by Breeze » Mon Mar 25, 2013 2:23 pm
Wool. yes, Wool.
Now you've got me prowling again, the Dale of Norway works, the Lobbens, the Icelandic traditions and patterns , the sheep breeds and their fleece characteristics. Knowing I have a whole room in my house nearly stuffed with washed and carded natural sheep's wool: black, brown, grey, silver, white and not quite white... .bags and bags and pounds and pounds, and every little thing I need to make any color gradation of the rainbow. 2 spinning wheels, a wool picker, a batt carder, a vintage wool combing stand . I could go underground for months and months, and maybe I SHOULD return to a hobby and passion that once consumed me.
Wool is one of nature's best insulators, and the many ways of preparation and finishing wool learned over centuries of history and the vast differences in environment across this world can tailor a wool product to nearly any need.
The multitudes of man-made fiber outerwear that have been introduced over the last decades have been in development to reduce the pack weight and pack volume of materials necessary to do the work that wool can < used> do. In some cases, it is at best a wash. Some hikers in New England bemoan the fact that Boiled Wool Mittens are both difficult to find and, when found, inferior to products previously used.
Animal fibers such as wool, , ( and dog fur as well as musk ox ), goose down and the furs /skins you see as parka ruff, or mukluks, or mitts still have a place in the big scheme of things in their original environment. There is much good reason, and physics behind all of it.
In 1993 I agreed to barter my spinning skill for another's knitting skill. A skilled knitter looked at my handspun yarn and said, yes, I'll knit that yarn to that pattern, if you'll take these 4 paper grocery bags of Keeshond sheddings and give enough me yarn to make <x> pattern for my son.
Her son and I can STILL spot each other across 500 yards of a crowded annual state fair ground because both of us emit steam when every one around us is shivering. It is the property of the fiber in action.
Norway and Iceland have a large export industry in wool and wool products for good reason.
breeze