Contents
Types Of Wool Fabric
Alpaca Wool
Alpaca wool is a medium-weight fabric that may be used for a variety of items, including jackets, blankets, bedspreads, and outerwear lining. Suri fleece, which is silkier and used in woven fabrics, and Huacaya fleece, which is thicker and used in knit goods, are two varieties of Alpaca breeds that produce wool.
Angora Wool
Angora wool is silky and fluffy and comes from Angora rabbits. Angora sweaters are popular because it is said to have the finest moisture-wicking capabilities of any natural material and maintains heat efficiently. The items made from Angora wool are lovely and will keep you warm during the winter months.
Because Angora fibers are delicate, wool is mixed with other fibers to make it stronger and more durable. Angora wool is somewhat more expensive than other varieties of wool due to the cultivation method and the worth of this type of wool.
Camel Hair Wool
Camel hair wool is a highly warm fine wool with a natural Golden Brown hue that is regarded very luscious. It’s usually blended with less costly varieties of wool to make it feel softer and allow you to buy it for a lower price.
Camels’ hair coats were popular in the United States in the 1920s when polo players began to wear them, and the softer wool from camels’ undercoat is still utilized for coats and other clothes in today’s globe. Upholstery and carpet backings are made from the coarse outer layer of camel hair.
Cashmere Wool
Cashmere wool is one of the most luscious fibers in the natural fibers category. It produces a highly soft, lightweight fabric that is quite expensive yet lovely since it has a high amount of natural crimp. Cashmere fibers must be grown from cashmere goats rather than being shorn, which is why it is so expensive.
Every year, cashmere goats generate a relatively modest amount of cashmere. Another disadvantage of cashmere is that it is not as tough and long-lasting as sheep’s wool.
Lambs Wool
Lambswool, also known as “virgin wool,” is produced from the first shearing of a young sheep when it is just a few months old. It is very soft, wrinkle-resistant, and hypoallergenic. Because each sheep can only produce lambswool once in their lives, it is more uncommon, making it a more expensive wool to buy. Virgin wool is another name for this sort of wool.
Melton Wool
Melton wool is one of the toughest, most durable, and warmest wools now available. It’s made out of exceptionally thick wool fibers and is usually woven in a twill pattern. It has excellent water wicking properties and is wind resistant, making it one of the most weatherproof wools available. It’s a terrific place to go if you’re looking for woollen outerwear or hefty blankets for harsh winter evenings.
Merino Wool
Merino wool is very fine and lustrous. It is one of the softest forms of wool available, and it is excellent at controlling your body temperature, making it ideal for athletic-style apparel. Merino sheep, which are native to Spain but abundant in New Zealand and Australia, provide this sort of wool.
Worsted Wool
Worsted wool is a type of wool yarn that is extremely high in quality. Its name is derived from the English settlement of Worstead, which is located in Norfolk County. Worstead residents, together with peasants from Aylsham and North Walsham, established a fabric and yarn production hub in the twelfth century. This sort of wool is created from sheep’s wool and is stronger, finer, firmer, and smoother than other varieties of wool, such as woolens.
It’s manufactured out of pasture wool from a variety of sheep breeds, including Old Leicester Longwool, Teeswaters, and Romney Marsh. Before being oiled and spun, the wool is washed, gilled, and combed with heat and long-tooth metal combs. It has been scoured but not completely filled. Worsted wool fabric is most commonly used to make fitted clothes, such as a wool suit.
Woolen Wool
Woolen, written woollen in Commonwealth English, is a soft, elastic, light, and airy home-spun yarn created from carded wool. Because it is an excellent insulator, it is an excellent choice for knitting. It’s used to make things like sweaters and comforters.
Mohair Wool
Mohair wool is made from the angora goat’s coat and is extremely resilient and drapes nicely. It’s often woven into a simple weave, and because it’s a lightweight wool material that yet keeps you warm, it’s popular for dresses, baby clothes, sweaters, scarves, and men’s and women’s suits.
Shetland Wool
Shetland wool is a superb choice for knitting since it is grown from sheep native to Scotland’s Shetland Islands. It has a really soft feel about it, but it is also quite robust. It is light and warm, and it comes in the broadest range of natural hues of any other sheep species.
