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wool

  (wʊl) pronunciation
n.
    1. The dense, soft, often curly hair forming the coat of sheep and certain other mammals, such as the goat and alpaca, consisting of cylindrical fibers of keratin covered by minute overlapping scales and much valued as a textile fabric.
    2. A material or garment made of this hair.
  1. The furry hair of some insect larvae, such as the caterpillar.
  2. A filamentous or fibrous covering or substance suggestive of the texture of true wool.

[Middle English wolle, from Old English wull.]

wool wool adj.
 
 
How Products are Made: How is wool made?

Background

As with many discoveries of early man, anthropologists believe the use of wool came out of the challenge to survive. In seeking means of protection and warmth, humans in the Neolithic Age wore animal pelts as clothing. Finding the pelts not only warm and comfortable but also durable, they soon began to develop the basic processes and primitive tools for making wool. By 4000 B.C., Babylonians were wearing clothing of crudely woven fabric.

People soon began to develop and maintain herds of wool-bearing animals. The wool of sheep was soon recognized as one of the most practical to use. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, wool trade prospered. The English had become proficient in the raising of sheep, while the Flemish had developed the skills for processing. As a result, the British began to sell their wool to the Flemish, who processed the raw material and then sold it back to the English.

The ambitious British soon realized the advantages of both producing and processing their own wool. As Britain began to prosper, it sought to enhance its position by enacting laws and embargoes that would stimulate its domestic production. Some laws, for example, required that judges, professors, and students wear robes made of English wool. Another law required that the dead be buried in native wool. When the American colonies began to compete with the motherland, the English passed a series of laws in an attempt to protect their "golden fleece." One law even threatened the amputation of the hand of any colonist caught trying to improve the blood line of American sheep.

Today, wool is a global industry, with Australia, Argentina, the United States, and New Zealand serving as the major suppliers of raw wool. While the United States is the largest consumer of wool fabric, Australia is the leading supplier. Australian wool accounts for approximately one-fourth of the world's production.

What for centuries was a small home-based craft has grown into a major industry. The annual global output is now estimated at 5.5 billion pounds. Though cotton is the number one plant used for fabrics and the number one fiber overall, the number one source for animal fiber is still wool.

Raw Materials

While most people picture only sheep when they think of wool, other animals also produce fine protein fiber. Various camels, goats, and rabbits produce hair that is also classified as wool.

In scientific terms, wool is considered to be a protein called keratin. Its length usually ranges from 1.5 to 15 inches (3.8 to 38 centimeters) depending on the breed of sheep. Each piece is made up of three essential components: the cuticle, the cortex, and the medulla.

The cuticle is the outer layer. It is a protective layer of scales arranged like shingles or fish scales. When two fibers come in contact with each other, these scales tend to cling and stick to each other. It's this physical clinging and sticking that allows wool fibers to be spun into thread so easily.

The cortex is the inner structure made up of millions of cigar-shaped cortical cells. In natural-colored wool, these cells contain melanin. The arrangement of these cells is also responsible for the natural crimp unique to wool fiber.

Rarely found in fine wools, the medulla comprises a series of cells (similar to honeycombs) that provide air spaces, giving wool its thermal insulation value. Wool, like residential insulation, is effective in reducing heat transfer.

Wool fiber is hydrophilic—it has a strong affinity for water—and therefore is easily dyed. While it is a good insulator, it scorches and discolors under high temperatures. Each fiber is elastic to an extent, allowing it to be stretched 25 to 30 percent before breaking. Wool does, however, have a tendency to shrink when wet.

Design

While some of the characteristics of wool can be altered through genetic engineering of sheep, most of the modifications of design are implemented during the manufacturing of the fabric. Wool can be blended with any number of natural or synthetic fibers, and various finishes and treatments can also be applied.

Different types of fleece are used in producing wool. Lambs' wool is fleece that is taken from young sheep before the age of eight months. Because the fiber has not been cut, it has a natural, tapered end that gives it a softer feel. Pulled wool is taken from animals originally slaughtered for meat and is pulled from the pelt using various chemicals. The fibers of pulled wool are of low quality and produce a low-grade cloth. Virgin wool is wool that has never been processed in any manner before it goes into the manufacturing phase. This term is often misunderstood to mean higher quality, which is not necessarily the case.

These wools and others can be used in the production of two categories of woolen fabrics: woolens and worsteds. Woolens are made up of short, curly fibers that tend to be uneven and weak. They are loosely woven in plain or indistinct patterns. Usually woolens have a low thread count and are not as durable as worsteds. They do, however, make soft, fuzzy, and thick fabrics that are generally warmer than their counterparts.

