The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: Bionic on January 16, 2015, 11:05:11 am
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I am thinking of buying a new duvet but want to get away from something synthetic.
Goose down seems to be the best but to buy a good one they are very expensive.
Has anyone got experience of the duvets filled with fleece?
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The other Sally has wool bedding I think so I'm sure she'll be along soon.
I opted for silk, partly because at that time the only woollen duvets I could source were chillingly expensive. I used to have a down duvet (gift) but I turned out to be allergic to the feathers. Silk seemed the obvious choice, as I too had gone off synthetic, and you can get silk pillows too. The duvet seems lightweight compared to synthetic but it's very cosy. Not cheap but it's lasted for ages. In the depths of winter I add a woollen blanket on top, and I have a woollen mattress topper which is wonderful.
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Get a wool one. They are warm, and cool, breathable, wicking and light :) . As a sheep keeper how can you not?! ;)
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The Woolroom have a sale on atm.... :) (http://www.thewoolroom.com/ (http://www.thewoolroom.com/))
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I bought the whole set from The Wool Room - duvet, mattress cover and pillows - and I absolutely love it.
I do put a thin wool blanket over the top on the coldest of nights. When it gets colder still I may need to wear thicker pyjamas - I'm just using a very thin long cotton top at the moment - and/or another wool blanket.
I used to have to sleep with an all-night electric blanket, and prefer to just have a hot water bottle, so the new arrangement suits me perfectly. I may prewarm the bed if it's really cold, but tbh a hot water bottle is plenty - having the wool under and over, (and pillows too), my own body heat plus the hottie soon radiate enough to warm the whole space. In less than a minute, I'm lovely and warm, and usually then push the hottie to the side of the bed! I'm usually asleep within two minutes of snuggling down.
It breathes, so you stay lovely and warm, but don't overheat.
Be aware though, if you do like an all-night blanket, you may find you get way too hot! I wouldn't buy the wool mattress cover if you want to keep an electric blanket on overnight.
The setup I've bought has two duvets, a 200 and 300gsm one. They popper together so you can use them as one for the winter. Changing the duvet cover has always been a job I've hated (really hated), and even more so if using two duvets, but the wool duvets have just a bit more stiffness about them, no feathers to move around and leave one end empty, so changing the cover is a doddle. And the poppers mean it's as easy to use two-as-one as it is to use one alone.
I've only had mine a few months. Rosemary's had woollen bedding for longer, so hopefully she'll call in and let us know if there are any issues arising over time.
The Wool Room do also do some wool/alpaca duvets, which are warmer still. I haven't tried those so can't comment on them.
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I have an alpaca one from Faralacey mill as I am allergic to dust mites. It's great.
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I have a 13.5 tog Goose feather one, it's mostly feather but I like my duvets heavy, and it's lovely and warm. I have no heating at the moment and I am lovely and toasty in bed. ;D
Mine is a king size and I got it from ebay for about £35.
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I've got a goose down one, the geese came from Poland and apparently are the finest down producing geese there are. It was about £350 from john lewis ..... It's amazing about a foot thick literally, light as a feather soo warm and comfortable
It's about a 15 tog rating fwiw - no idea what that means
I've also got a down sleeping bag (going camping / climbing tomorrow) which is good down to about -8 before you notice it's cold and have to put a jumper on, it's 900 fill power down, once again polish, fill power apparently means the higher the number the higher the loft and the warmer per gramme of down, mines 600 Gramms of down, not that I keep the labels that come with stuff and learn them or anything, Ive had it 15yrs, use it loads and it's still as fantastic as the day I bought it. I swear by down, it's sooooooo warm and comfy but it's not really washable so bear that in mind if your a dirty sleeper.
I really didn't think I'd use the phrase 'dirty sleeper ' when I woke up this morning (I woke up clean I may add)
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I love seeing that there's a new post by Alistair - I know I'm going to get a laugh! :roflanim:
I've a friend with a goose down duvet who also swears by it, she's had hers for about 30 years, I think.
Two of the things that appealed to me about the wool ones over a goosedown one was that (a) the setup I've bought has two duvets that can be poppered together, so I've a choice of three weights and should be able to be comfortable in all seasons, therefore, and (b) so I am told (but cannot yet confirm), even when it's warm, the wool breathes so you shouldn't get overheated underneath it. I thought this would perhaps be less true of goosedown?
