Mohair is not wool, as such. Wool, strictly speaking, is a seasonally-growing undercoat from sheep, although the term is often used more widely to include fluffy undercoats from many other animals, including yak and buffalo.
Mohair is a hair fibre from the Angora goat. It has a silk-like sheen, dyes well, and does not felt. It is also very sturdy compared to similar-quality sheep’s wool, and for that reason is often used to make outerwear, and, historically, soldiers’ uniforms.
Any animal with hair, fur, wool, etc., benefits from grooming – including humans1.
There are primarily two kinds of sheep, one hair (kemp) and one which produces a woolly undercoat in winter. Hair sheep have been domesticated primarily for milk and secondarily for meat. Wool sheep were domesticated for primarily for wool production, and secondarily milk and meat. There are still wild sheep of both hair and wool varieties. The wild wool sheep and some domesticated primitive wool sheep still shed their woolly undercoat in spring2,3, but the majority of domesticated wool sheep need to be sheared annually as the shedding genes have been bred out.
The majority of domesticated sheep are now kept for meat and milk, and have poor quality fleeces which are often unfit for any use – though some can be used as a natural home insulation. It costs the farmer to have such sheep sheared, and the farmer then has disposal costs. As a result there’s a trend towards breeding natural shedding back into some breeds, such as the Wiltshire Horn:
So yes, whether natural shedders like the Soay, or shearing sheep like Merino, sheep need to get rid of their winter undercoat, and we would use the cast-off or sheared fleece either way. Wool is strong, insulating, water-repellent, breathable, anti-microbial, hypoallergenic, non-flammable, renewable, and (if you buy locally) low carbon-footprint4,5, unlike synthetic substitutes. Its processing is non-polluting and very easy on the environment (sheep graze otherwise unusable land, and improve it), compared with many plant-based substitutes[6]. Accept no substitutes!
Footnotes
[1] What does it feel like for a sheep after it gets sheared?
[2] How do sheep get rid of their wool naturally?
[3] Do wild sheep exist anymore?
[4] Characteristics of Wool Fabrics | Properties of Wool Fabrics
[5] 7 Properties of Wool That Might Surprise You
Some, not all, animals (including some birds) in cooler regions have a seasonal requirement for a warm undercoat. In warmer weather, that undercoat is usually shed or moulted: you will notice your pet cat or dog doing so in spring.
In domesticated (but not wild) sheep, the shedding function has been eliminated wholly or partially by selective breeding.
It varies:
The above are popular yarns – other yarns may well produce different values, especially if they aren’t 100% wool: for example, 900yds of Malabrigo Chunky (bulky weight, 100% wool) is 900g, and 900yds of Knit Picks Billow (bulky weight, 100% cotton) weighs 750g.
If you have a ballband for this yarn, you can calculate the weight of 900yds by:
Another upvote for Ravelry as a resource, and adding Yarn Substitution.
Quora linky.
Unlikely.
They’d have gone through the stomach first, which is basically an acid bath with added protein-digesting enzymes. Acid denatures proteins, destroying their bonds and structure – effectively causing them to ‘crumble’ apart. Wool, a protein, wouldn’t survive that in its thread-like form.
However, there is a condition in which people swallow large amounts of (usually) their own hair: trichophagia, sometimes called Rapunzel Syndrome. This can cause a large hairball to form, which can harden into a stone-like substance called a trichobezoar. Simply put, the quantity ingested has overwhelmed the stomach’s ability to digest the protein. Some people have become seriously ill as a result, and at least one is known to have died.
In short, a few strands of wool should not cause difficulties – just don’t eat anything bigger than an egg-cozy.
Quora linky.
If you want to use cotton, you should look for mercerised cotton. This has been treated to produce a non-fuzzing, slightly shiny appearance which is perfect for lace.
You might also look at blends with linen, hemp, nettle, or silk. There are also some remarkable yarns around which are cotton-like, but are made from bamboo, milk protein, crab shells … the world’s your oyster (and there’s also pearl yarn!).