Worsted fabrics are made of long, straight fibers with considerable tensile strength. They are usually woven in twill patterns and have a high thread count. The finish tends to be hard, rough, and flat. Also, the insulation value is normally not as high as woolens. Worsted fabrics also tend to be more expensive than woolens.

The Manufacturing
Process

The major steps necessary to process wool from the sheep to the fabric are: shearing, cleaning and scouring, grading and sorting, carding, spinning, weaving, and finishing.

Shearing

  • Sheep are sheared once a year—usually in the springtime. A veteran shearer can shear up to two hundred sheep per day. The fleece recovered from a sheep can weigh between 6 and 18 pounds (2.7 and 8.1 kilograms); as much as possible, the fleece is kept in one piece. While most sheep are still sheared by hand, new technologies have been developed that use computers and sensitive, robot-controlled arms to do the clipping.

Grading and sorting

  • Grading is the breaking up of the fleece based on overall quality. In sorting, the wool is broken up into sections of different quality fibers, from different parts of the body. The best quality of wool comes from the shoulders and sides of the sheep and is used for clothing; the lesser quality comes from the lower legs and is used to make rugs. In wool grading, high quality does not always mean high durability.

Cleaning and scouring

  • Wool taken directly from the sheep is called "raw" or "grease wool." It contains sand, dirt, grease, and dried sweat (called suint); the weight of contaminants accounts for about 30 to 70 percent of the fleece's total weight. To remove these contaminants, the wool is scoured in a series of alkaline baths containing water, soap, and soda ash or a similar alkali. The byproducts from this process (such as lanolin) are saved and used in a variety of household products. Rollers in the scouring machines squeeze excess water from the fleece, but the fleece is not allowed to dry completely. Following this process, the wool is often treated with oil to give it increased manageability.

Carding

  • Next, the fibers are passed through a series of metal teeth that straighten and blend them into slivers. Carding also removes residual dirt and other matter left in the fibers. Carded wool intended for worsted yarn is put through gilling and combing, two procedures that remove short fibers and place the longer fibers parallel to each other. From there, the sleeker slivers are compacted and thinned through a process called drawing. Carded wool to be used for woolen yarn is sent directly for spinning.

Spinning

  • Thread is formed by spinning the fibers together to form one strand of yarn; the strand is spun with two, three, or four other strands. Since the fibers cling and stick to one another, it is fairly easy to join, extend, and spin wool into yarn. Spinning for woolen yarns is typically done on a mule spinning machine, while worsted yarns can be spun on any number of spinning machines. After the yarn is spun, it is wrapped around bobbins, cones, or commercial drums.

Weaving

  • Next, the wool yarn is woven into fabric. Wool manufacturers use two basic weaves: the plain weave and the twill. Woolen yarns are made into fabric using a plain weave (rarely a twill), which produces a fabric of a somewhat looser weave and a soft surface (due to napping) with little or no luster. The napping often conceals flaws in construction.

    Worsted yarns can create fine fabrics with exquisite patterns using a twill weave. The result is a more tightly woven, smooth fabric. Better constructed, worsteds are more durable than woolens and therefore more costly.

Finishing

  • After weaving, both worsteds and woolens undergo a series of finishing procedures including: fulling (immersing the fabric in water to make the fibers interlock); crabbing (permanently setting the interlock); decating (shrink-proofing); and, occasionally, dyeing. Although wool fibers can be dyed before the carding process, dyeing can also be done after the wool has been woven into fabric.

Byproducts

The use of waste is very important to the wool industry. Attention to this aspect of the business has a direct impact on profits. These wastes are grouped into four classes:

  • Noils. These are the short fibers that are separated from the long wool in the combing process. Because of their excellent condition, they are equal in quality to virgin wool. They constitute one of the major sources of waste in the industry and are reused in high-quality products.
  • Soft waste. This is also high-quality material that falls out during the spinning and carding stages of production. This material is usually reintroduced into the process from which it came.
  • Hard waste. These wastes are generated by spinning, twisting, winding, and warping. This material requires much re-processing and is therefore considered to be of lesser value.
  • Finishing waste. This category includes a wide variety of clippings, short ends, sample runs, and defects. Since this material is so varied, it requires a great deal of sorting and cleaning to retrieve that which is usable. Consequently, this material is the lowest grade of waste.

Quality Control

Most of the quality control in the production of wool fabrics is done by sight, feel, and measurement. Loose threads are removed with tweezer-like instruments called burling irons; knots are pushed to the back of the cloth; and other specks and minor flaws are taken care of before fabrics go through any of the finishing procedures.

