New wool blanket Nepal

This pure new wool blanket has two special features. The first you feel immediately when you touch the fabric: it is extraordinarily soft, supple and fine, as it is otherwise known only 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 is put into a kind of tumble dryer and treated with cold air, which makes the fibers particularly soft and gives the fabric this fabulously silky-fine quality.

The blanket is hand woven on an old hand loom 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" means "beam" or "rafter" in Dutch, which is why the twill weave is sometimes also 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. This virgin wool blanket also uses stronger yarns with a yarn count of Nm 28/2, so it is very tightly woven and durable, yet supple and has a soft flowing drape.

Behind the Danish label Care By Me are designer Camilla Gullits and her business partner Pernille Pold. Their designs combine Danish design and the traditional craftsmanship of India and Nepal, as their aim is not only to offer high-quality and durable clothing and home textiles, but also to produce them in a resource-friendly and fair way. 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 practise the traditional craft in order to provide them with a secure income. The new wool comes from the region around Kathmandu and is also spun there. The cotton used comes from controlled organic cultivation and Care By Me sources it from a GOTS and fair trade-certified partner company.