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"  Photo: Campaign for Wool The Campaign For Wool, an initiative founded by Prince Charles in 2008, is taking over New York&amp;#039;s Bryant Park all day today\u2014complete with a flock of sheep. From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., the park will transform into a sheep&amp;#039;s meadow, with the temporary inhabitants roaming and grazing for all to see. The event\u2014which marks the first time the Campaign For Wool has come to the U.S.\u2014aims to bolster the wool industry and promote awareness of the material&amp;#039;s environmentally friendly and sustainable qualities. As part of today&amp;#039;s festivities, the Campaign for Wool Fashion Council will discuss wool&amp;#039;s importance to the fashion industry from 11 a.m. to noon. ELLE.com caught up with Alan Eckstein of Timo Weiland, one of the Council&amp;#039;s members and today&amp;#039;s speakers, to chat about how wool connects him to the important figures in his life.     Timo Weiland&amp;#039;s Alan Eckstein; Photo: Campaign for Wool   Yesterday, for instance, he had just visited with his grandmother. &amp;quot;I just gave her four knitting patterns to make dog clothing out of,&amp;quot; Eckstein said. &amp;quot;I just got a little dachshund\u2014Coconut\u2014so she&amp;#039;s gonna make a little sweater with palm trees and [Coconut&amp;#039;s] name on it. I&amp;#039;m really excited to get it back.&amp;quot; One of Eckstein&amp;#039;s favorite sweaters\u2014that he wears himself\u2014was also knitted by his grandmother. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s this white cableknit crew-neck sweater,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;My grandma has been making my sweaters since I was, you know, one month old.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s part of a long-running tradition in his family, he said. &amp;quot;My father had sweaters from my grandma when he was one month old. And, you know, my grandma had sweaters from her grandmother when she was one month old.&amp;quot;    Eckstein is such a fan of wool, he named a wool cardigan from this fall&amp;#039;s Timo Weiland collection after his girlfriend. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s called the Haley cardigan\u2014it&amp;#039;s basically a bulky knit made with a popcorn stitch and a removable fur collar\u2014and it&amp;#039;s definitely something that we&amp;#039;re going to do again every fall season.&amp;quot; Although Eckstein&amp;#039;s connection to wool and knitwear is clearly deeply personal, it&amp;#039;s also good for business, he said. &amp;quot;I would say our knitwear business is about half of our business [at Timo Weiland]. So for us, [wool] is important, because it&amp;#039;s the material that we use [for a large part of our business].&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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