In 1941, the United States Congress passed the Wool Products Labeling Act. The purpose of this act was to protect producers and consumers from the unrevealed presence of substitutes and mixtures in wool products. This law required that all products containing wool (with the exception of upholstery and floor coverings) must carry a label stating the content and percentages of the materials in the fabric.

This act also legally defined many terms that would standardized their use within the industry. Some of the key terms identified in the Act are:

  • Wool. Refers to new wool. Can also include new fiber reclaimed from scraps and broken threads.
  • Repossessed Wool. Material that is obtained from scraps and clips of new woven or felted fabrics made of previously unused wool.
  • Reused Wool. Wool obtained from old clothing and rags that have been used or worn.

The Future

The current widespread use and demand for wool is so great that there is little doubt that wool will continue to maintain its position of importance in the fabric industry. Only a major innovation that encompasses the many attributes of wool—including it warmth, durability, and value—could threaten the prominence of this natural fiber.

Where To Learn More

Books

Botkin, M. P. Sheep and Wool: Science, Production, and Management. Prentice Hall, 1988.

Corbman, Bernard P. Textiles: Fiber to Fabric, 6th ed. McGraw-Hill, 1983.

Ensiminger, Eugene. Sheep and Wool Science. Interstate Printers, 1970.

Periodicals

Hyde, Nina. "Fabric of History: Wool," National Geographic. May, 1988, p. 552.

Ryder, Michael L. "The Evolution of the Fleece," Scientific American. January, 1987, p. 112.

[Article by: Dan Pepper]


 

A textile fiber made of the undercoat of various animals, especially sheep. Wool provides warmth and physical comfort that cotton and linen fabrics cannot give. These qualities, combined with its soft resiliency, make wool a necessity for apparel and for rugs and blankets.

Sheep are generally shorn of their fleeces in the spring, but the time of shearing varies in different parts of the world. Each fleece contains different grades, or sorts, of wool, and the raw stock must be carefully graded and segregated according to length, diameter, and quality of fiber. Wool from different parts of the body of the lamb differs greatly. The shoulders and sides generally yield the best quality of wool, because the fibers from those parts are longer, softer, and finer.

Wool's major physical characteristics include fiber diameter (fineness or grade), staple length, and clean wool yield. Also significant are soundness, color, luster, and content of vegetable matter. Grade refers specifically to mean fiber diameter and its variability. Fiber diameter is the most important manufacturing characteristic. Fleeces are commercially graded visually through observation and handling by men of long experience in the industry. Degree of crimp and relative softness of the fleece are important deciding factors employed by the graders.

The inherent advantages of wool have been exploited, and its limitations as a textile fiber have been overcome by the application of technology to manufacturing processes. The use of the insecticide dieldrin as a dye renders wool mothproof for life. Permanent pleats have been imparted to garments which are shrinkproofed and can be home laundered. Each such technological advance enables wool to hold its competitive place in the field of textile manufacture and use.


 

Animal fibre that is the protective covering, or fleece, of sheep or such other hairy mammals as goats and camels. Wool is readied by washing (lanolin is the by-product), carding, sometimes combing, then spinning. Coarser than such textile fibres as cotton, linen, silk, and rayon, wool is resilient after limited stretching or compression, so fabrics and garments made from wool tend to retain shape, drape well, and resist wrinkling. Wool is warm and lightweight and takes dyes well. Woolen yarns, usually made from shorter fibres, are thick and full and are used for such items as tweed fabrics and blankets. Worsteds usually are made from longer fibres.

For more information on wool, visit Britannica.com.

 
fiber made from the fleece of the domestic sheep.

Composition and Characteristics

Wool consists of the cortex, overlapping scales (sharper and more protruding than those of hair) that may expand at their free edges causing fibers to intermesh; elasticum, the inner layer; and a core. When soaked, the elasticum and core contract, shrinking the fiber. Elasticity resulting from the molecular structure of wool and resiliency from its crimp make wool fabrics crease resistant. Fine wool will stretch one third its length. Wool is warm because its fibers are nonconductors of heat and its crimp permits it to enmesh still air. It is highly absorbent and releases moisture slowly. Its tensile strength is one fourth greater than that of cotton. A protein compound of complex chemical composition, it is soluble in hot caustic soda.

Wool Types

Wool is classed as follows: fine, usually short-staple wool of Merino fineness and including Delaine Merino, combable fibers 2 in. (5.1 cm) or more in length; medium, or mutton, 21/2 to 6 in. (6.4–15.2 cm) long, e.g., Cheviot and Southdown; long-staple, 10 to 15 in. (25.4–38.1 cm) long, loosely crimped, e.g., the Lincoln and the Cotswold; and carpet, 1 to 15 in. (2.5–38.1 cm) long, strong, coarse, and usually blended for uniformity. For industrial purposes the fiber of the camel, Angora goat (see mohair), Kashmir goat (cashmere), llama, alpaca, and vicuña is classed as wool.

