Wool comes from the fleece of sheep and other animals like goats, camels, and llamas. Sheep are bred and their fleece is sheared annually, yielding between 2-30 pounds of wool per sheep. The wool is then processed by cleaning, sorting, carding, spinning, and other steps. Wool is a natural protein fiber that is resilient, elastic, and insulates body heat well. It can be dyed and made into fabrics for clothing, blankets, and other textiles. Different breeds of sheep produce wool that varies in fineness, length, texture, and other qualities.

1. Wool

2. Where?
• Wool comes from sheep.
• 90% of the sheep around the world
produce wool.
• 1 sheep can produce between 2 and 30
pounds of wool yearly.
• Wool from 1 sheep is called a Fleece,
• From many it’s called a Clip.

3. Wool :-
• Wool is obtained from the fleece (hair ) of sheep, goat, camel,
yak, llama, alpaca and other animals.
• These animals have a thick coat of hair on their bodies because
the hair traps air and air is a poor conductor of heat. So the hair
keeps their body warm.
• The most common wool is sheep wool.
• Yak wool is common in Tibet and Ladakh.
• The wool obtained from Angora goats of Jammu Kashmir
is soft wool used for making shawls.
• Camel hair is also used as wool.
• Llama and Alpaca found in South America also yield
wool.

4. •Wool is a natural protein fiber.
•The finest wool is collect from young sheep.
•Sheared wool is called fleece or clip wool and wool taken from the
hides of slaughtered animal is called pulled wool which is inferior in
quality to fleece or clip wool.
•The earliest fragments of wool fabric have been found in Egypt but
Mesopotamia is the birth place of wool.

5. Long wool
These sheep usually produce the heaviest fleeces because their fibers,
though coarser, grow the longest. Hand spinners prefer wool from the long
wool breeds because it is easier to spin.
Medium wool
Medium wool sheep, raised more for meat than fiber, produce the lightest
weight, least valuable fleeces. Medium wool is usually made into blankets,
sweaters, or socks or it is felted.
Fine wool
Fine wool sheep produce fleeces which usually have the greatest value due to
their smaller fiber diameter and versatility of use. Garments made from fine
wool are less likely to itch.
Hair wool
Hair sheep shed their coats and produce no usable fibers, should be discarded.
Their inclusion in a wool clip can contaminate the entire clip. Raising hair sheep
with wooled sheep can affect fleece quality . Hair will not accept dye.
Types of Wool

6. PROCESSING WOOL

7. From fibres to wool :-
For obtaining wool sheep are reared and then their hair
is cut and processed into wool.
Rearing and breeding of sheep :-
• Sheep are reared in many parts our country like
Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaracnhal,
Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan,
Gujarat etc.
• Sheep feed on grass and leaves. They are also fed with
a mixture of pulses, corn, jowar, oilcakes and minerals.
• In winter sheep are kept indoors and fed on leaves,
grain and dry fodder.
• Some breeds of sheep have thick hair on their body
which yield good quality wool in large quantities. They are
selectively bred to get sheep of good breed.

8. 1. Shearing
Wool after Shearing

10. 2. Cleaning Fleece
The fleece immediately after shearing has a lot of
contaminants that need to be removed by hand or
sometimes by washing.

11. 3. Skirting Fleece and Sorting
•The wool from the back end of the sheep, their legs and sometimes their belly is
too full of manure to use.
•These are referred to as "tags" (as in the phrase "tag end").
•These are removed first before washing the fleece; this process is called
skirting, as all the edges of the wool coat are removed.
• The fleeces are also sorted into the various types: fine from coarse and short
from long.

12. 4. Washing and Scouring
•In the scouring process the wool undergoes several soaks and rinses to
remove grease and dirt until the wash water remains clean. It is preferable to let
wool soak and avoid agitation.
•Each subsequent wash is a weaker solution of soap or alkaline until the final
wash is only water. Between each wash the wool is pressed or squeezed to
remove excess water.
•At each wash step the wash water can be retained for subsequent batches of
wool until the first wash becomes to dirty for further use.

