Caring for Handwoven Textiles Through Winter

Winter is hardest on handwoven wool, not because the fiber minds the cold, but because the conditions we create indoors to fight it, dry forced-air heat, wood stoves, static electricity, tend to work against natural fibers. Wool wants some humidity in the air to stay supple. Without it, fibers get brittle at the surface and shed more than they would in a damper season.

A humidifier in the room where you keep your throws will do more for their longevity than almost anything else, ourselves included. We keep two running in the studio through January and February for exactly this reason. If a room runs dry, wool that gets pulled taut across the back of a couch will show wear at the fold lines faster than it should.

Fold your throws differently through the season if you can. A throw folded the same way for months will crease along the same lines every time, and wool fibers that are repeatedly bent in one place will eventually break there. We rotate the fold every few weeks in our own homes, which sounds fussy but takes about ten seconds.

Pilling is normal on handwoven wool and is not a sign of poor quality; it's the shorter fibers in the yarn working their way to the surface through friction. A wool comb or a gentle fabric shaver handles it in a few minutes. We'd rather you comb off a season's pilling than assume the piece is wearing out.

Keep wool away from direct heat sources. A throw draped over the arm of a chair six inches from a wood stove will dry out and scorch faster than you'd expect, sometimes without any visible flame damage, just a stiffening and yellowing of the fibers closest to the heat.

And if something does fray, unravel at a hem, or wear through at a fold this winter, our repairs program covers handwoven pieces indefinitely. Send us a photo before you do anything else. Reweaving a damaged section is often a smaller job than it looks.