2017 - New Year, New Products, New Blathering

January 2017

Unique Perspectives

2016 Review

It seems we were just partying like it was 1999 and worrying about Millenium Bugs and now we've already burned through a big chunk of the new century. Where DID the time go? Well, we don't know where it went, but we do know it went. Here at Unique 2016 was a very busy and successful year. We certainly kept our product development crew busy. To review, in 2016 we introduced the following...

BOARDWALK - A short, dense high-performance wool loop BOLERO II - New colors added to the incredibly successful Bolero
BRISTOL/CAMBRIDGE - Companion Wilton patterns in 100% wool
CRESTLINE - A big, bold diamond inspired texture in un-dyed natural wool
ELDORADO - The classic level-loop wool Berber GRENOBLE - Beautiful large-scale aesthetics in five subtle color-ways
KEY LARGO - A big-bubble loop in un-dyed natural wool

BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!!!

KINGSTON - A square-knotted texture in un-dyed natural wool
SCARBOROUGH - A concise grid-like texture of pure new wool

NORTHERN LIGHTS & WINDY RIDGE - Spectacular and attainable custom 100% wool made-to-order rugs.

If you're keeping score, that's twelve. Yikes! Twelve new introductions in one year!! No wonder our product development guys have become babbling loons. Well they're not going to get relief any time soon because we're going to do it again this year. As a matter of fact, here comes another new one even now....

Another New One...Southern Cross

Our product development guys like to say "If you remember the sixties, you weren't there". Which I suppose makes sense to burned out, concert-going, rock-and-rollers. And it also might have something to do with why they named our latest broadloom introduction after one of Crosby, Stills and Nash's most popular songs, SOUTHERN CROSS. Actually, the product development guys say, "the subtle texture of the product adds understated visual interest to any floor and is subtly reminiscent of the constellation in the southern hemisphere of the same name". Do you buy any of that? They also say "The song has nothing to do with it." Well of course it doesn't! Anyway SOUTHERN CROSS, whatever the inspiration, is a beautiful carpet made using 100% pure un-dyed natural wool and whose four subtle color-ways are created by blending the colors that naturally occur in wool. Look for it soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures.

Virgin Wool?

At one time the term 100% Pure Virgin Wool was in common use but ultimately it was mostly replaced by the term 100% Pure New Wool which means the same thing. Well that's wonderful but what the heck does either term mean? Your humble scribe, being somewhat dim, lies awake at night pondering deep stuff like this. As it turns out, and here's a real surprise, it means the wool so labeled has not been used before by anyone other than the sheep. Who knew?

Apparently that hasn't always been the case. One of the biggest efforts to repurpose or blend used wool was as a result of World War II. The government restricted the amount of fabric which could be used commercially and restricted the raw materials used therein, especially wool because it was needed for military uniforms. Even though it's been several decades since those restrictions were lifted, the terms Virgin Wool and New Wool are still used today. However today the meaning has drifted somewhat to denote wool of premium quality rather than to imply we didn't use Uncle Carl's old socks in the manufacture of your carpet. Check the label on one of our wool samples. We, like many other manufacturers, continue to use the term 100% Pure New Wool.