Wool and their Characteristics | Texhour

^{Wool and their Characteristics:}

• Wool fiber grows from the skin of sheep and is a relatively coarse and crimped fiber with scales on its surface. It is composed of protein.

• The fiber appearance varies depending on the breed of the sheep. Finer, softer and warmer fibers tend to be with more and smoother scales. Thicker, less warm fibers have fewer and rougher scales. Normally, the better wool fibers with finer scales are duller in appearance than the poorer quality fibers which have fewer scales.

• Merino sheep produce a superior Class 1 wool, the fiber is strong, fine and elastic. The first fleece sheared from a lamb about 8 months old is known as Lamb’s wool. Next, there are Class 2, Class 3 and Class 4 types of wool, made from inferior breeds of sheep.

• Woolen fabrics have high resilience,  excellent drape-ability, and poor heat conductivity which makes them good for winter wear.

• Wool is the weakest of all the natural textile fibers, but this is compensated by its high elasticity.

• With demand exceeding supply, wool fibers are recovered from old clothes, rags, and waste from wool manufacturing. Reclaimed wool is called “shoddy”.

Wool Tops: 

^{The process requires that the wool is scoured (washed) and combed and sorted. The longer fibers resulting from the process are called tops and are in a form ready for spinning.}

WOOLMARK	WOOLMARK BLEND	WOOL BLEND
100% Pure New Wool	50%-99% pure new wool	30%-49% pure new wool

Characteristics of Wool

• Crimped in appearance

• Elastic

• Hygroscopic readily absorbs moisture

• Ignites at a higher temperature than cotton

• Lower rate of flame spread

• Resistant to static electricity

For 100% wool, the yarn count definition is again different from cotton – the Ne is the number of yarn hanks each 560 yards long which make one pound of yarn. More often the thickness of the wool is expressed in diameter of the hair in microns (one-millionth of a meter).