Tropical Wool
Because tropical wool is lightweight and works well for clothes in hot temperatures, it is also known as cool wool. It’s often made of Merino wool, which has thermal management capabilities and is naturally breathable and cool to the touch. It has a very attractive appearance but is also highly useful.
Raw Wool
Raw wool is just wool that has not been treated or polished and is still in its natural state. Wool from all of the species described above is used to make this sort of wool. It’s twisted into yarn for weaving, and it’s an excellent material for making Afghan blankets, among other things.
Recycled Wool
Recycled wool, often known as “reclaimed wool” or “shoddy wool,” is precisely what its name implies: wool that has been used to generate one sort of product and then repurposed to make another. Wool fibers are broken apart and then spun again during the recycling process.
This diminishes the quality, but it also means that you can buy wool garments and other products for much less than you would if it hadn’t been recycled. It’s a terrific method to get a wool clothing, blanket, or other woolen item without breaking the budget.
Boiled Wool
Wool threads are knitted together into a sheet of material that is the same thickness throughout to make boiling wool. It usually begins with the placement of wool thread on a loom, which is then fed into a big weaving machine. Manufacturers can dye it in a number of hues at this time, or it can be left in its natural color.
Some producers adorn their products with patterns or other decorations. The cloth is then weaved on the loom before being immersed in hot water, heated, and stirred in an alkaline solution comparable to soapy water. The scaly surface of the wool strands causes the fibers to adhere together, resulting in a fabric that resembles felt.
Essentially, the wool transforms into an extremely tight, thick substance that is much smaller than the cloth before it is boiled. The water and wind resistance of the wool fabric is achieved by the boiling process. It also creates a more durable and warmer cloth.
Boiled wool is ideal for making apparel for the fall and winter seasons, as well as layered looks that can be worn all year. Unlike felted wool, which is a heavier fabric, boiled wool is a medium weight fabric. Jackets and coats, as well as cardigans, vests, berets, and scarves, can all be made using boiled wool.
Because of the microscopic air pockets in the fabric, clothing made of boiled wool will assist the person wearing it keep a steady body temperature. The fibers of boiling wool are melded together for a felted look, yet the material does not bother your skin like certain knitted wool textiles do.
Felted Wool
Felted wool is made from wool roving in the same manner as wool felt is made. Wool fibers are cleaned and carded when producers and manufacturers get them after animals with wool, such as sheep and goats, are shared. This is done to untangle the tangled fiber clumps and re-align them in the roving.
Before being cleaned in hot water and dried under a high heat source, the roving is spun into a thread and woven into wool fabric. The cloth constricts yet keeps a fluffy quality, similar to boiling. The method of felting wool is remarkably similar to that of boiling wool, with the exception that boiled wool is actually boiled in hot water, whereas felted wool is washed in hot water.
The procedure produces a fabric that is fully uniform and flat with felted wool, but with boiling wool, the woven threads can still be seen. Rugs, shoes, slippers, costumes, art projects, and garments are all examples of felted wool goods. Felted wool is commonly used to make blankets and wool slippers, but it will also keep your feet toasty throughout the winter months.
Vicuña Wool
The vicua, a relative of the alpaca and llama that originated in the Andes, produces the rarest wool. The ancient Incas revered the vicua, who cherished the wool for its tenderness and warmth and kept it exclusively for royalty. It’s a finer wool than cashmere, and it’s quite warm. Because it is chemically sensitive, it is frequently kept in its natural condition without the application of colors.
Since their numbers fell to only 5,000 in 1960, the Peruvian government has gone to tremendous efforts to maintain the vicua population. As a result, vicua wool harvesting and exports are strictly restricted. Vicuas must be captured in the wild and sheared every two years, with a maximum of five times in their lives. It is the most costly and uncommon wool in the world, costing up to $3,000 a yard due to the lengthy and stringent production procedure.
Conclusion
Wool textiles come in a wide variety of textures and patterns. Wool textiles are used in a wide range of garments and furnishings, but they are best recognized for providing warmth and comfort on cold days.
