Why do clothes made from cotton feel softer than those made from wool?

Because you’re weak and soft.

Wool comes in hundreds of different qualities, some suitable for next to the skin, others better suited to outerwear. For thousands of years, people wore wool – either as fabric or fleece – from swaddling to shroud, with none of this crybabying about thquatching their thoft dewicate thkin. You got used to it, or you scratched.

Nowadays, people haven’t the skill or knowledge to select the right quality of wool for the purpose, and are too precious to give themselves time to get used to wool. They pronounce themselves ‘allergic’ (only a very tiny proportion are allergic to wool; ETA: Claire Jordan reminds me that more people are allergic to lanolin, the oil in sheep’s wool – that one is nasty), and never wear wool again.

Here’s an experiment. Grab a cotton wool ball or a face flannel, and scrub it, dry, over your skin. Or actually look when you’re towelling off after a bath. They all scrape your skin. In the case of the towel, you might well see what looks like dandruff flaking off your body as you dry. You’ll probably need to slap on a load of moisturiser, because the cotton strips the oils off your skin as well, adding to the flakiness.

The only reason cotton “feels” soft, is because the specific cotton fabric in your clothes has been chemically and mechanically treated to feel soft. Untreated cotton sandpapers the top layer of your skin off.

Quora linky.

What crafts would you recommend for a woman who has had to stop crocheting due to arthritis in the hands?

I’d keep crocheting, to be honest. Needlecrafts are to be recommended for pain management: many people with arthritis and other hand pain report considerable relief from pain due to knitting or crochet.

It might be worth investigating different hooks. Some people with arthritis find simply switching from metal hooks to wood or bamboo is enough. There are many ergonomic hooks on the market today which some people swear by. One example is Knit Picks Amour hooks, which have a contoured rubber handle, and are available in large (wool) and steel (lace) sizes. These are great if you normally hold the hook in a knife hold. If you’re a pencil-hold crocheter, you might be better with Addi’s basic grip hooks, which have a thicker pen-like handle that doesn’t need the tight grip of basic metal hooks. I’ve also heard good things about Furls hooks, but can’t comment myself.

Alternatively, you can purchase ergonomic handles for the hooks you already have. The Eleggant hook and handle set is recommended for hand therapy. There’s also the Boye Crochet Dude handle:

Some crocheters even craft their own ‘perfect’ handles using Fimo, Sculpey, resin, etc (a possible crafting substitute – and income stream!). I’ve also heard of people using pen grips!

If crochet is genuinely beyond you now, you might consider weaving – shuttles being substantially larger than hooks – needle-felting, or nuno felting:

Or a combination of all three. A fibre artist friend of mine produces some true works of art this way, incorporating fleece, wool, silk, bark and found objects into her tapestries.

Quora linky.

Is it better to live a day as a lion than 100 days as a sheep?

This is one of these grand, aspirational sayings that makes fuck all sense when you get into it.

Half of all lion cubs die. At least a quarter are killed by incoming males taking over the pride. Lionesses sometimes kill other lionesses’ cubs. Others die of starvation, neglect, and predation. Occasionally, lionesses get killed by incoming males, or when venturing accidentally into another pride’s territory. A male lion gets kicked out of his pride on adulthood. Thereafter, he’s fair game for any male protecting a pride. The main cause of death of adult males is other males. If a lion survives long enough to take a pride from a weaker or older male, he faces a short, brutal life of fighting off potential successors – or worse, coalitions of young adult males. And if he does manage to reach some great age? Some fat fuck from Texas will have him drugged so he can shoot him for a trophy.

In between, it’s hunting and sleeping. Mostly sleeping. And a lot of starving.

Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of lambs – even in the wild – survive to adulthood. There’s much less of this murderous nonsense between rams. They live in friendly social groups, and don’t mind new members. Munching delicious grass and sometimes seaweed, hopping around on rocks and cliff faces, and even trees, making friends with the other animals,

and getting haircuts and mani-pedis from the hoomans.

Which would you prefer?

Quora linky.

How do you select wool (-blended) socks from a mix with cotton socks quickly, but not by burning (just by smell, sound, taste, texture-touch, moistness etc.)?

Pluck off a quantity of the fuzz, and put it in bleach. If it’s wool-only, or blended with silk or oil-based synthetics, the fuzz will completely disappear. If there’s some trace fibre left, it’s blended with a plant-based fibre.

I find wool-cotton blends to be rather heavy compared to pure wool or other wool blends, and they feel cooler to the touch. YMMV.

What is the source of the mohair variety of wool?

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.

Quora linky.

How do I knit a hat with circular needles?

You start

  1. at the crown, with a few stitches which you increase, or
  2. at the brim, gradually decreasing the stitches.

You may also knit the hat as a flat rectangle, sewing the sides together and sewing across the top edge. This produces a square-edged hat, which may be worn in either orientation:

Square-on (Shadow Pets Hat pattern by Thorn Maiden Designs)
Corner-on

It is also possible to work a hat from one side, using short-rows with increases and decreases to the other side: designer Woolly Wormhead has explored this construction, and almost every other possible construction too.

Another possibility is to knit a hat in segments. The best example of this is the Fool’s Gold jester cap, which is the basis for my Borg Queen, or I Are A Pwincess Now:

Author wearing a crown-like hat knitted in alternating pointy segments of yellow and black, topped with bobbles.
Fool’s Gold jester cap

There are other, more complex constructions (grins evilly) too.

BUT EVERY SINGLE ONE CAN BE KNIT ON CIRCULAR NEEDLES.

I use circs almost exclusively in preference to straights (‘normal’ single-pointed needles). This is because I have relatively short forearms and large biceps, and most straights are too long and either get stuck against my upper arms or whack them with every stitch. I’m in knitting for the pleasure, not the pain.

Circs can be used for small tubular projects like hats or socks by

  • selecting a short cable
  • using two circs:
  • using a technique such as Magic Loop:

The latter two techniques can be used to work a hat from the crown down, starting with a few stitches, or when reducing the number of stitches for a brim-up hat.

For other constructions, a circ can be used just the same way that a pair of straights are used. Just knit a row, then swap the left and right needle-tips to the right and left hand respectively, and repeat.

PS: the foregoing works for socks, gloves, mitts, mittens, sweaters, scarves, trousers, toys, cushions, blankets, and everything that you can possibly imagine knitting.

Quora linky.

Isn’t taking wool from a sheep a good thing? I thought they were kind of like dogs.. they need to be groomed then we use the wool.

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

[6] 7 Eco-Friendly Fabrics That Will Green Your Wardrobe

Quora linky.

Why are animals of the cooler region able to produce wool?

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.

Quora linky.

How many grams is 900 yards of wool?

It varies:

  • 59g (Filatura Di Crosa Centolavaggi, cobweb weight, 100% wool),
  • 194g (Knit Picks Palette, sockweight, 100% wool),
  • 391g (DROPS Merino Extra Fine, DK weight, 100% wool),
  • 428g (Malabrigo Worsted, Aran weight, 100% wool),
  • 703g (Cascade 128 Superwash, bulky weight, 100% wool).

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:

  • multiplying the ball weight in g by 900, then
  • dividing the answer by the ball yardage.

Another upvote for Ravelry as a resource, and adding Yarn Substitution.

Quora linky.

Are threads of wool dangerous to the intestines?

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.