textiles make up a large part of the national economy, and as in India, the production of textiles is traditionally in the hands of women. Care by me therefore works with small workshops where women can learn and practice the traditional craft, thus providing them with a secure income. The raw material for wool blankets comes from the region around Kathmandu and is also spun there. The cotton used is GOTS certified, Care by me sources it from a GOTS and Fairtrade certified partner company.