Good Wool Blankets?

In 1982 I bought a really ugly, apple green with grey stripes, Merino Wool blanket at a yard sale at Shonto, AZ, on the Navajo Reservation. Paid $3.00 for it. It's the softest, warmest blanket I've ever had. It's been on my bed ever since. I don't ever take it anywhere.

I have a Pendleton I received as a gift around 1977. Still going strong after 30 years of daily use. But I don't take it hiking.

Not the "softest" but we have had good luck with a hudson bay trading company wool blanket. We own two. One has never gone camping because it's off white and it stays in our bedroom. It has been in use since 1985. The other is a very dark color (dark blue/grey/blackish). I don't know when it was purchased. My dad used it in the 1950s before he got a down sleeping bag. Since then it has lived in the trunk of his and now my car. Comes out for every picnic / car camping trip, and sometimes to warm up at some outside events.

–Mark

i think i got it for $11 about 12 years ago

tough, comfortable, warm

Army Surplus. I have an olive drab wool blanket stamped with some sort of military markings in black. It's slightly ragged around some edges but serves its purpose as go-to warmth along with the plastic tarp in the back of my car.

I still have my father's WW II Coast Guard white wool blanket!

But Hudson's Bay Blankets are generally agreed to be the very best in wool blankets. They were originally made in the 1700s for the fur trade.
They had 6" black "points" woven into one edge to
indicate their size but also to indicate how many 1st quality beaver pelts they were worth.

The originals were white with one medium blue 3" stripe at one end. Later they began making them in red W/ a black stripe and white with multi-colored stripes.
You can still get them in all these colors. (But pricey $$)

Eric

Ibex sells off their surplus material at the end of every season in the form of blankets. Last year I got one in merino wool, and it’s totally great. This year, merino is all gone, but the loden blanket is still available. As I own a few Ibex loden wool products, I can guess that the blanket would be pretty soft…

Ben, thanks for that link. I'd love to find Merino Ibex one. I'll have to look around. How big is yours? How thick?

Another vote for the surplus wool blankets. They seemingly last forever and cost about $25. Can be found in Blue to avoid the militaristic appearance..

http://www.armysurplusworld.com/product.asp?engine=froogle&productID=10122

Mine is 54" x 72" x .25". They sold out pretty quickly last year and this, from what I gathered watching the website. Actually, when I ordered mine, the color I wanted was no longer available by the time they got around to processing the order, so someone from Ibex called me and asked if I'd rather have something like the color I originally wanted, in a loden wool, or the one remaining color of merino wool. I went with the merino…

A couple people have suggested Alpaca wool as an alternative. Something like this:

http://llacta.com/alpacablanket.htm

Does anyone have experience with Alpaca? Do the claims hold up?

and i love them

my alpaca pants are very comfy – warm and dry pretty fast

Made from Alpaca wool? That's very cool, any pics of them?

View our site at http://www.northwestwoolen.com
Our Blackstone Valley Collection would be ideal.
Regards
Paulette

The Hudson Bay blankets are manufactured by A W Hainsworth in England, they also have a range of blankets under the John Atkinson brand name. To buy their beautiful blankets, visit their online shop http://www.atkinsonblankets.co.uk although you can only buy a Hudson's Bay blanket direct from HBC and other approved retailers