Sheep are sheared with mechanical clippers. The fleece thus recovered is classed as lamb's wool, or first clip; hog wool, clipped from sheep 12 to 14 months old; wether wool, from older animals; taglocks, the ragged, discolored portion; and pulled wool, usually weakened when recovered by sweating or chemical processes from sheep slaughtered for mutton.

Wool Production

The wool is sorted as to fineness, crimp, length of fiber, and felting qualities. Dirt, suint (dried perspiration), and lanolin are removed by a soap-alkali scouring; by the expensive naphtha solvent method, which retains the full strength and softness of the fiber; or by freezing and shaking. Wool may be carbonized to remove vegetable matter. It is bleached and dyed as raw stock, yarn, or in the piece; it is oiled to withstand processing and is often blended.

Woolen goods are woven from carded short-staple fibers into soft yarns adapted to fulling and napping. Worsted fabrics such as whipcord, gabardine, and serge have a hard, smooth texture. Originally made only from long-staple fibers, worsted yarn is now spun also from medium or short fibers. The fibers are carded, the resulting sliver gilled to straighten the fibers and double them for uniformity; subjected to successive combings to remove nails (short ends) and lay the fibers parallel; then drawn into roving and spun, usually by the rapid, continuous ring method, and twisted. Although the twill weave is usual for worsteds, the same weaves may be used as for woolens without the pattern being obscured by the napping, fulling, and shearing processes commonly employed in finishing woolens.

History of Wool Production

No known wild sheep are wool bearing. The supposed ancestors of the domestic sheep had long hair and a soft, downy undercoat, which under domestication gradually became wool, while the long hair disappeared. In this development, breeding, feed, climate, and protection were influential, as shown by an atavistic return of neglected sheep to long hair and rudimentary wool.

In the tombs and ruins of Egypt, Nineveh, and Babylon, in the barrows of early Britons, and among the relics of the Peruvians, fragments of woolen fabrics are found. The Romans as early as 200 B.C. began to improve their flocks, which became the progenitors of the famed Spanish Merino sheep. The Britons kept sheep and wove wool long before the Roman invasion, but the establishment by the Romans of a factory at Winchester probably improved their methods. William the Conqueror brought into England skilled Flemish weavers. Henry II encouraged wool industries by laws, cloth fairs, and guilds of weavers. Edward III brought weavers, dyers, and fullers from Flanders. England became the great wool-producing country of Europe, and wool was the staple of its industry until cotton began to overshadow it in the 18th cent.

In the American colonies, sheep raising started in Jamestown. Stringent English laws against exporting wool passed in an attempt to force the use of English cloth on the colonies, early drove the settlers to the raising of sheep. George Washington imported sheep and brought spinners and weavers from England. Early in the 19th cent., imported Merinos greatly improved the existing stock. Spinning and weaving were early established in New England, at first in homes, later in small factories. The first factory in America using water power to weave wool was established (1788) at Hartford, Conn., and was encouraged by tax exemption and a bounty on each yard woven.

Wool Today

In the United States, by the Wool Products Labeling Act of 1939, the term wool may be applied only to fabrics made entirely of new wool; the term reprocessed wool, to wool recovered from unused articles and waste; and reused wool, to wool reclaimed from used articles. The trade designates fleece wool as virgin wool, salvaged wool as shoddy. Salvaged wool may legitimately be used to add strength to soft new wool or to produce a cheaper product. Numerous synthetic fibers have been developed as wool imitations and for blending with wool.

The United States now produces a substantial amount of the world's wool, chiefly in Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, California, and Ohio. Woolen cloth manufacture is largely centered in New England. Other important wool producers include Australia, Argentina, New Zealand, Russia, the Republic of South Africa, Uruguay, Great Britain, China, and India.

Bibliography

See W. J. Onions, Wool: An Introduction to Its Properties, Varieties, Uses, and Production (1962); W. von Bergen, ed., Wool Handbook (2 vol., 3d ed. 1963–70); H. S. Bell, Wool: An Introduction to Wool Production and Marketing (1970).


 

The natural fiber produced by the skin of domesticated sheep, characterized by its quality of felting together by virtue of its imbricated surface.