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I swear by down, it's sooooooo warm and comfy but it's not really washable so bear that in mind if your a dirty sleeper.
I really didn't think I'd use the phrase 'dirty sleeper ' when I woke up this morning (I woke up clean I may add)
I'm not sure I am a 'dirty sleeper' but the dog was sick on the bed last night so perhaps something more washable would be good or me.
I hate getting into a cold bed so often put the electric blanket on beforehand and then switch it off when I get in but then find I get very hot during the night and start throwing the covers off again. So perhaps the wool one would work for me. Lots of food for thought here.
thanks folks
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One thing that puts me off goose down is the barbaric methods used to collect it - often the geese are repeatedly plucked whilst still alive.
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I also have the bedding from The Wool Room - expensive, but very worth it, it has made a huge difference to my sleeping, but the best thing is, both my husband and I are happy with the temperature, which always caused problems before. I have also noticed a significant improvement in my son's night time asthma attacks since i got him wool bedding.
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I researched this quite a lot and last September bought a mattress cover, pillows and duvet from Southdown Duvets - http://southdownduvets.com (http://southdownduvets.com). They are quite close to us so we were able to visit and see the farm, sheep, set-up and products.
We have found these wool bed products to be just what we wanted and my sleep has improved hugely - I think mainly due to my body temperature being better regulated. The Southdown Duvet website is full of information about why wool is so good for bedding products, so it's a good place to start researching what you might like for a duvet.
Please don't take this as a sales pitch (we're totally unconnected to the company) - even if you don't end up buying a wool duvet their website makes for very interesting reading.
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One thing that puts me off goose down is the barbaric methods used to collect it - often the geese are repeatedly plucked whilst still alive.
I had heard this too, especially about Russian down - pretty horrible :furious:. I suppose my silk worms are slave labourers but I have a feeling they don't notice :spin:
Everyone is so enthusiastic about wool duvets, but I can't try one as I don't need a new one. My silk duvet (from Jasmine Silk) has lasted a few years and will last a while longer yet :love: Mr F is a dirty sleeper :tired: so I would usually expect to have to replace our duvets fairly often.........
Interesting to hear about others' experiences with wool though.
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We have a baavet http://www.baavet.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=common/home. (http://www.baavet.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=common/home.)
It used to take me ages to get warm in bed but I haven't had this problem since we switched to a wool duvet. It seems to regulate my body temperature somehow as I never get too hot either. I would 100% recommend. They have stalls at many shows around wales and the borders and quite often have special deals on (actually just looked and they have 25% off on their website until the end of the month). We bought the pillows too but I'm not as keen on these - they seem to have compacted and become quite solid - perhaps I have a heavy head!
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We have a baavet http://www.baavet.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=common/home. (http://www.baavet.co.uk/shop/index.php?route=common/home.)
It used to take me ages to get warm in bed but I haven't had this problem since we switched to a wool duvet. It seems to regulate my body temperature somehow as I never get too hot either. I would 100% recommend. They have stalls at many shows around wales and the borders and quite often have special deals on (actually just looked and they have 25% off on their website until the end of the month). We bought the pillows too but I'm not as keen on these - they seem to have compacted and become quite solid - perhaps I have a heavy head!
Ah was just coming on to recommend them! Harlech based , and they often have slight seconds. Great product and great UK manufactured producr
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I'm definitely leaning towards a wool duvet and have spent most of this evening looking at various websites. It's interesting what hafod has said about the pillows though. Anyone else had this experience?
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I haven't had my wool pillows very long, but the info does say to plump them up fairly often, which I do do.
The wool inside is like little sausages - polystyrene bead sized, but elongated into sausages. They do compact if you don't plump them up for a couple of nights, but so far have fluffed up nicely when I've plumped.
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We've got a mattress topper, duvet and pillows from the Wool Room. It's our second one because we chnaged from a double bed to a superking sized to accommodate the cats ::) I kid you not - all three sleep on the bed and two of them are big cats (not lions or tigers, but fair sized moggies).
