Wool. A natural fibre, formed in the skin of sheep, and when there’s grass to graze on, every sheep will produce a new skin each year. Beautiful, durable, long lasting wool ! Since the first time i used merino, it was my favorite because of its softness, no fluffs and its light weight. I found out merino is also excellent at regulating body temperature, especially when worn against the skin and merino is one of the softest types of wool available, due to finer fibers and smaller scales. This seems the perfect yarn for baby/childrens clothing from bieq !
Merino is produced by merino sheep originating in Spain at the Moors. In the Middle Ages they gave the sheep as present and the sheep went across many borders and finally worldwide. Nowadays most merino sheep live in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and South Africa. Merino sheep need to be sheared at least once a year because their wool does not stop growing. Their many skin folds makes an adult sheep producing up to five kilo of wool each year. Wool from one sheep is called a fleece, from many sheep, a clip. Merino wool is very good quality because per square centimeter grows ten times as much wool as other breeds.
As our main production is in Peru, we buy our bieq yarn at Lima / Peru at Inca Tops. Last januar we had a meeting with Juan Guinassi, the general sales manager. He told us bieq merino yarn has to be imported from either Uruguay or Argentina by Inca Tops. They buy raw merino and spin and colour in their factory. It is good to hear their colouring process for our yarn is the least harmfull for the environment and has been approved by the EC. Inca buys most of the raw merino in Uruguay from merino sheep farmers. I would love to visit a farm in the future (which would be possible Juan told me ! ). Inca tops especially checks if the yarn they buy is from farmers which do not mulesh their sheep. Many merino sheep be stripped of a piece of skin to fight a parasite in their buttocks without anesthesia. A very bad thing !
My last visit to Peru in the Andes made me see so many beautiful alpaca’s as well. and … Peru is bieq main production country, i decided to give it a try and use pure baby alpaca for upcoming luxury MUMS FOR MUMS project AW2014/15 ! to be continued …