Wool Differences

Hi, I'm Craig Olson. I'm here to talk to you today about differences in wool on, uh, different types of sheep. So, what I have in front of me here are four different types. Um, the first one here is, uh, you can see it's much shorter. It has a little bit of kink to it. Uh, this is from a Chevrier Shetland mix. Uh, they have a shorter staple length and then on the far side here we have, uh, from an Icelandic. Uh, you can see it's much longer. Uh, they actually have two types of wool within there. There's a, an inner coat which is much softer and then they also have a outer coat as you can see this long piece at the end here. And that is, um, waterproof and kinda helps them wick the water away when they're outside. The two in the middle here. Actually, uh, the offspring of these two, we bred these two together. And so this is a combination and you'll see the property is a little different. Uh, this is a female sheep that we have took on more of the properties of the mother's wool has the kink in it, uh, is a little less long. Uh, the mail that we have took on a little bit more of the properties of his dad and has the softer wool on the inside with less kink, but also has a little bit of the outer coat that you get here. Um, all of these wools can be used for most anything spinning, uh, felting, things like that. Um, the, the Shove and Shetland mix is a little bit softer wool. So it might be something better for uh, something that you're making that's gonna go against the skin. The Icelandic is um, a little bit coarser and actually can be used, you know, again for things, but it's, it's good for socks, things like that are gonna be a little more sturdy. The outer layer here can actually be pulled apart from the softer layer too and that is great for uh weaving. People like to use it for that. It's very strong for that. Um You can also spin it into the software wool too to get a combination, which is kind of nice. Uh So hopefully that helps you understand a little bit more about the different types of wool.