Photo by Muffy Aldrich
The Modern Guide to The Thing Before Preppy

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

An Oiled Wool Pullover from Arthur Beale - Made in Britain from British Wool

Photo by Salt Water New England

Arthur Beale exports these to Iceland, Antarctica, Sweden, Russia, and Canada.  If you were sailing to the Arctic circle (as they do), you would pack this.   

The Arthur Beale Beerenberg Pullover is made from undyed, oiled Black Welsh Mountain Wool.  It is so thick and heavy it feels like the wool from five sheep.   It is very comfortable to wear, and considering it is a beast of a garment, not unflattering on pretty much everyone.  
Superb!

Made in Britain of British wool.




The Arthur Beale Enamel Mug, Made in Britain on Second World War machinery

20 comments:

  1. What size are you wearing, if i may ask?

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  2. The Arthur Beale Beerenberg has become my favorite sweater when the weather turns cool. It's very cozy, and naturally as a turtleneck you don't need a shirt underneath (saves on laundry).

    The heirloom quality is flawless, and the price is reasonable. They also send you some extra wool yarn so in case it ever needs repair you're all set. Many compliments on this handsome garment.

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    1. "you don't need a shirt underneath"

      A warm wool jumper is rendered pretty much useless with a cotton shirt underneath. Cotton is the absolute worst fabric as a base layer in cold weather. It has zero insulating properties and can be freezing cold if it gets wet or clammy. I always go with a tight fitting, superfine Merino crew neck under a heavy wool jumper. You can actually do away with a big coat when wearing a double layer of wool.

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    2. Maybe so, but I really enjoy "useless warm wool jumpers with no cotton shirt underneath."

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    3. A good re-weaver does not need extra swatches of yard but takes the needed footage from other parts of the sweater (garment) to do the work. Several people on Manhattan do this for about $100 a hole. You may want to read my other comments on care needed for this type of jumper.

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    4. You need to look into getting some Icelandic wool underwear made from the under coat of Icelandic sheep's wool, which is much warmer than merino which is a warm and now desert-climate sheep. When spun the Icelandic wool undercoat has similar properties to the musk ox's qiviut. I am sure you will not find either in New England since like the French with their wine, the Icelanders keep the best for Icelanders.

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  3. Oh, what a delight! Thank you for taking me to the beach today and showing me the frothy waves!

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  4. Beautiful! Thank you so very much!

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  5. Lovely, Muffy... and I could always add another poloneck jumper to my collection :)

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    1. I am going to get an armload of these jumpers but Author Beale will have to first remove his logos.

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    2. What are polonecks? I think you mean turtle necks.

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    3. A poloneck is a poloneck we ain’t got no goddam turtles !

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    4. LOL... It's just another term for turtleneck.

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  6. Muffy,
    I can see a Canon SLR in your hands in the photo of you at water's edge and was wondering if you plan to migrate to Canon's Mirrorless camera bodies anytime soon? I am a Nikon user and was not impressed with their first generation Mirrorless camera bodies and instead, purchased a professional level Nikon D850 digital SLR. I also have a fairly large stable of Nikon F mount lenses.

    As you may know, SONY beat everyone to the table with mirrorless camera technology and Canon and Nikon have been playing catch-up (with Canon catching up to and in several cases surpassing SONY). I'd be interested to see what your equipment plans are, especially as you provide so many great photos with each SWNE release. Camera sales in general are way down as Smartphone cameras are now the go-to cameras for the average person.

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    1. Do yourself a favor and get a Leica. You will not miss the money well spent. If not, choose the Canon as it has better colour processing than the Sony. Then again, I stopped comparing cameras when I got my set of Leica gear and glass.

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    2. P.S. If the model's photo of the woman's jumper made of Black Welsh Mountain sheep's wool was taken with a Canon - then the colour processing is just about perfect - A Sony may not be able to do this since the colour brown is not really a colour but a dark to dirty red making it difficult for a digital camera to process while keeping with the array of contrasting colours and hues. I do not think my Leica can do any better with bringing out the true colour of this wool.

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  7. These oiled-wool sweaters from Arthur Beale are some of the highest-quality, rugged, and durable sweaters I have ever worn. "Heirloom Quality" as they say.

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  8. The notion that these sweaters are "oiled" is a misnomer, whereas the element you are calling oil is the natural lanolin in the sheep's wool, mostly on the outer hairs, to repel water and mist as well as to help keep the sheep warm. This is more of a wax that when condensed is of a pale beige or a pale bee's wax and is treated the same when when emulsifying to a usable substance such as - well - oiling a sweater such as this. Thornproffing your Barbour is similar and as tedious but lanolin is not petroleum but wax taken out of sheep's wool when first washed. You can obtain lanolin in various Peg formulations for this purpose, though learn how to properly use it when hand-washing your woolens. The garment seen on the woman is made of Black Welsh Mountain sheep's wool and washed and cured by retaining much of the lanolin while being wearable. Be especially careful when wearing such because the excess lanolin will attract moths to lay their larva eggs - for to feed on the lanolin when hatches. I know since I have my sweaters hand-knitted in England and demand only hand-spun Black Welsh Mountain sheep's wool which appears nubby but very soft. I have the ribbed sweaters as worn by the model that I wear under my Beauford when out on the Terschelling mores and beaches.

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    1. Its not a notion it's the actual term used for what you describe. I don't think anyone is confused.

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