How is wool produced?

Question

No idea which section to put this, but can someone tell me how wool is produced after it has been sheared? What is the process, and are there still many companies in the UK that do it?

Answer 1

shear a sheep and spin the wool

Answer 2

It grows on sheep, is shear and then spun.

Answer 3

I don't know about companies in the UK, being Norwegian, but I should think that both Scotland and the Shetlands would have their share of wool processing companies.

When wool was processed in the home, it would be washed after shearing - if you've never seen it, you wouldn't believe how dirty it can be. Also, the wool is covered by lanoline, a fat produced in the sheeps' skin, that makes it water repellent. If the washing is done in cool water and without soap, the lanoline will stay on. Sometimes this was done to make thick, waterproof - but smelly - garments.

After washing, the wool is carded. This is done by using two utensils like big, square hair brushes. You catch up some wool with one of them, and brush it off slowly, so it comes to hang on the other brush, repeat until it looks like as a sausage of wool. When you've done that, the wool fibres are parallell, and can be spun.

Spinning would be done with a distaff, or with a spinning wheel. Spinning is not easy to learn, and a woman who was a good spinner was highly spoken of, so my father told me. The thread is spun according to what use it will be put: Weaving, knitting, a thick winter garment or blanket, a thinner garment, yarn for baby clothes, whatever. This done, it was time for the dyeing process. Now, dyeing is an art by itself, and whole books have been written about it. The dyeing agents are traditionally roots, herbs, bark, berries and other vegetable matter, boiled in water. After dyeing and drying, the yarn is ready to be woven or knitted.

Hope this answers your question.

Answer 4

Try reading this site, it will explain everything about wool. Your question should have been how is wool processed, since it produced by the sheep, as you stated.

http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/sheep/ansc442/...

Answer 5

Its cleaned and then spun.

http://www.ukagriculture.com/livestock/s...