I’m Robin, wife and mother of two (ages nine and six), living in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario. I went to school for early childhood education, and worked as a preschool teacher for many years until I had my own children – and am now a stay-at-home parent and homeschool teacher for them. I spend any free time that I have reading, knitting, embroidering, or staying up too late watching tv. I have done some freelance photography over the years, but mainly photograph my children.

My husband and I have lived in Southern Ontario our entire lives, near the Great Lakes. I couldn’t imagine not living near a large body of water – visiting the lakeshore is one of my favourite places to be. We experience the full scope of each season – hot, humid summers, and below-freezing winter temperatures, and everything in between.

Despite the cold temperatures, I didn’t wear a lot of wool growing up, and for a long time wouldn’t wear it when I was a strict vegan. My love for wool really didn’t begin until I had my own children, and I found myself wanting to dress my children in clothing that was both weather appropriate and also kind to the planet – which meant seeking out sustainable fibres that would biodegrade when they reached their eventual end of life. While we still eat like vegans (and for my kids, vegetarians), we’ve adopted a broader scope of what it means to care for the planet by trying to choose natural materials over synthetic, whenever possible. (And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that knits and other wool textiles are so visually appealing as well – I do love a classic knit.)

At first, wool felt daunting. I had heard about the many benefits, but also the horror stories of beloved sweaters being shrunken beyond recovery, moth-eaten collections, or complaints of expensive cardigans going unworn because they just itched too much. And so it was a gradual process, beginning with the SISKIN softest merino wool long johns, which my children practically live in from mid-autumn to late spring.

After years of dressing my children in wool, I also began to invest in pieces for myself a few years ago, and it has made all the difference in how I handle the worst of Ontario winters.

During the cooler months, SISKIN merino wool long johns are our staple base layer – they are lightweight, soft and breathable, and also help regulate body temperature. I also love a softer pair of wool socks, like MP Denmark wool rib socks, as a warm, thin layer to wear beneath a chunkier pair of wool socks. I find that these initial pieces help avoid any complaints about itchiness from additional layers.

From there, we choose the next layer based on the weather - a pair of jeans and cotton long-sleeve top in milder weather, but in colder weather, SISKIN wool knits come next. The girls spend one day a week at outdoor school starting in early spring, where they need to dress in layers that will keep them warm and dry outside all day. A durable wool sweater, ribbed knit pants or leggings, and thick wool knit socks, provide an additional layer of warmth and temperature regulation.

For outwear layers, a SISKIN wool fleece or boiled wool jacket and a pair of boiled wool dungarees can withstand most colder days, and keep out the damp too – though I will bust out the more heavy-duty puffer coats when the temperature dips below freezing. On extremely wet days, I will layer a Fairechild rain jacket and pants on top of knits or even over the wool fleece or boiled wool layer. The girls also wear a wool neck warmer and hat, or sometimes a balaclava, and a pair of knit or boiled wool mittens (on a string, because they are almost always abandoned at some point).

We’ve found that these layering techniques keep us warm and comfortable in any weather and that if we start to feel too warm throughout the day, we can remove layers as needed. 

I think that one of my favourite things about wool, aside from how cosy it keeps us, is how infrequently it needs to be washed. Its antibacterial, self-cleaning nature allows us to only spot clean as needed, and leave them in the outside air to be freshened up. I gently handwash most of our wool, and only just recently learned about Soak Wash, which is a wool-safe detergent that doesn’t need to be rinsed out (game changer!).

 I try to mend our clothing as much as possible in order to make them last (which means my mending pile is neverending), and over the years I’ve been learning different methods of mending wool pieces, whether knits, long johns, or boiled wool. I’ve managed to save a good number of sweaters, and heel-worn socks that way - they don’t always look perfect, but they’re loved a little longer. There are also places you can send your knits to be repaired professionally, which would be well worth the investment for some well-loved special pieces.

We try to buy secondhand as much as possible - from clothes to toys, to books, and household items – when we purchase new, it is a few select pieces from sustainable and ethical brands. 

MamaOwl is one of the select few shops that we purchase new pieces from, as they carry so many of our favourite sustainable brands. Fairechild is very special to me, as a sustainable, ethical Canadian brand that I have relied on to keep my children dry for many years. We love Misha & Puff and SISKIN for wool and knits, and MP Denmark and JOHA are my children’s favourite wool socks. We’ve had a few pairs of Bisgaard rainboots, which we’ve loved (and were passed amongst cousins and friends before they wore out). The majority of our treasured felt fairy collection came from MamaOwl.

My absolute favourite piece that I ever purchased from MamaOwl was a Donegal Merino Wool Isle Sweater in Moss for my oldest daughter. I bought it because it was the perfect sweater for her to dress up as one of her favourite children’s books characters for Halloween - Little Witch Hazel. It’s such a gorgeous colour and design, and thankfully still fits her two years later - she’ll be extremely sad when she eventually outgrows it. 

You would think that in a colder climate like Canada, I would meet more like-minded people who invested in wool. And on a broader scale, you would think with the state of our current climate and environment, that more people would be concerned about investing in brands that use sustainable materials and practices. The beauty of communities like MamaOwl, is that I can find a larger circle of people who think about things like where their clothing comes from, how it was made, how to make it last – and what will happen with it when it can no longer be used. I’ve even connected with other MamaOwl customers and swapped clothing, or bought secondhand from each other when our children outgrow items.

Thank you Robin