Unique Perspectives
April, 2018



Orion Review
Introduced last June, Orion has turned into a real barn burner. It's climbing the charts.  It sells like hotcakes. It..well, I think you get the point. It's a good seller. Moving on, here's a little background information, Orion is a low-profile heathered-Berber loop-pile of 100% pure wool.  I know what you're thinking...we do a fair amount of this sort of thing around here.  But wait, its appeal is in its total un-uniqueness. It's not flashy. It's not textural. It's neither directional nor patterned. It's not the focal point of any room. It just quietly and tastefully covers the floor. One more thing: We hate to reduce this down to something as un-aesthetic as price, but our price list includes 120 items and only one other wool item costs less. And only one other item sells more in yardage. The combination of an exceptional product with broad based appeal and a very appealing price must have something to do with it. So if you have customers who want good stuff but don't want to pay the good-stuff-price, don't overlook Orion.

SPECIALS - Great In stock values
Odin - 2105
London Court - 2118
Dayton - 4109
We have a large inventory of first-quality special buys offered at significant savings to you. Here are a few examples. To see them all click here.
The latest from our rug department

As an update, we inventory nearly 120 yarns in various colors and sizes ranging from extremely large to some as fine as embroidery thread and most of them can be custom dyed.  They're used exclusively in our Shagtastic, Couture Coordinates, and Contemporary Classics collections AND they're also used in custom designs like those shown below.

These beautiful rugs were created by a San Diego design firm for use in one of their builder client's model homes. They're perfect examples of the kind of rugs we make...big yarn, bold patterns, thick rugs.  Ten or more pounds of wool per yard in some. 

Here's how this custom business works. We can make poms in various combinations of yarn at no charge. Poms of custom colors are also available at no-charge. That's where our generosity ends.  Samples of custom rugs don't exist. Don't ask!  They're all custom made-to-order in the exact colors, textures, and patterns you choose for a 'nominal' fee. Turn-around time on samples is approximately one-to-two weeks. Once approved rugs are made-to-order in very reasonable time frames.

Things you don't know about wool



Or maybe you do. Who are we to judge? That aside, here's some things you might not know.
  • Clothing and other items made of wool have been found throughout much of the ancient world, from 3,400-year-old Egyptian yarn to fragmentary textiles unearthed in Siberian graves dating from the first century B.C.  We'd like to hasten to add that we haven't seen any Siberians wearing these fragmentary textiles, but if we do, we'll definitely provide photos
  • The process of making wool yarns from fibers was rough going at first...literally. Wild and early domesticated sheep have a bristly overcoat called kemp and a fine undercoat called fleece. Over time, animals were selected that offered more fleece, with finer fibers and less kemp. The more than 200 domesticated sheep breeds today are mostly kemp-free.
  • Wool is also biodegradable. It breaks down slowly, fertilizing plants upon which sheep feed to grow more wool. So from tasty grass, to wool, back to tasty grass. A closed-loop sort of deal. It gives plants a heaping helping of 17% nitrogen compared to 6 percent in commercial turf products and it is water-retentive.
  • Wool has been a valuable commodity across cultures and centuries. When Richard 1 (you know, the Lionhearted guy) was captured in 1192, Cistercian monks paid their part of the ransom to the Holy Roman emperor with 50,000 sacks of wool.
  • That itch from warm winter woolies or those ugly socks grandma used to knit is most likely due to thicker (and coarser) fiber and not a wool allergy, which is practically unknown
  • With a high natural ignition point of about 1,382 degrees Fahrenheit, give or take, wool is fire-resistant. And unlike nylon and polyester, wool does not melt or drip when exposed to flame.
  • Inside baseballs used in Major League Baseball, you'll find layers of tightly wound wool yarn: Each ball contains about 370 yards of wool windings, which provide more than enough resilience to withstand the impact of the batters hit off Clayton Kershaw's high heat.