Wool is a soft, wavy hair that grows on sheep and other animals. Sheep are sheared once a year to remove their wool coats called fleeces. There are several breeds of sheep that are sources of wool, such as Lohi, Rampur bushair, and Nali. Wool fibers come from the coarse hair and fine undercoat of sheep. The process of obtaining wool from sheep involves shearing, scouring, sorting, dyeing, combing, and spinning the fibers into yarn that can then be woven into wool fabrics.

1. A N S H I K A V E R M A
V I B
TYPES OF FABRIC : WOOL

2. WHAT IS WOOL ?
Wool is the most commonly used animal fibre. Wool is the
soft, wavy (or curly) hair which covers the body of a
sheep. Wool is a modified form of hair that grows with a
waviness. Because of the waviness of wool, the woollen
fabrics have a greater bulk (than cotton fabrics) and hence
trap more air.
Wool is obtained from the fleece (or hair) of sheep. Sheep
grow wool on their body and once a year, this wool is
sheared (cut off). Though wool comes mainly from sheep,
some other animals also give us wool.

3. ANIMALS THAT YIELD WOOL
Name of breed of
sheep
Quality of
wool
Name of the state
where found
Lohi
Good quality
wool
Rajasthan, Punjab
Rampur bushair Brown fleece U.P. , H.P.
Nali Carpet wool
Rajasthan, Punjab,
Haryana
Bakharwal
For woollen
shawls
Jammu and Kashmir
Marwani Coarse wool Gujarat
Patanwadi For hosiery Gujarat

4. TYPES OF FIBRES FOR WOOL
The hairy skin of sheep has two types of fibres that form
its fleece (or wool coat):
• (i) the coarse beard hair, and
• (ii) the fine, soft under-hair, close to the skin.
The under-fur of Kashmiri goat is soft. It is woven into
fine shawls called Pashmina Shawls. Angora wool is
obtained from Angora goats which are found in the
hilly regions such as Jammu and Kashmir.
Yak wool is common in the hilly regions of Tibet and
Ladakh

5. Pashmina Shawl And Kashmiri Goats

6. PRODUCTION OF WOOL
Rearing of sheep means to look after the sheep by
providing them feed (food), shelter and health care.
The persons who look after the sheep are
called shepherds.
Sheep prefer to eat grass and leaves. Sheep are also fed
mixture of pulses, corn, jowar, oil cakes and minerals. In
winter, sheep are kept indoors and fed on leaves,
grains and dry fodder.
The cut off wool coat’ of a sheep (along with a thin layer of
skin) is called fleece. The fleece consists of soft woollen
fibres. The fleece of sheep is usually kept in one piece.

7. HOW WOOL IS OBTAINED
Wool is obtained from the sheep by a long process which
involves the following steps : Shearing, Scouring, Sorting.
Dyeing, Combing and Spinning.

8. SHEARING
The process of removing hair (or cutting off hair) from the
body of a sheep in the form of fleece is called shearing.
The hair of sheep are cut off by using a cutting machine.

9. SCOURING
The process of washing the fleece (cut hair of sheep) that
removes dust, dirt, dried sweat and grease
is called scouring. Scouring makes the fleece of sheep
clean.

10. SORTING
The process of separating the fleece of a sheep
into sections according to the quality of woollen fibres is
called sorting. The same quality wool obtained from the
fleece of large number of sheep are then mixed together.

11. Dyeing
The white woollen fibres
obtained by sorting can be
dyed in different colours.
Combing
The process of combing
straightens the entangled
woollen fibres and
also removes the burrs
which may be caught in
them.

12. SPINNING
The long woollen fibres are spun (or twisted) into thick
yarn called wool. The short woollen fibres are spun into
fine yarn and then woven on a loom to make woollen
cloth.