With the chill of Minnesota winter creeping in, we start pulling out our warmest coziest clothing. This special cold weather wardrobe often includes many items made from wool.
I have always loved the look, feel and warmth of wool, however, I never really gave it much thought other than “I like it”. As far as I was concerned wool is wool is wool.
Since we have started bringing different wool items from Eastern Europe for Designs & Imports by Peach, I have been learning more about wool and have found there is A LOT to learn.
I had no idea that wool is produced from so many types of animals and from so many climates. Each of these different types of wool having their own unique characteristics. An example of this is the Shetland wool from Scotland is a thicker, coarser wool. This is due to the cold climate where these sheep live. In contrast to this, the wool from the Merino sheep is finer and softer and mostly comes from the warm climate of Australia.
Wool is also made from goats, camels, rabbits, alpacas and even muskox! The cost of wool is influenced by how rare or common it is and also how labor intensive it is to harvest and process the fiber into usable yarn.
This is an amazing material and is likely the oldest fiber ever woven into fabric for clothing. There is evidence of wool fabric dating back 6,000 years. It is well known that wool garments help keep you warm, but I was surprised to learn that it can also keep you cool. Wool is also odor, static and wrinkle resistant.
All of the unique qualities of wool are due to the amazing make up of the wool fiber. ( if you are interested in more info on this , look up “ Properties of wool fibers”)
In our studio, we have a beautiful selection of wool items from Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine. Where the yarn is dyed in traditional colors and then skillfully transformed incorporating folk styles and patterns into the cozy winter wear that we love!
