The choice of blankets on the market is immense. There is something for every need, regardless of whether the blanket is to be used on a cool evening on the terrace or as a travel blanket, whether light, soft blankets or durable, heavy qualities are preferred. However, there are also more and more blankets made of synthetic materials among the offers. They are often available for little money: The material is cheap, and so are the manufacturing costs. But in view of the actual function of a blanket - to warm soothingly and at the same time to create a balanced microclimate - this cheap price is dearly bought: The natural climatizing properties and durability of a natural fiber are inimitable. Synthetic materials cannot compete with them, and the wool blankets in our assortment are made of first-class natural materials. In the narrower sense, wool blankets are made of pure sheep's wool. In addition, at Manufactum you will also find high-quality wool blankets in the broader sense, for which fine, boned animal hair is processed: strong yak or camel hair, soft alpaca hair or fine cashmere.

The use of wool as a raw material presupposed a revolution in human living habits: around 10,000 years ago, the Neolithic Revolution took place in the region of the Fertile Crescent - in Mesopotamia. The former hunter-gatherers became sedentary and practiced agriculture and animal husbandry for the first time. And wool processing can be traced to Mesopotamia from around the 4th millennium B.C. Basically, wool comes from sheep - and yet wool is not all the same. The wool fibers of all sheep wool breeds are therefore classified according to uniform criteria such as fiber length and fineness, crimp and color. So-called pure new wool is obtained from shearing the live animal, and some breeds are also plucked or combed out. Lamb's wool comes from the very first shearing of the sheep and is the softest and finest virgin wool. The wool blankets at Manufactum are made from high quality shearling, lamb's wool or merino wool. Merino sheep provide an exceptionally soft, fine wool, the fineness of their fibers is from 23 to 28 microns. Likewise, among the other virgin wool blankets, you can find very soft examples, but also full of character, such as the Swiss army blanket. It is made of virgin wool of such voluminous and robust quality that the blanket can also replace the Oberbett once or be used as a picnic blanket. Our lambskin blanket is not a wool blanket, but it is particularly warm. It represents, so to speak, the precursor of the wool blankets, because here the "wool" is still found as it has grown: as a warming fur.

Wool in the broader sense can be obtained not only from sheep, but also from the hair of some animal breeds. Like sheep's wool, the fine natural hairs of these breeds have outstanding insulating and air-conditioning properties. The fine hair of alpacas, for example, is a hollow fiber with outstanding natural heat-balancing properties. It is very light, has a natural sheen and is extremely resistant despite its fineness. Alpaca hair is therefore one of the most valuable natural fibers. Cashmere, produced from the underfur of the cashmere goat, is the finest and noblest natural hair. Soft and warming, wool blankets made of cashmere are also surprisingly light. Yak hair is also ideal for making very light yet warming wool blankets. Although yak hair is lighter and softer than sheep's wool, it is also very strong. Wool blankets made of silky shiny camel hair are ideal for the really cold winter evenings and nights and are extremely durable despite all their softness.