I talked about rayon last, week, and with temperatures dropping...how about wool? This is from the VFG Fabric Resource.
Wool
Wool is a natural fiber from sheep coats. It can be spun into a yarn with qualities that have never been entirely reproduced with manufactured fibers. It is strong and flexible, an excellent insulator, flame resistant, naturally water repellent and also able to absorb up to 50% of its weight in water. The fibers are naturally crimped and springy. The crimping makes the spinning of wool much easier with the fibers naturally binding together. In addition, the microscopic sections or scales along wool fibers allow them to stretch and bend as well as to lock together—giving wool its felting property.
Not all sheep hair is the same—with variations on one animal, from animal to animal, and between breeds. Kemp is the more hair-like portion of a sheep coat, with little or no crimp and of larger diameter and coarser feel. The highest grade of wool is one with the narrowest diameter and with the highest number of crimps in its fiber. Ultra-fine merino wool can have up to 100 crimps per inch.
The domestication of wild sheep took place sometime before 6,000 B.C.E., and the earliest wool fleece and fibers positively identified date from about 4,000 B.C.E. We get the name wool from Old English wull, and many other languages base their name for the fiber on the Latin lana.
Also, note that various wools may come from other animals, primarily angora goats (from which we get mohair), cashmere goats (cashmere), angora rabbit (angora), alpaca, camel, and vicuna.
See wool and wool-like fabrics collected in the VFG Fabric Resource.
©Vintage Fashion Guild - Text by Margaret Wilds/denisebrain
Like most vintage clothing sellers, I have plenty of wool items in stock. Here are just a few in my Etsy shop:
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| 100% angora sweater dating from the 1980s |
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| Italian-made 60s wool knit suit |
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| 50s black duvetyn jacket of 85% wool/15% fur fiber |