Choosing the right fiber-Wool

Ah hah! So you read the entry a few days back about New Zealand Wool. Then you wondered what the heck was going on with this goofy dude that he chose not to mention non-branded wool immediately thereafter.

Well how else would I have gotten you to come back for a few days and read about some of the other really groovy fibers we offer? Enough about all that now, since today's featured fiber is wool.

For information on New Zealand Wool, please see my previous post. New Zealand Wool is considered a premium fiber and is different than a non-branded wool. From here through the rest of the blog I will refer to non-branded wool as wool.

Wool rugs have long been the benchmark by which other rugs are judged. If a company would introduce a new synthetic fiber, they would say that it worked like wook or looked like wool or felt like wool, and the list goes on. Well why did they do that? Because making a synthetic yarn was much less costly than it's wool counterpart.

As time wore on and petroleum prices increased, the cost of petro based synthetics went up significantly. At the same time since the synthetic fiber industry had taken business away from sheep farmers their prices per bundle had dropped quite a bit.

Now we are in 2008, and the price of wool and synthetic area rugs are essentially the same. I personally prefer wool over synthetics unless you are using the rug outdoors or in a very heavily travelled room such as a mud room or very active kitchen with spills.

The Pros of Wool Rugs

1) Competitively priced with their synthetic counterparts

2) Very resilient to traffic, so they will not "ugly out" over time

3) Naturally renewable resource

The Cons of Wool Rugs

1) Wool rugs will pill and fuzz for the first several months of use. This is normal and not a defect. It can however be bothersome.

I personally feel that the bit of fuzzing is worth it for a few months since the outcome is a rug that looks very new for quite a long time.

Rugs are a lot of fun. Believe it or not, they are my life. Since I was 16 years old I have been directly involved in this industry (at first during the summer-a kid has to go to school, you know!). My point it that it is a fascinating business. I hope that I am able to give you a bit of the knowledge that I have been fortunate enough to pick up over the years.

If you have any questions at all please let me know. I am happy to help, as is everyone here at Rugs To My Door.