Types of wool

Since ancient times, people have insulated themselves with animal skins and hair. For what properties modern people value natural wool, and what types of wool they prefer, read on.

Main characteristics of wool

When a person is cold, he puts on everything warm, for example, a woolen sweater, socks, and a scarf. All clothing that keeps you warm in bad weather consists of raw materials sheared from sheep and other animals. Wool has many unique characteristics and properties that are not inherent in other natural fibers:

• highest heat resistance;
• good hygroscopicity. Absorbs up to 30% of moisture from the environment, but absorption and release are very slow, the fabric remains dry to the touch for a long time;
• resistance to pollution. The product is easy to clean because dirt does not stick to the fibers;
• high stretchability. Natural fibers stretch well. This property is used to restore the shape of products during wet processing;
• elasticity. Knitted products made from this type of raw material have a high degree of wrinkle resistance, and the fabrics do not hold ironed folds;
• excellent colorability with various types of dyes. Despite the fact that wool has several natural colors, they often resort to dyeing the raw materials. You can even use acid dyes for it;
• feltability, or the ability in the process of felting to form a dense non-woven material, which serves as the basis for cloth, drape, felt, felt.

Important! Of all the natural fibers, only wool has the most unique heat-regulating properties. The ability to conserve heat has made it the most beloved and popular raw material for the production of yarn and fabrics.

What types of wool are there?

Wool is obtained from combing or shearing the fleece of animals. Sheep, goats, camels, rabbits, llamas, and alpacas are used as sources of natural raw materials. Let's take a closer look at each type.

Sheep

The most common type. Since ancient times, it has warmed a person; clothing made from its fleece has been known since the time of the Babylonian kingdom. The largest part of the raw materials used for processing is obtained from sheep. It makes up 95% of all fleece obtained from animal shearing.

Sheep raw materials are heterogeneous in terms of tortuosity, length and fineness of the fiber. Different breeds produce different wool, even the fleece of one sheep can differ in the structure of the fiber, cut from the sides or from the back.

The classification of this type of raw material depends on the presence of fine fibers, fluff, transitional, guard, dead hair and is divided into fine, semi-fine, semi-coarse, coarse. The highest quality and most expensive is fine wool.

Alpaca

This fleece has the most exceptional properties; it is the most expensive of all natural raw materials. Alpaca is an animal that lives on the high plateaus of the Andes mountain range. Extreme natural living conditions - scorching sun rays with a high degree of ultraviolet radiation, sharp temperature changes from heat to cold, cold winds - contributed to the acquisition of unique properties by alpaca fleece:

• lightness, softness, uniformity and silkiness;
• high heat resistance. This figure is 7 times higher than that of sheep wool;
• excellent thermoregulatory characteristics;
• strength. 3 times superior to sheep wool;
• resistance to rolling, stalling, creasing;
• hypoallergenic. The fibers do not contain lanolin, so they are recommended even for small children;
• smoothness of the fibers, which ensures comfortable wearing of things without irritation. An alpaca sweater is not itchy, comfortable to the touch, and has all the above properties.

Angora

The source of raw materials is Angora rabbits with delicate hair, bred in China, which later spread to other countries. The fur of these animals is soft, fluffy, and has a high degree of heat retention. Items made from Angora rabbit are pleasant, gentle, comfortable, and therefore are in high demand.

However, there are some disadvantages: the possibility of abrasion of fabrics due to the inability to firmly fix soft fluff in the product, careful monitoring of maintaining the appearance of the item and the impossibility of any other type of cleaning other than chemical.

camel

This variety is the downy undercoat of Bactrian, combed once a year to obtain up to 9 kg of raw material.The composition is limited to coarse hair and fine down (up to 85%), and high-quality fabrics are produced from it.

Camel raw materials are much lighter than sheep raw materials. Fabric or yarn made from it will always have a high degree of softness, silkiness, strength, elasticity, and practicality. It maintains the natural body temperature in different weather conditions: it will warm you up in cold weather, and it will keep you from getting wet in hot weather.. It is hypoallergenic and does not accumulate static electricity.

Important! Entire treatises have been written about its healing power, because camel fleece is used in the treatment of forty diseases. It relieves circulatory diseases, colds, and metabolism.

Cashmere

The raw material is the finest fluff, combed out during molting, which occurs only in the spring. High altitude cashmere goats, found in Tibet and the Kashmir province located on the border of India and Pakistan, have soft, light, heat-retaining hypoallergenic undercoat.

Raw materials are produced in Australia, New Zealand, and Scotland. One goat produces no more than 200 g of fluff. This is one of the significant components of high cashmere prices.

Lama

This animal is from the highlands of Peru. The structure of the wool is two-layer, consisting of top protective hair (about 20% of the raw material) and undercoat (down). The latter is used in the production of luxury clothing, light and soft, capable of retaining heat in different temperature conditions. The big advantage of llama is its hypoallergenicity, since it does not contain natural oils or lanolin..

Merino

Its source is fine-fleece merino sheep, but the raw material is used only from one place, it is taken from the withers. Sheep of this breed are bred in many countries, but Australia is the leader in the production of raw materials. Thin, soft downy fleece fibers are uniform, long, warm, white, with a high ability to retain heat. Merino items are not itchy. Such raw materials are of high quality and expensive.

Mohair

This is the raw material of the Turkish goat, named after its habitat - the Angora province. Now mohair is obtained from Angora goats not only in Turkey; they are grown in North America and South Africa. Mohair is a warm, durable, luxurious, light, silky material.

Unique characteristics - long pile, ability to fluff, stability of natural shine even when dyed. Mohair from young lambs is made into luxury yarn, and raw materials from adult goats are used in coat fabrics.

What is wool fabric?

The above types of raw materials have different characteristics and different fabrics are obtained from them. Differences in the price category will also be significant and depend on the cost of the raw materials obtained.

Wool yarn is the basis for the production of fabric labeled “natural wool” if the composition is at least 93% natural, and “pure natural wool” in the case of 99.7%. It is used to produce costume, dress, outerwear, and technical fabrics. They are valued for their high heat-saving ability, preservation of the original appearance of the product without wrinkles, softness, and hygroscopicity.