The Wool Wire | October 10, 2025
Wool for insulation, thermoregulation, packaging, houses, and electronics. Plus, a New Zealand mill is saved and my love for knitted squares continues.
News snippets from the wool world
Hello, my friends,
I just got back from two weeks in Japan. I arrived at the tail end of a heatwave that had everyone carrying umbrellas and handheld electric fans and rubbing themselves down with menthol-laden cooling cloths.
All of which certainly helped.
Would you like to know what else helped? These pants, which I wore almost every day.
wool&
That's right, I wore wool in a heatwave. And I'd do it again.
We often think about wool only in terms of its ability to keep us warm. But its real superpower is thermoregulation, which is the process of maintaining a consistent internal body "climate" no matter what external conditions Mother Nature might throw at us.
A package deal
Wool thermoregulates anything it surrounds, whether it's a human body or temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals or fancy French butter—making it an ideal material to replace single-use plastics in insulated shipping containers.
I've written about wool packaging before, but we have a new arrival to celebrate. British company Hydropac has introduced a Wool Thermal Postal Pocket that uses 80% less plastic than the company's previous products. I like the reason they give for moving in this direction.
“This isn’t a trend-following decision,” says Colin Rowland, Managing Director at Hydropac. “It’s a strategic commitment to better materials, smarter design, and genuine circularity in packaging. We’re proud to offer our customers a solution that performs even better than the plastic version it replaces — without the long-term environmental cost."
YUTOECO
Three cheers for continued small steps toward a plastic-free future!
South America firmly on the wool train
Bodies and boxes aren't the only things that benefit from wool's ability to thermoregulate—buildings love it too. I was pleased to see this report on wool insulation from an Argentinian research group, which explores not only the science behind wool but shares Argentinian success stories and why adding value to rougher grades of wool is such a good idea.
Matías Reynoso
Wool is electrifying!
In addition to its thermoregulating and insulating qualities, did you know that wool is also handy in electronic applications? I loved this next piece about how designer Hinna Khan has created a wool-based biomaterial to replace wiring, plastic, and circuit boards in electronic devices.
She was inspired to work with wool after watching farming documentaries that highlighted the struggles British farmers are facing in finding markets for their wool. It just happens that this innovation also could replace plastics, mined metals, and petrochemicals.
Still in early development, Khan's WoolTech is made from a novel wool-based biomaterial, in which conductive pathways can be created using lasers.
This carbonises the material so it carries electricity, while the un-carbonised sections provide natural insulation.
Rima Sabina Aouf
While this is still a small research project, it underscores the potential value of waste wool for all sorts of applications many of us haven't even imagined yet.
Saved from Scrap
It's been a big year for mill closures, but I have some good news out of New Zealand. The Design Spun custom spinning mill and dyehouse has escaped the scrap heap and found a new home with Wild Earth Yarns.
Most of the country's wool clip is sent overseas as greasy and clean fibre to be processed, but Wild Earth Yarns was committed to local manufacturing.
"Obviously there's a rising demand for local traceable yarn," McLaughlin said.
"We can see a worldwide trend of moving away from synthetic materials and wanting to use natural biodegradable fibres."
The acquisition will result in closure of the original Design Spun facility in Christchurch, as all equipment is being relocated to the South Island—but the overall link remains intact for New Zealand's wool infrastructure.
I also like hearing the new buyers say they see a future in traceable yarn and local production.
The healing power of tiny squares
I've been knitting a lot of small squares lately. And in my most recent Life with Wool column for Modern Daily Knitting, I explain why.
| By Clara Parkes
These "tiny blankets" are at the core of my Knit Stars masterclass on meditative swatching, which launches in November. Final registration is now open through October 15th.
If you're on the fence or can't afford to partake right now, you're welcome to join us on Sunday at 3pm EST for a 45-minute open-house. Most of the teachers will be there, and you'll be able to see trailers and clips (including bloopers none of us has seen yet), and there will be prizes too. It's open to everyone, I'd love to see you there. After you register for the open-house, do check out the full teacher line-up for Season 10 so you can know who to expect.
If you do decide to sign up for Season 10, I'd be grateful if you used my link to do so. It's an affiliate link that results in a small portion of your registration fee going directly to me, which is extremely helpful in my being able to continue this work I love.
Feeling particularly indulgent? There's a Golden Ticket option that gets you instant access to every masterclass from every season since Knit Stars began—that's more than 100 workshops total, which should keep you happily occupied for quite a while. (Scroll to the bottom of this page to find the details.)
On that note, I'll let you go.
Thanks, as always, for your readership and your support.
Until next time,
Clara
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