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Facts
about wool
Wool
can absorb up to 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling damp. It is this ability to absorb moisture that makes wool so comfortable.
Wool
is porous, allowing the skin to breathe, another comfort characteristic.
Wool
takes a color dye beautifully; the dye is absorbed in the entire fiber,
resulting in permanent color.
Wool
is resistant to wrinkles.
Wool
is dirt and flame resistant. It’s easy to keep clean.
Wool
is warm, even a very fine light shawl can add warmth on a cool evening.
Wool is a fabulous fabric made from the fur of mammals, primarily sheep, although the fur of other mammals can be used.
It’s a fabric full of contradictory attributes, for example: It is porous and absorbs moisture while at the same time it repels liquid, thus it can keep you dry on both a rainy day and a hot sticky day.
There are many different breeds of sheep that grow many different types of wool, but the fiber from one breed to the next has the same structure.
Wool is made up of short, wavy fibers that have tiny overlapping scales on the surface. These scales vary in different wools and can be quite sparse and coarse or numerous and fine. The coarse scales of some wool can be scratchy and it is this that makes people believe that they are allergic to wool, when in fact, it is just the itching that results from a scratchy wool. The wools which have fine scales are very soft.
There are two basic categories of wool: carpet wool and apparel wool. As you can imagine, carpet wool is coarse and wiry, suitable to stand up to it’s use as a floor covering. Apparel wool, on the other hand is much finer. Most of the sheep produce wool for clothing are raised in North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
The wool used for scarves and shawls is usually the finest available, and can even be so fine it’s woven into a batiste.
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