There is an evening in the last week of August when you notice it. Not cold exactly. The heating is not going on, because it is not October, and there are standards. But the light goes at half eight instead of half nine, and whoever is on the couch reaches for something.
In most Irish houses the something is a throw that came from a homeware aisle four years ago, is made of acrylic, and has gone the texture of a scouring pad. It does not keep you warm. It sits on top of you generating static and a faint feeling of clamminess, and every winter it gets a bit worse.
This is a guide to buying one that does not do that. It applies whether you buy from us or from anybody else.
Wool, acrylic, cotton
Wool fibre is crimped, which means it does not lie flat. Those kinks trap still air, and still air is what actually insulates you. Wool also absorbs a surprising amount of moisture, up to about a third of its own weight, without feeling wet against you. In a damp Irish sitting room in November that is the whole ball game.
Acrylic is plastic. It is cheap, it is warm enough for about a season, and then the surface pills because the short fibres work loose. It holds static, it holds smells, and it does not breathe, so you go from cold to sweaty without passing through comfortable. It also melts rather than chars, which is worth knowing about anything you use near an open fire.
Cotton breathes and washes well but has almost no loft, so it is a summer throw pretending to be a winter one. Fine over a chair in June. Useless in a cold back room.
The words on the label, and which ones mean anything
- Merino is wool from merino sheep. The fibre is finer, which is why it does not itch. It is the one to look for if anyone in the house says wool is scratchy, because usually what they mean is that coarse wool is scratchy, and they are right.
- Lambswool is from the first shearing. Soft, lofty, slightly less hard-wearing than adult fleece.
- Pure new wool means it has not been recycled from other wool products. It is a real distinction and it affects how long the thing lasts.
- Woolmark is an actual certification with testing behind it, covering fibre content and performance. Not a decorative logo.
- Oeko-Tex Standard 100 means every component has been tested for harmful substances. Worth having on anything that spends the evening against your face, and worth insisting on for anything going near a baby.
- Mulesing-free is an animal welfare claim specific to merino, and a meaningful one. If a merino product does not say it, ask why.
- Wool blend is the one to watch. It can mean 80% wool, and it can mean 20% wool and 80% polyester. The percentage is on the label somewhere. Find it.
Size and weight, which nobody talks about
A lot of throws sold as throws are 120 by 150cm, which covers one adult from the chest down and no further. 130 by 170cm covers one person properly or two people badly. If you want a throw that two of you can genuinely share on a couch, you are looking for 140 by 180cm and up, and you should expect to pay for the extra wool.
Weight matters more than the label suggests. A heavier throw drapes instead of floating, which is most of why an expensive one feels different in the hand. If you are buying online and the weight is not listed, that is usually a decision rather than an oversight.
What it costs in Ireland
Honest numbers, because the range is wide and it is not obvious what you are paying for.
- €30 to €60: acrylic or a low-percentage blend. Fine for the boot of the car or a dog.
- €80 to €120: real wool from a named mill. Aran Woollen Mills and McNutt of Donegal both sit around here. This is the sensible middle and there is nothing wrong with it.
- €120 to €180: merino, or lambswool from a mill with a long history behind it. Foxford's lambswool throws live here. So do ours.
- €160 to €250: cashmere and mohair blends, and handwoven pieces from the smaller Donegal weavers. Beautiful, and genuinely a different thing.
Ireland makes very good wool, and if you want an Irish-made throw with a mill's name on it, buy one. Foxford, McNutt, John Hanly and Studio Donegal are all real and all worth the money.
How to keep it for twenty years
Wash it as rarely as you possibly can. This is the whole trick and almost nobody does it. Wool is naturally antibacterial and self-cleaning to a degree that seems like marketing until you try it: hang it outside on a dry, breezy day and it comes back in smelling of nothing at all.
When it genuinely needs washing, hand wash cold with a wool detergent, or dry clean. No wringing, ever. Squeeze the water out against the side of the basin, roll it in a towel, then dry it flat. Hanging a wet wool throw over a line stretches it into a shape it keeps forever.
For moths: store it clean, because moths are after the traces of you rather than the wool itself, and keep it somewhere with air moving. Cedar helps a bit. A sealed bag helps more.
The ones we sell
We did not make these. We picked them, which is a different job and worth being straight about.
They come from Woolish, a knitwear mill in Estonia with roots back to 1928. Everything is Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Woolmark certified and mulesing-free, 130 by 170cm, and each one arrives in a gift box, which is the reason half of them will be bought.
- The Hera and the Amai, both 100% wool at €119. The Hera is the quiet one, in colours that go with a couch you already own. The Amai has a pattern with a bit of go in it.
- The Royal Merino in charcoal at €159. 100% merino, knitted thick. This is the one that ends up in the good room.
Delivery to Ireland on these is €14.99 and takes 4 to 10 working days, because they ship from the mill rather than from us. We charge what it costs and we say so on the page.
Photo: Hjalte Gregersen via Unsplash.