I love the wool duvet and topper; not so keen on the pillows - maybe I need to do more plumping ;D
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I have a merino wool one I bought from Dunelm. It is brilliant and on its third winter. It cost £60 in the sale. Down or feathers trigger my asthma.
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40 years ago i made a tiny 1 room stone house , thatched with reed , lovely little place . Anyway , i made a matress and sort of duvet out of sheep fleece sacks and wool , all washed etc , a bit lumpy but very warm and comfy when kept plumped up .
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Do any of you ladies who suffer from "power surges" (sound so much better than hot flushes) at night, have a woollen duvet and mattress topper? Seriously considering this to try and regulate my body temp at night. Currently sleeping under a 4 tog duvet with no heating in my room. freezing when I go to bed and BOILING during the night!
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I hang an arm and a leg out of the covers several times a night but otherwise ok, far better than the microfibre duvet where the whole of me was exposed until I got cold.
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Do any of you ladies who suffer from "power surges" (sound so much better than hot flushes) at night, have a woollen duvet and mattress topper? Seriously considering this to try and regulate my body temp at night. Currently sleeping under a 4 tog duvet with no heating in my room. freezing when I go to bed and BOILING during the night!
I have wool pillows and they certainly help with this. I'll be buying wool duvets/toppers in the future.
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I'm now wondering if some of my excess of fleeces can be turned into a duvet.
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Well I have just bought the wool all seasons duvet and matress protector from the Wool Room. I was undecided about the pillows though so have bought a savoy pillow for myself. OH can't make up his mind so we are going to road test mine first ;D
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Both of you on one pillow? Cosy.
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Been wondering about this for a while. We have a duck down duvet and it's great generally but OH and I have very different ideas about what is a normal temperature. I also don't always sleep very well and anything that might improve this is worth trying. The current discount is a bonus!
Has made me wonder about making my own batting for quilting though! Spent the other half of the evening looking at drum carders1 :innocent:
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Both of you on one pillow? Cosy.
He can't make up his mind so I have left him with his old one for the time being.
The duvet should arrive today (only ordered yesterday) bed is all stripped and waiting so can give it a run tonight ;)
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I have an ordinary, Argos microfibre duvet, but I also have Jim, a chilly soul! a whippet and the occasional grandchild in bed with me so I suffer from overheating and am very interested in this topic.
Surely it wouldn't be beyond me to make one? A question though, how would you clean them? Could they go through the washer on a wool wash? Or would you have to have them dry cleaned. At present I hang our duvet out in the fresh air twice a week, weather permitting. Would this do for fleece? :-\
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The one that I am buying can be washed although I would be very wary doing it myself. I guess it would need a launderette large capacity machine too. They can also go in a dryer on low heat. Again that would need to be the launderette one.
I am hoping that the odd airing outside will suffice, unless a dog or cat is sick on it of course ;D
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Fleece (and processed wool) is actually very happy to be washed, there are just a few things you have to avoid. One is no temperature shocks, particularly hot to cold. And the other is to avoid the combination of heat, lubrication and agitation - so in hot soapy water, don't move it about much. But wool can take very hot temperatures, even close to boiling, so long as it isn't actually boiled (which is agitation) and isn't then plunged into cold water.
When we wash raw (straight off the sheep) fleece before spinning it, we usually give it an overnight cold soak first - it's amazing how much dirt comes out with just this. Then very hot, too hot for your hands, water, into which the soap, lots of soap (I use Ecover washing up liquid, or you can buy wool wash products) has already been added without making a lather. Often the fleece will sink on its own, but if you need to you can gently push the fleece under the water. Otherwise don't touch it. Leave for 15 minutes, then remove, again very gently and not making suds. Then rinse using water the same temperature as that the fleece came out of. (Hotter won't harm it, colder could shock it and cause it to felt.) Same gentle handling this time, as there will still be a lot of soap in the fleece, and the water is still hot, so you still have the potential for Heat + Lubrication + Agitation = Felt.
Rinse until the water is clear.
