From Sheep To Wool

By Author: Yarn Crafty
Total Articles: 2
Comment this article

Anyone knitting a piece of clothing uses wool. This is the product of sheep’s fur. Textile-making factories use it as raw material. A visit to clothing outlets will reveal just how much woolen wear there is, commercially available.

Anyone knitting a piece of clothing uses wool. This is the product of sheep’s fur. Textile-making factories use it as raw material. A visit to clothing outlets will reveal just how much woolen wear there is, commercially available. Woolen gear keeps the body warm. The physical structure of a single thread reveals a span of thickness that combines with other threads to keep you comfortable all winter. Wool cannot serve any useful purpose unless it is transformed into suitable strands. These strands wound together create a yarn. A huge chunk of woolen products comes from factories. Smaller quantities are handmade.

A look into how people stitch woolen garments will provide you with an insight on what happens. Next time you buy a pullover made from wool, you will appreciate what it goes through. From the sheep farmer, buyers transport sheared fleeces to the processing factory to ...
... be turned into yarns. At the factory, dye is added to the processed threads. That is how you end up with a plain or multicolored yarn. Some yarns are painted by hand. If you are a knitting enthusiast, you can choose different colors in order to make your desired garment.

Below are steps on knitting using wool:

Identify a suitable yarn for the knitting project. You might want to examine its texture and the thread’s weight. Another aspect you should look at is whether the spinners added any chemicals to the thread. If they did, it means the finished product requires special care when laundering. For sweaters, you need heavy-duty wool. If you are making shawls and socks, you are going to use lace weight and fingering weight wool respectively.

Knitting needles: These are made of different materials such as plastic, metal, wood and bamboo. The latter are preferred because bamboo is light. On the other hand, metal needles are most suitable for knitting lace. Every knitter has a needle that he or she prefers.

Knit a sample to act as gauge. Once you see how it appears, you can proceed to adjust your needle size.

Start knitting: Wool is not a difficult material to work with. Woolen yarns actually result in less fatigue as compared to cotton or artificial fibers. Keep knitting as per your pattern until you have finished.

Once the garment is ready, soak it in water. Add shampoo and wool washing detergent. Leave it in water for 20-30 minutes. Remove and rinse.

Wool can be used in a variety of ways to make heavy duty wear that is a good source of warmth. If you put on woolen apparel and that made from other types of fabric, you will notice a big difference. The woolen one has more warmth. Top class attire is a product of an untainted wool yarn. Nevertheless, the resultant products cannot be cleaned via machine. You have to hand-clean them. Failure to which, the material tangles. The explanation for this is that wool stretches and regains its form. Organic, washable and blended wool are modern varieties developed technologically.
Resource: http://www.thecraftyyarnshop.co.uk/en/5-knitting-wool