  • w. ball — see trichobezoar.
  • black w. — inherited coat color in sheep.
  • w. blind — the state of having excess wool growth around the eyes to the point where the sheep is unable to see.
  • break in w. — see wool break.
  • carding w. — wool suitable for the woollen trade.
  • carpet w. — coarse low-grade wool, used in the manufacture of carpets.
  • w. classing — see wool classing.
  • clean w. — the basis on which the price of wool is set; scoured wool less charges and loss incurred in scouring.
  • combing w. — long-fibered wool suitable for processing in a combing machine. Used in textile manufacture, especially worsted.
  • colored w. fibers — naturally colored fibers in a fleece.
  • dead w. — wool plucked from a sheep which has been dead for some time; usually heavily contaminated and of little value.
  • dense w. — staples carrying many fibers per unit area of skin surface.
  • w. depigmentation — see achromotrichia.
  • w. discoloration — see fleece rot, mycotic dermatitis.
  • doggy w. — unevenly or poorly crimped wool; found in old sheep.
  • w. eating — eating of rabbits’ wool by other rabbits, or wool from garments by cats causes intestinal wool balls and obstruction of the gut. May be a manifestation of pica due to boredom.
  • w. fat — see lanolin.
  • w. fiber abnormalities — includes straight, steely wool, wool break, pigmentation, achromotrichia in black sheep.
  • w. fiber diameter — thickness of the fiber; wool is sold on the basis of the average fiber diameter of the wool in the lot as determined by a machine and quoted in microns (micrometers); a more sophisticated classification is made on the basis of the average fiber diameter and the variability of the diameter.
  • greasy w. — wool in its natural state, after removal from the sheep and before any commercial processing; contains yolk, suint, moisture, extraneous soil and vegetable matter.
  • w. hairs — the soft undercoat fibers in most cats and dogs, interspersed with the longer guard hair; the predominant fiber type in sheep.
  • hogget w. — first fleece from a 10 to 14 month old sheep which has not been previously shorn.
  • hunger fine w. — wool with a finer fiber diameter than expected for the sheep's age; caused usually by poor nutrition.
  • w. industry — includes sheep farming, shearing, wool sales, wool processing and fiber and fabric manufacture.
  • w. maggots — see cutaneous myiasis.
  • w. picking — pulling at the wool of another sheep. It may be a vice due to over-confinement, or to an unspecified nutritional deficiency. Biting of another sheep as occurs in rabies may be confused with wool picking but not for long.
  • plain w. — straight wool lacking crimp and character.
  • w. processing effluent — liquid effluent from wool processing; has been a source of infection with anthrax.
  • w. pulling — pulling by the sheep of its own wool, usually an indication of itchiness. See also psorergates ovis.
  • w. quality — the British standard for wool quality is based on the Bradford Spinning Count System and the wool qualified as to its Bradford Count. This originated in the 19th century and is based on the number of 560-yard worsted skeins that can be produced from one pound of clean wool; larger numbers mean finer wool.
  • w. rot — see fleece rot.
  • w. rubbing — the sheep rubs its fleece against a hard object. Usually an indication of itching caused by external parasites or to a systemic disease with manifestations in the skin. See also scrapie.
  • w. slip — alopecia of housed ewes that are shorn in winter. The wool is lost over a large area of the back. There is no systemic illness and the wool regrows normally. The cause is unknown but the condition appears to be related to a high level of serum corticosteroids.
  • straight-steely w.steely wool.
  • w. sucking — a vice of cats, particularly Siamese and Siamese crosses, in which they suck or chew woollen objects. Believed to be an extension of sucking behavior.
  • tender w. — wool which will break during the combing process in manufacturing.
  • w. wax — see lanolin.
  • w. weight — see fleece weight.
  • w. yield — the percentage of raw wool that can be retrieved from processing in a state suitable for the particular type of production which is in hand, e.g. carpet making.
 
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: The curly hair of certain animals.

pronunciation When the bold branches Bid farewell to rainbow leaves — Welcome wool sweaters. — B. Cybrill.

 
Wikipedia: wool
Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, Arizona
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Long and short hair wool at the South Central Family Farm Research Center in Boonesville, Arizona


Wool is the fibre derived from the fur of animals of the Caprinae family, principally sheep, but the hair of certain species of other mammals such as goats, llamas and rabbits may also be called wool. This article deals explicitly with the wool produced from domestic sheep.

Wool has two qualities that distinguish it from hair or fur: it has scales which overlap like shingles on a roof and it is crimped; in some fleeces the wool fibres have more than 20 bends per inch. [citation needed]

Characteristics

Wool's scaling and crimp make it easier to spin and felt the fleece. They help the individual fibers attach to each other so that they stay together. Because of the crimp, wool fabrics have a greater bulk than other textiles and retain air, which causes the product to retain heat. Insulation also works both ways; bedouins and tuaregs use wool clothes to keep the heat out.