Don't wring, but you can press it with your hands, and you can spin it. A standalone spin-dryer is ideal, or for small amounts a salad spinner works well. A washing machine spin cycle may be okay, but not if it adds water on the spin cycle and not if it does lots of tumbling before it gets going properly. A lot of people roll the fleece up in a towel and then walk on the roll to push water out - this is fine so long as you have a floor you don't mind getting wet! lol
If the fleece is still a bit dirty, or greasy, you may need to repeat the washing process. But it's unusual to need to do it more than twice. The tips of locks may still look dirty, but if you flick these open with a comb before carding, any dirt held there will fall out as you comb.
The very very hot water and lots of soap is needed to remove the grease. One product, Unicorn Power Scour, can remove grease at lower temperatures, but in general if you didn't wash it with lots of soap and scalding hot water, you didn't remove the grease.
The 15 minutes is also important - long enough for the soap to permeate the fleece and do its work, but not long enough for the water temperature to cool too much. If it cools on the fleece, the grease may re-solidify back onto the fleece, and it's much harder to remove the second time around. (It's chemically altered by the first washing.)
If you decided to make your own duvet, I would wash the fleece first, as above, to remove the dirt and grease. I'm a bit dubious about washing the finished item however; if you've carded the wool and stitched it into a cover as shown in that link, wouldn't the airy batts clump when washed? We need a quilter to tell us...
The Wool Room duvet is stuffed with wee wool pellets, which are held in stitched pockets. So it's not the same arrangement as carded batts, and wouldn't clump (or at least, would shake loose again once dry) provided it's washed as per the instructions.
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When I said
if you've carded the wool and stitched it into a cover as shown in that link
was I going mad? I was sure someone had posted a link to a do-it-yourself wool duvet blog, but looking back through the thread, I couldn't find it.
Ah, got it. It's on another thread (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=55423.msg469516#msg469516), about making your own duvet from your own wool. 4th post.
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Agreeing with all Sally has said ref scouring wool.
General rule is always "just dont shock it.." wool pellets sounds like felted already wool nubs. For the wool batting style duvet, should anyone be thinking of making their own (ala other thread) I maintain that once in batting form inside a sandwich of fabric what you are aiming to avoid is felting any clumps that form into permanent fixtures, so go gentle. air on sunny days rather than shoving in a washing machine. :sunshine:
My fleeces, from Ryeland to Alpaca to Merino all get the same treatment. cool (not cold) soak then scaldingly hot soaks followed by scaldingly hot rinses. Which tbh are just soaks with out fairy :) I do cover my rubber tubs in feed sacks then towels to keep the heat high as long as possible. secondary advantage it stops me fussing with it.
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Well, I accidentally went on the baavet site, and accidentally bought one :innocent: . It arrived in super quick time and nicely presented.
I put in on the bed yesterday; it was very light and cosy. But...it smells...of lanolin? :-\ It felt like I was sleeping with the sheep (has been known at lambing ::) ). Does the smell fade or will I just get used to it?
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I ordered from the Woolroom. It came next day so I can't fault delivery. I bought the all seasons (light and medium weight poppered together). Even the two together are much thinner than the synthetic one I am used to. OH says its heavier though whilst I think its lighter. The first night I didn't put the electric blanket on first and I was cold all night :( Since then I have warmed the bed up first and have been fine. I have still woken because I am too hot and chuck everything off but I don't think its happened as often with this duvet as the synthetic.
No smell with this one, other than new bedding. :thumbsup:
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Bramblecot- ours smelt sheepy for a bit but it quickly fades! We use them in our holiday accommodation (www.hafod-las.co.UK (http://www.hafod-las.co.UK)) and no one has complained they smell -yet!
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Thank you Hafod :) . I've been in with the sheep this afternoon so I probably won't notice the smell indoors :o .
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My Wool Room one doesn't smell sheepy either. Their bumph does talk about getting all the lanolin out so there's nothing for the wee beasties to feed on... ;)
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Well I accidentally ended up on the Wool room site and there must have been a computer glitch as days later an all season duvet and pillows arrived yesterday. ;D
Once I had calmed the OH down who thought that the 2 huge boxes contained knitting yarn (being covered with "The Wool Room" tape) he humphed a bit as "we've got a duvet already".
We both had an amazing nights sleep, neither of us too hot or cold. It's only been one night so could be a one off but OH hasn't stopped talking about how great it is and how much he is looking forward to an early night! :thumbsup:
(Need a sleepy smilie :D )