With winter being the cosiest season of them all you might find yourself desperately gazing at the electric fireplaces and wool socks at the stores. While there is no way to enjoy winter for longer you can still enjoy the cosy season in style. Here you will find some tips on decorating your home for winter to warm up both your body and soul.
Camel wool and yarn and products made of camel wool are not very common in everyday life but nevertheless our overview of wool yarn types would be incomplete without it. Camel hair is an animal fiber collected from the camel. The most satisfactory camel fiber is gathered from the two-humped Bactrian camels. There are two types of camel wool – the outer protective one called guard hair, which is coarse and inflexible, and the fine, shorter fiber of the insulating undercoat.
Unlike most other wool types, camel wool is collected not by shearing or plucking but gathered as the animal sheds its coat. Both the outer coat and the undercoat are gathered at the same time, and later with the help of combing (frequently by machine), the coarse outer hairs are separated from the finer ones.
Wool of different animals is probably the first fiber to be transformed into cloth. The ability and knowledge of how to spin wool into yarn developed several thousand years B.C. and encouraged trade among tribes of the Mediterranean Sea. Nowadays wool yarn is produced not only from sheep but from other animals – e.g. camels, goats, rabbits – as well. Wool and yarn are highly valued material in textile industry.
The value of the wool yarn is based on fiber diameter (the smaller – the finer), staple length (the longer – the worthier), and density (the tighter – the better).
Sheep wool is the fiber that is harvested from the body of most sheep. It is an extremely complex protein, which evolved through ages for the protection of warm blood animals in a great variety of living and weather conditions. Each time the sheep is sheared its wool keeps growing and replenishes itself.
Sheep come is a variety of breeds – there are more breeds of sheep than breeds of any other livestock species. More than 1000 distinct sheep breeds are grown worldwide. They come in different sizes, shapes, and colors.
Sheep breeds are classified according to the type of wool fibers they grow (fine, medium, long or carpet wool; or hair), their primary purpose (meat, milk, or wool), and/or by other specific physical or production characteristics.
Wool fiber is known for high resiliency and elasticity – it can be bent more than 20,000 times without danger of breaking or any damage.
Do you remember your childhood Christmas gifts? Do you feel nostalgic about them? I certainly do. Take my grandparents’ gifts. They were always predictable :). My grandparents lived in a village nearby, had a big farm with cows, hens, and sheep, and so the gifts they gave were always something produced in the farm. Usually, wool – wool socks, wool gloves, wool coat or even felt wool doll. I remember we – me and my sister – felt a bit annoyed at those repetitive and not-from-the-shop gifts. Today we probably would think differently 🙂
Having these memories and seeing this Christmas hype everywhere, I just thought – what wool gifts are there today, what I would give to my family and friends if I decided wool is the theme of this year’s holidays.
So here they are – cute, stylish, practical gifts made of wool yarn, felt wool, or cotton wool mix. I found them in wool shops I love and visit frequently. Enjoy!
3 wool gifts for home and you (from Toast):
– Wool blanket of stylish design.
– Women wool socks, knee high or regular.
– Wool felt slippers from toast.co.uk. Aren’t they gorgeous? Add a wool scarf or wool socks!
3 wool gifts for her (from Jigsaw):