The amount of crimp corresponds to the thickness of the wool fibers. A fine wool like merino may have up to a hundred crimps per inch, while the coarser wools like karakul may have as few as one to two crimps per inch.

Hair, by contrast, has little if any scale and no crimp and little ability to bind into yarn. On sheep, the hair part of the fleece is called kemp. The relative amounts of kemp to wool vary from breed to breed, and make some fleeces more desirable for spinning, felting or carding into batts for quilts or other insulating products.

Wool is generally a creamy white color, although some breeds of sheep produce natural colors such as black, brown, silver and random mixes.

Processing

Wool in a shearing shed
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Wool in a shearing shed

Wool straight off a sheep contains a high level of grease which contains valuable lanolin, as well as dirt, dead skin, sweat residue, and vegetable matter. This state is known as "grease wool" or "wool in the grease". Before the wool can be used for commercial purposes it must be scoured, or cleaned. Scouring may be as simple as a bath in warm water, or a complicated industrial process using detergent and alkali. [1] In commercial wool, vegetable matter is often removed by the chemical process of chemical carbonization[2]. In less processed wools, vegetable matter may be removed by hand, and some of the lanolin left intact through use of gentler detergents. This semi-grease wool can be worked into yarn and knitted into particularly water-resistant mittens or sweaters, such as those of the Aran Island fishermen. Lanolin removed from wool is widely used in the cosmetics industry, such as hand creams.

After shearing, the wool is separated into five main categories: fleece (which makes up the vast bulk), pieces, bellies, crutchings and locks. The latter four are packaged and sold separately. The quality of fleece is determined by a technique known as wool classing, whereby a qualified woolclasser tries to group wools of similar gradings together to maximise the return for the farmer or sheep owner.

Quality

The quality of wool is determined by the following factors, fiber fineness, length, scale structure, color, cleanliness, and freedom from damage[3]. For example merino wool is typically 3-5 inches in length and is very fine (between 12-24 microns[4]). Wool taken from sheep produced for meat is typically more coarse, and has fibers are 1.5 to 6 inches in length. Damage or "breaks in the wool" can occur if the sheep is stressed while it is growing its fleece, resulting in a thin spot where the fleece is likely to break.[5]

Wool is also separated into grades based on the measurement of the wool's diameter in microns. These grades may vary depending on the breed or purpose of the wool. For example:

  • < 17.5 - Ultrafine merino
  • 17.6-18.5 - Superfine merino
  • < 19.5 - Fine merino
  • 19.6-20.5 - Fine medium merino
  • 20.6-22.5 - Medium merino
  • 22.6 < - Strong merino [4]

or

  • < 24.5 - Fine
  • 24.5–31.4 - Medium
  • 31.5-35.4 - Fine crossbred
  • 35.5 < - coarse crossbred[6]

In general, anything smaller than 25 microns can be used for garments, while coarser grades are used for outerwear or rugs. The finer the wool, the softer it will be, while coarser grades are more durable and less prone to pilling.

History

Wool wearing, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century)
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Wool wearing, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century)

As the raw material has been readily available since the widespread domestication of sheep—and of goats, another major provider of wool— the use of felted or woven wool for clothing and other fabrics characterizes some of the earliest civilizations. Prior to invention of shears - probably in the Iron Age - the wool was plucked out by hand or by bronze combs. The oldest European woollen textile, of ca. 1500 BCE, was preserved in a Danish bog [1].

In Roman times, wool, linen and leather clothed the European population: the cotton of India was a curiosity that only naturalists had heard of, and silk, imported along the Silk Road from China, was an extravagant luxury. Pliny the Elder records in his Natural History that the reputation for producing the finest wool was enjoyed by Tarentum, where selective breeding had produced sheep with a superior fleece, but which required special care.

In medieval times, as trade connections expanded, the Champagne fairs revolved around the production of woollen cloth in small centers such as Provins; the network that the sequence of annual fairs developed meant that the woollens of Provins might find their way to Naples, Sicily, Cyprus, Majorca, Spain and even Constantinople (Braudel, 316). The wool trade developed into serious business, the generator of capital. In the thirteenth century, the wool trade was the economic engine of the Low Countries and of Central Italy; by the end of the following century Italy predominated, though in the 16th century Italian production turned to silk (Braudel p 312). Both pre-industries were based on English raw wool exports— rivalled only by the sheepwalks of Castile, developed from the fifteenth century— which were a significant source of income to the English crown, which from 1275 imposed an export tax on wool called the "Great Custom". Economies of scale were instituted in the Cistercian houses, which had accumulated great tracts of land during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, when land prices were low and labour still scarce. Raw wool was baled and shipped from North Sea ports to the textile cities of Flanders, notably Ypres and Ghent, where it was dyed and worked up as cloth. At the time of the Black Death, English textile industries accounted for about 10% of English wool production (Cantor 2001, 64); the English textile trade grew during the fifteenth century, to the point where export of wool was discouraged. Over the centuries, various British laws controlled the wool trade or required the use of wool even in burials. The smuggling of wool out of the country, known as owling, was at one time punishable by the cutting off of a hand. After the Restoration, fine English woollens began to compete with silks in the international market, partly aided by the Navigation Acts; in 1699 English crown forbade its American colonies to trade wool with anyone but England herself.