13. 5.Picking
•The washed and dried wool is then "teased" or "picked" -the beginning of the
process of opening up the locks of wool and turning it into a consistent web. The
wool is put through a picker which opens the locks and blows the fluffy wool into
a room. At the same time a special spinning oil is added which helps the wool
fibers slide against each other but also helps them stick together as a fine web
through the processing.

14. 6.Carding
Carding is gently spreading washed and dried wool in
preparation for further processing.

15. 7.Roving
The final step in the carding process divides the web into small strips called
pencil rovings. These are collected on large spools on the end of the card.
These spools of pencil roving will be placed on the spinning frame to make yarn.

16. 8.Spinning
The roving as it comes off the card has no twist. It is held together by the oil and
natural hooks that exist on the surface of the wool fibers. The spinning frame will
put the actual twist on the roving and turn it into yarn. This is collected on
wooden bobbins. The frame we have is small but it can spin up to 90 threads at
one time.

17. Properties of Wool:
The fiber is wavy, crimpy and has scales on its surface. The
appearance of wool varies, depending on the breed of sheep.
While some fibers can be having finer scales, others can
have crimp and coarser scales. Wool fiber is susceptible to
heat and has a felting property, caused due to the scales on
the surface.

18. Physical Properties:
Strength:
1. Wool is the weakest of the natural textile fibers.
2. Wool fiber is strengthened by the used of ply yarns.
3. A hard twisted two ply yarn may be regarded as an assurance of durability.
4. Tightly twisted single yarns also make a strong fabric.
Elasticity:
1. Depending upon the quality of wool, the fiber may be stretched from 25-30
percent of its natural length
2.This characteristic reduces the danger of tearing under tension.
3. This characteristic contributes to the free body movements.
4. The chemical treatment also gives better shape retention.

19. Cont.
Resilience:
1. Wool fiber has a high degree of resilience.
2. Good quality wool is soft & resilient
3.Poor quality wool gives a harsh feeling.4.Due to the high degree of
resiliency, wool fabric wrinkles less than some others.
Effect of Heat:
1. Wool becomes harsh at 100˚C & begins to decompose at slightly higher
temperature.
2.It has plastic quality which helps to have shape at melting
temperature.

20. Cont.
It has excellent draping quality due to its pliability, elasticity, and
resiliency.
The tensile strength of wool in dry condition is 1 – 1.7 and 0.8 – 1.6 in
wet condition.
Standard elongation is 25 – 35% and 25 – 50% in wet condition.
It has good elastic recovery.
Specific gravity is 1.3 – 1.32.
Standard moisture regain is 14 – 18%.
Luster of courser fiber is higher than finer fiber.

21. Chemical
Properties:
Wool is a protein fiber and it has some chemical properties. Chemical
Properties of the wool fiber is given below:
Effects of Acids:
Wool is attacked by hot concentrated sulphuric acid and decomposes
completely. It is in general resistant to mineral acids of all strength
even at high temperature though nitric acids tend to cause damage
by oxidation.
Effects of Alkalis:
The chemical nature of wool keratin is such that it is particularly
sensitive to alkaline substances. Wool will dissolve in caustic soda
solutions that would have little effects on cotton. Strong alkaline
affect on wool fiber but weak alkaline does not affect wool.

22. Cont.
Effects of Organic Solvent: Wool does not affect in organic
solvents.
Effects of Insects: Wool affected by insects.
Effects of Micro Organism: It affected by mildew if it
remains wet for long time.
Dyeing ability: Wool fiber could be dyed by basic dye, direct dye
and acid dye.

23. Conclusion:
It is noted that; all the wool fiber is not same in
characteristics. It varies depending on the wool’s
country of origin and sheep type.
So, choose your wool fiber after confirming about
the physical and chemical properties of wool fiber.