Wool

Wool description

Wool is a type of fabric derived from the hairs of various animals. While most people associate the word “wool” with sheep, there are, in fact, a variety of distinct types of wool that producers derive from animals other than sheep. To make wool, producers harvest the hairs of animals and spin them into yarn. They then weave this yarn into garments or other forms of textiles. Wool is known for its durability and thermally insulating properties; depending on the type of hair that producers use to make wool, this fabric may benefit from the natural insulative effects that keep the animal that produced the hair warm throughout the winter. Throughout the centuries, wool and cotton have vied for supremacy as the most-used textile in the world. Today, each of these fabrics fills a particular niche, and wool remains prized for its unique attributes. While cotton consists almost entirely of plant cellulose, wool consists of approximately 97 percent protein and 3 percent fat, which makes it uniquely suited for certain applications that cotton isn’t suited for. When it is woven into textiles, wool has a natural waviness called “crimp.” This crimp contributes to wool’s insulative properties, which exist because the bulkiness of wool naturally traps air. Some types of wool have more crimp than others, and the more crimp there is in a woolen garment, the more insulative it is. Compared to cotton and other plant-based or synthetic textile materials, wool is highly flame-resistant. It doesn’t spread flame, and instead, it chars and self-extinguishes. Therefore, this type of textile is highly useful in applications in which the reduction of flammability is desired.