A great deal of the value of woollen textiles was in the dyeing and finishing of the woven product. In each of the centers of the textile trade, the manufacturing process came to be subdivided into a collection of trades, overseen by an entrepreneur in a system called by the English the "putting-out" system, or "cottage industry", and the Verlagssystem by the Germans. In this system of producing woolen cloth, until recently perpetuated in the production of Harris tweeds, the entrepreneur provides the raw materials and an advance, the remainder being paid upon delivery of the product. Written contracts bound the artisans to specified terms. Fernand Braudel traces the appearance of the system in the thirteenth-century economic boom, quoting a document of 1275 (Braudel, 317) The system effectively by-passed the guilds' restrictions.

Before the flowering of the Renaissance, the Medici and other great banking houses of Florence had built their wealth and banking system on their textile industry based on wool, overseen by the Arte della Lana, the wool guild: wool textile interests guided Florentine policies. Francesco Datini, the "merchant of Prato", established in 1383 an Arte della Lana for that small Tuscan city. The sheepwalks of Castile shaped the landscape and the fortunes of the meseta that lies in the heart of the Iberian peninsula; in the sixteenth century, a unified Spain allowed export of Merino lambs only with royal permission. The German wool market—based on sheep of Spanish origin—did not overtake British wool until comparatively late. Australia's colonial economy was based on sheep raising and the Australian wool trade eventually overtook that of the Germans by 1845, furnishing wool for Bradford, which developed as the heart of industrialized woollens production.

  • Fernand Braudel, 1982. The Wheels of Commerce, vol 2 of Civilization and Capitalism (New York:Harper & Row)

Due to decreasing demand with increased use of synthetic fibers, wool production is much less than what it was in the past. The collapse in the price of wool began in late 1966 with a 40% drop; with occasional interruptions, the price has tended down. The result has been sharply reduced production and movement of resources into production of other commodities, in the case of sheep growers, to production of meat. [7] [8] [9]

Production

Fine Merino shearing Lismore, Victoria
Enlarge
Fine Merino shearing Lismore, Victoria

Global wool production is approximately 1.3 million tonnes per annum of which 60% goes into apparel. Australia, China and New Zealand are leading commercial producers of wool. Most Australian wool comes from the merino breed. Breeds such as Lincoln and Romney produce coarser fibres and wool of these sheep is usually used for making carpets.

In the United States, Texas, New Mexico and Colorado also have large commercial sheep flocks and their mainstay is the Rambouillet (or French Merino). There is also a thriving 'home flock' contingent of small scale farmers who raise small hobby flocks of specialty sheep for the handspinning market. These small scale farmers may raise any type of sheep they wish, so the selection of fleeces is quite wide.

Global wool clip 2004/2005[10]

  1. Australia: 25% of global wool clip (475 million kg greasy, 2004/2005)
  2. China: 18%
  3. New Zealand: 11%
  4. Argentina: 3%
  5. Turkey: 2%
  6. Iran: 2%
  7. United Kingdom: 2%
  8. India: 2%
  9. Sudan: 2%
  10. South Africa: 1%
  11. United States: 0.77%

Keeping with the times, organic wool is becoming more and more popular. This blend of wool is very limited in supply and much of it comes from New Zealand and Australia[11].

Uses

In addition to clothing, wool has been used for carpeting, felt, wool insulation (also see links) and upholstery. Wool felt covers piano hammers and it is used to absorb odors and noise in heavy machinery and stereo speakers. Ancient Greeks lined their helmets with felt and Roman legionnaires used breastplates made of wool felt.

Wool has also been traditionally used to cover cloth diapers. Wool fiber exteriors are hydrophobic (repel water) and the interior of the wool fiber is hydroscopic (attracts water; this makes a wool garmet able to cover a wet diaper while inhibiting 'wicking' so outer garments remain dry. Wool felted and treated with lanolin is water resistant, air permeable, and slightly antibacterial, so it resists the buildup of odor. Some modern cloth diaperers use felted wool fabric for covers, and there are several modern commercial knitting patterns for wool diaper covers.