Do not disdain wool: there are many wools around that are soft to the skin, and have wonderful stitch definition which is perfect for crochet. Specific breeds that are good are Blue-Faced Leicester and Falkland – I can particularly recommend Eden Cottage’s BFL Bowland and Debbie Bliss Falkland Aran – I designed this in Falkland Aran:
Incidentally, Ravelry is a great resource for learning about yarns. You can select to look at different weights, fibres, blends, sources, etc., and even look at projects worked in any yarn that interests you. Another great website is Yarnsub – especially if the price-tags on some yarns scare you! It’s still in its early stages, but still good. It was designed to help substitute yarns recommended in patterns if they were discontinued, hard to find, allergenic, or just to darn expensive!
Quora linky.
If you’re doing this at home, you can distinguish fibres using the burn and bleach tests. Note that it can still be quite difficult to identify the fibres in a blend.
Burn test:
How to tell what the fiber is advises using a 1/2″ square of fabric held in tweezers,and a bunsen burner. I’ve used 6″ lengths of yarn and a Zippo lighter, over a damp cloth.
Bleach test:
Use neat bleach in a non-reactive vessel (e.g., glass), and submerge the sample for 24hrs.
Quora linky.
I don’t know. Why don’t sheep shrink in the rain?
Oh, this wasn’t the lead-in to a hilarious joke. I’m sad now. 😥
Mainly because shrinkage, felting or more correctly fulling occurs through agitation of wool and related animal fibres in heated water. So your sheep will shrink, but only if you put it in the washing machine on the Boil setting. Though frankly, shrinkage is the least of your sheep’s worries in that circumstance.
….
Not really. It depends what you’re looking for.
Organic anything is not necessarily better, and in many instances much ‘worse’. Organic vegetables, for example, are often smaller because they are grown in natural fertiliser (dung) which has fewer nutrients; they may have minor blemishes and scabbing, because they are not treated with commercial pesticides which produce better results, and so on.
Organic wool comes from sheep who are grazed on naturally-fertilised land – which may have less grazing, of less nutritive value. The sheep themselves are not given certain medications, and not put through certain dips, so they are potentially less healthy. The wool itself undergoes processing without the usual chemicals. Undernourishment, and limited veterinary intervention, can produce a finer wool*, though usually in smaller quantities. The finished yarn, organically processed in organic-only mills, can be greasy and full of VM**. Some people love this, others get hives at the thought. Come to market, it’s pricey and usually in limited supply – so no wandering in a month later when you realise you need just one more ball.
I rarely use organic wool myself, but much of my knitting is for pattern-writing – there’s no point in me writing a pattern for that limited-run almost-organic mohair-Wensleydale blend produced by a nice lady vet locally, because by the time it would be written, she’d be sold out of this year’s shearing. But I do bagsy a few batts to spin myself, and make a cowl or gloves just for me, and I know she doesn’t starve her animals or deny them treatment. Lesson being: buy organic when you can visit the sheep it comes from.
* – The best cashmere comes from half-starved desert and mountain Cashmere goats, not their well-fed and well-cared-for brethren in the south of England (ND: half-starved because the native forage is so poor. Not because they’re denied food).
** – Vegetable matter. Twigs, hay, thorns, and occasionally poop.
Of course there is.
Tussah silk is made from silk cocoons the silkworm has abandoned. It’s a bit rougher and nuppy, because the single thread from which the cocoon was spun has been broken, but it’s still silk and quite lovely.
To my way of thinking, ALL wool is ethical. NOT shearing sheep is animal neglect at the very minimum.
There is a rather unpleasant practice, limited to Australia – and even there they’re trying to end it – called ‘mulesing’, which traditionally involves no-anaesthetic surgery to a sheep’s anus and tail. However, mulesing could be done with anaesthetic, and there are other measures being put in place to prevent flystrike. It’s pretty nasty for an animal-lover to read about, but the alternative is for the sheep to be eaten alive by blow-fly maggots. If it were me, I think I’d go with the no-anaesthetic surgery, but then I was once threatened with an emergency no-painkillers episiotomy. If you want to avoid Australian wool completely, until mulesing is history, just check at the yarn label. Alternatively, buy local, from artisan mills and dyers who source their fibre locally.
Originally appeared on Quora.
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