PROPERTIES OF WOOL - WHY SHEEP WOOL IS HEALTHY RENEWABLE NATURAL SOURCE

16/05/2022

Sheep wool as a natural material has unique and inimitable qualities. Some furs of other animals are close to its properties, but you will not find the same package in any other natural fiber, let alone synthetic materials.

THE WOOL IS CAPABLE OF: 

  • Thermoregulation - its rarest and most well-known property - means that it keeps the warmth close to your body, but it "breathes out" any excessive heat. It is therefore the source of the healthier warmth, in which you are not in danger of overheating. It cannot be said that it would be outright cooling in the summer, but if you use a lightweight woolen fabric, it will definitely do you good even in summer.
  • Hygroscopicity - means wool take up to 30% of its weight of air humidity until you even feel it is wet at all. So, of course, you will feel it, if there is a downpour, but a woolen hat or coat can handle a gentler rain or drizzle no problem.
  • Self-cleaning - its fibers are full of microchambers (something like hollow fibers) and if it is not literally covered with dirt, it can "exhale" ordinary dust and odors if you hang it in the fresh air, drizzle or frost. You can easily include this procedure in the maintenance of your wool products, instead of frequent washing. More about wool maintenance HERE.
  • Memory - this point sounds weird, but it's true. Wool fiber, due to its structure and unlike many other animal fibers, holds its shape. So if you knit a sweater out of pure wool (and you don't make some major mistakes when washing :-D), it will retain the size and shape in which you made it. When soaked, it can be slightly shaped (yes, these are the pulled-up sweaters that did not dry flat :-D), but after drying it retains the shape in which it dried.
  • Therapy - manual work with it in any form of its processing can be extremely healing. Based on our own and other people's experiences, we dare to say that embarking on the craft that humanity has been doing for millennia (and we forgot about it for a while) is like building on the continuity of ancestors. We are so much in a hurry today, and our attention is often so shattered that the slow production of something from "nothing" can ground and calm us. You immerse your hands in a fragrant wool .... and something turns on. Try it, you will see :-)
  • Lanolin production - lanolin belongs chemically somewhere between wax and fat. It is very close to human fat, beneficial and well absorbed by our skin (even very sensitive ones). So far, we have not been able to find out whether and how lanolin can be separated by hand when washing wool, we only know about industrial methods. If you know more, write to us! (contact form HERE).
  • Sustainability - it is a regular renewable natural resource. It grows on sheep constantly, it has to be shorn every year. Instead of processing, however, it is often discarded in our country (and not only here), which is a shame. At the same time, sheep breeding influences landscape, too. Sheep grazing contributes to the maintenance of specific landscape habitats and with the decline of pastures, they also change unfavorably.
  • Variability - especially if you are inspired by the concept of breedspecific wool (more about it HERE), you will find that different types of wool are suitable for different projects. You can make wool insulation for the house, mulch and fertilizer for the garden, carpets, cushions, slippers and complete clothing, including accessories , toys or blankets and much more.