“When you consider the buttery softness of flannel… the smooth gloss of broadcloth… the rich depth of velour… it is difficult to imagine that all these textures and hundreds more could come from one fiber –Wool.”

I’m in Textiles class right now. We have been studying wool and silk. My teacher just started a movie about the process wool needs to go through. Bare with me… as I talk to myself and try to review wool for my test.

Just in case you don’t know… Wool refers to fibers from various animals including sheep, Angora and cashmere goats, camel, alpaca, and llama.

Steps In Processing:

1. Grading and/or sorting
2. Washing
3. Blending of types of wool
4. Dyeing
5. Carding
6. Combing
7. Drawing
8. Spinning
9. Weaving or knitting
10. Finishing

My teacher passed around a sample of wool at each stage of the process. Here are descriptions for those 10 stages above:

Grading: evaluating the whole fleece for fineness and length.

Washing: The wool is washed thoroughly with a soap or detergent and water solution where it looses 30-70% of its weight when natural grease and dirt are removed. Wool is passed through a squeeze roller and dried.

Blending: Wool is usually spun from different types of yarn, so it can achieve a certain color and uniformity. Blending is made by mixing different wools.

Dyeing: Dyeing can be done at any point of the process. If the wool is dyed after it is spun into yarn, it is called yarn dying. The wool is piece dyed if it is dyed after it is made into a garment. The proteins in wool help hold the dye extremely well.

Carding: Carding is the process of opening the wool fibers, separating them and laying them parallel to each other. The yarn is passed through rollers that have teeth on it, straightening the fibers as they pass through. The carded wool is then divided into “slivers.”

Combing: The next step would be for the carded slivers to be combed. Combing makes the fibers even more parallel, removing any short fibers in the process.

Drawing: The wool is now drawn through machines, which reduce the slivers into slightly, twisted “roving.” The next stage would to be put onto spools, ready for spinning.

Spinning: After the spools are in place on the spinning frame, the ends of the roving are pulled through rollers, which lengthen the fibers even more. They are put on to bobbins that apply a specified twist to the yarns.

Weaving or Knitting: Weaving is the actual production of the fabric, by interlacing two sets of yarns at right angles. Threads running lengthwise are called the warp. The threads running crosswise are called weft. The knitting is done on machines, which resemble the process of hand knitting. Knitting is formed by interlocking series of loops of one or more yarns.

Finishing: Everything that happens to the wool after it leaves the loom is considered a finishing process. There are vast choices of finishes for wool. They can alter the appearance all the way to how the wool performs.

Wow! That’s quite a process to get wool cloth. Thanks for helping me study… Hopefully I’ll remember it for my test. Next time you go shopping and pick up a wool garment, take a minute to study the label. See what kind of wool it is, try to picture the process your garment had to go through in order to get into your hands.

Originally published as "The Fantastic Adventures of Wool" in Lauren's FSO Student Blog.

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A Wool Primer - Step-by-Step from Animal to Fabric
Monday, 23 November 2009
“When you consider the buttery softness of flannel… the smooth gloss of broadcloth… the rich depth of velour… it is difficult to imagine that all these textures and hundreds more could come from one fiber –Wool.” I’m in Textiles class right now. We have been studying wool and silk....

© 2010 - Fashion Students Online