Medicine Felt — (minimally felted)

Single sized felted pad. Approximate size 30 in. by 72 in. Hand wash and dry. $125.

This wonderful felted wool pad is made with the exceptionally clean, high quality EcoDomestic wool batting from Montague. The wool is felted into a stable, felted pad through a bath and agitation process, and can be washed by hand in your bath tub and air dried. It’s shape is approximately a rectangle with its own one-of-kind-shape.

Wool warms to the human body immediately, but without overheating. Overly damp conditions (profuse sweating,) are immediately dispersed by wool’s active coil-like fiber. This, along with the felt's resiliency reduces stress points to the skin and bones. Polytechnic of Wales tested and documented that persons sleeping under a wool comforter experienced the most optimal sleeping conditions, compared to down, cotton and synthetics. The wool environment provided the optimal temperature and ‘non-humid’ conditions, and it was noted that while sleeping under wool, the heart rate was consistently normalized, in most cases lowered to its optimal pulse.

The Medicine Felt is intended to be our most therapeutic product. For that purpose, we are now making a limited number of minimally felted wool pads.

(You can ask for an e-mailable version of the World Woolbed Project, a project which seeks to distribute the Medicine Felt to the places, both locally and globally, where they are most needed to reduce human suffering).

Wool felt is effective for immediate relief in muscle spasms, trauma conditions, bed sores, arthritic symptoms, asthmatic conditions, allergies, heart disease, insomnia, major and minor aches and pains. The list is infinite. For almost every ailment, wool as a major influence in your sleeping environment will be of great assistance in supporting the healing process and maintaining good health.

According to Ann Wigmore in her autobiography "Why Suffer - How I overcame Illness and Pain Naturally"

I heard later about another of the methods my grandmother used when I was first entrusted to her care, in her effort to build my strength. At sheep-shearing time she would have the matted wool taken from a sheep intact. She would wrap me in this, and for three days I would be a sort of mummy with just my head protruding from the fleece.

This rather unusual treatment completely stopped my fits of coughing. She attributed special value to the oil of the wool, oil you could feel but could not see, though it did not make your hands greasy. This surface oil made it impossible for even a driving rain to reach the body of the sheep. "Something comes from the wool that helps sick human beings," she would say. She would often place it on an open sore or a wound, underneath the bandage.

How to care for your felted wool pads

We suggest one of two methods of washing the medicine felt.

1. Handwash. Use your bathtub. — Fill your bathtub a little ways with lukewarm water, roll the felted pad up loosely, place in the tub and allow it to soak for at least an hour with a little bit of natural soap. After soaking, swoosh the felt around in the water to help release the dirt. When finished, drain tub and squeeze out excess water from felt. Place felt in a large thick towel and let the towel absorb any excess water. Air dry by hanging over a suitable rack, which allows the felt to lay fairly flat while getting plenty of airflow. In front of the heater or fire or in the sunshine is great!

2. Machine wash. — This method will result in a more densely felted pad. Wash in a front loading (no agitator) washer on delicate cycle, and it will become much more densely felted and shrink an additional 10% in length and width. Now the felt will measure approximately 28 inches by 66 inches. It can be air dried or machine dried in a large commercial dryer for 20 to 30 minutes. If it is still holding some moisture, allow it to air dry until completely dry. Densifying the felted pad will greatly reduce the “ pilling” and “shedding”, characteristic in the “minimally felted” Medicine Felt and make it more durable.

Enjoy your Medicine felt!