For the love of Wool

It’s a material that is used every day all over the globe. It’s a material that has been used for thousands of years and is still as popular today. We are talking about wool.

You probably have numerous pieces of clothing in your wardrobe made from wool, jumpers, sweaters, coats and scarves. It’s such a versatile material and is used because of its warm properties.

As if you didn’t know already, wool comes from sheep. It has several qualities that distinguish it from Fur and hair. It’s elastic, It crimps and it grows in clusters. Because of the structure of the wool fibre, it makes spinning incredibly easier as the fibres stick to one another, and it creates a bigger bulk than most materials.

It’s an amazing material, it absorbs up to three times its weight in water, because the fibres are hollow, its anti-static, and it burns at a higher rate than cotton leaving a char, which self-extinguishes, this is why many carpets are made from pure wool as they are a lot safer.

The process that goes into producing a wool garment like a duffle coat is quite a long one.

Firstly, the sheep are shawn and the wool is classed in 4 different categories, fleece, broken, bellies and locks.

Wool taken straight from a sheep contains a high amount of natural oils- lanolin as well as dirt and grime. The wool is scoured which basically washes away all these elements to leave you with clean wool. The wool is combed to remove any knots, and thinned out. There are a number of processes hereafter which include dyeing, spinning and weaving to create different coloured wool, a range of yarns and an array of materials such as tweed, felt and twill which can be used in the production or suits, coats and a huge array of items.