Yarns

Virgin wool is wool spun for the first time, as contrasted with shoddy.[12]

Shoddy or recycled wool is made by cutting or tearing apart existing wool fabric and respinning the resulting fibers.[13] As this process makes the wool fibers shorter, the remanufactured fabric is inferior to the original. The recycled wool may be mixed with raw wool, wool noil, or another fiber such as cotton to increase the average fibre length. Such yarns are typically used as weft yarns with a cotton warp. This process was invented in the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire and created a micro-economy in this area for many years.

Ragg is a sturdy wool fiber made into yarn and used in many rugged applications like gloves.

Worsted is a strong, long-staple, combed wool yarn with a hard surface.[14]

Woolen is a soft, short-staple, carded wool yarn typically used for knitting.[15] In traditional weaving, woolen weft yarn (for softness and warmth) is frequently combined with a worsted warp yarn for strength on the loom.[16]

Wool allergies

Many people consider themselves to be allergic to wool because they have an adverse reaction every time it touches their skin. However, a true allergy to wool is actually rare. Most people who have a reaction to wool do so because they have sensitive skin, and they would likely have a similar reaction to any coarse fiber. An allergy would require a person to have had a prior contact with the wool that would cause a cell-mediated hypersensitivity against it. People with sensitive skin who would like to wear wool can put a layer of softer fabric between the wool and their skin.

See also


Production

Processing

Refined products

Organizations

Other wool

In mythology

References

  1. ^ Technology in Australia 1788-1988. Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre (2001). Retrieved on 2006-04-30.
  2. ^ Wool on The Web - Carbonising. Retrieved on 2006-04-30.
  3. ^ Kadolph, Sara J.; Anna L. Langford. (2002). Textiles. Upper Saddle RIver, NJ: PEarson Education, Inc.. 
  4. ^ a b Merino Sheep in Australia. Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
  5. ^ Van Nostran, Don. Wool Management - Maximizing Wool Returns. Mid-States Woolgrowers Cooperative Association. Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
  6. ^ Wool and Fiber Industry Profile. Retrieved on 2006-11-10.
  7. ^ "The end of pastoral dominance"
  8. ^ 1301.0 - Year Book Australia, 2000, Australian Bureau of Statistics
  9. ^ "SHEEP, LAMB, MUTTON AND GOAT MEAT
  10. ^ (September 2005). "WoolFacts" (PDF). Australian Wool Innovation.
  11. ^ Speer, Jordan K. (2006-05-01). "Shearing the Edge of Innovation". Apparel Magazine. 
  12. ^ Kadolph, Sara J., ed.: Textiles, 10th edition, Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2007, ISBN 0-13-118769-4, p. 63
  13. ^ Kadolph, Textiles, p. 63
  14. ^ Kadolph, Textiles, p. 183
  15. ^ Kadolph, Textiles, p. 183
  16. ^ Østergård, Else: Woven into the Earth: Textiles from Norse Greenland , Aarhus University Press, 2004, ISBN 8772889357, p. 50

External links

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Translations: Translations for: Wool

Dansk (Danish)
n. - uld, uldgarn, uldent tøj

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    stikke en blår i øjnene

Nederlands (Dutch)
wol, wollen, wollen stof/ kledingstuk

Français (French)
n. - laine

idioms:

  • pull the wool over someone's eyes    duper qn

Deutsch (German)
n. - Wolle

idioms:

  • pull the wool over someone's eyes    jdn. hinters Licht führen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - μαλλί, έριο(ν), μάλλινο ύφασμα
adj. - μάλλινος

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    εξαπατώ κάποιον

Italiano (Italian)
lana, di lana

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    ingannare

Português (Portuguese)
n. - lã (f), roupa de lã (f), cabelo crespo (m)
adj. - de lã

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    enganar

Русский (Russian)
шерсть, руно, шерстяная пряжа, вата, волокно, волосы, пух

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    вводить в заблуждение кого-л.

Español (Spanish)
n. - lana, pelo

idioms:

  • pull the wool over someone's eyes    engañarlo a uno como a un niño

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ull, ylle
adj. - ylle-

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
羊毛, 毛线, 毛织物

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    蒙骗某人

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 羊毛, 毛線, 毛織物

idioms:

  • pull the wool over a person's eyes    蒙騙某人

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 양털, 털실, 모직물

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 羊毛, 毛糸, 毛織物, 綿毛, 縮れ毛

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) صوف, نسيج صوفي, ثوب من صوف, وبر, شعر الانسان (صفه) مصنوع من الصوف‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮צמר, לבוש צמר, שיער צמרי ומקורזל, עשוי צמר, צמרי‬


 
 

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