Story Smithing: Wool 101

How can you keep your character warm in the winter and cool in the summer? Does your character own sheep, goats, or alpacas? How do these animals help your character if they need seasonal work? What about a princess? Find out on this episode. 

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Transcript

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How can you keep your character warm in the winter and cool in the summer? Does your character own sheep, goats, or alpacas? How do these animals help your character if they need seasonal work? What about a princess? Find out in this episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley, the Fiction Writer's Weekly Inspirations Station for Rule, Life, and Lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 82, Wool 101. Stick around to the end to find out all ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Wool is believed to have been used since caveman times, which makes sense because who today looks at fur and thinks, Hey, I wonder if I would look good with fur? Yes, wool is, at the very definition, fibers from an animal. Sometimes instead of using wool, a person will call it cashmere. The different types of wool refer to the animal from which the fur comes. Most people think of wool as sheep's wool or fur, and that is true. Alpacas also produce wool called alpaca wool or alpaca cashmere. There is also a Cashmere Goat. This is both the name of the goat and the type of cashmere next is a Mohair. Mohair? Next is a Mohair. This comes from an Angora goat. The Angora rabbit produces Angora fibers. This is normally what is used in the fluffy colors or hoods of winter clothing. There is also camel cashmere that comes from a camel. Now, as I talk about how wool is harvested, please know that I will refer to sheep, but this is done with all animals on this list. The first thing that will need to happen is that the sheep needs sheared. This means cutting off of the wool. Depending on the breed of sheep, they can be sheared one to three times per year. Today, professionals are brought in to shear them and typically take 2-3 minutes per sheep with an electric sheep sheer, but can be longer for larger sheep or if they are newer to shearing. Sheers originally looked like two knives that scissored together. However, they had a U-shaped metal that connected them, and they did not have a lever like scissors do. A sheep sheer had to squeeze them together. This is a great hand workout. To top this off, each sheep will take between 20 and 40 minutes to shear when they are using hand shears. Meaning that if we take the 30 minute average and finagle some math, working 12 hour days with no breaks, it would take a person 83 and a half days to shear 2,000 sheep. However, it would take five people working the same amount, only 16 and a half days to shear that many. This is why historically they hired many shears as they were the ones to shear sheep, or they hired sheers to help them until the work was done. There is also an electric version. These look similar to human clippers in the electric box part. The actual cutting part looks like two two wide-toothed combs that are sharp and slide against each other just like the human clippers do. Both types will dull with use. The electric shears are sharpened with files specifically designed for them. Hand shears can be sharpened with files but are normally sharpened with sharpening stones. The Amish and my area will have several hand shears, and one person will be shearing until they get dull, and the second person will sharpen the shears as the other person uses the next pair of shears. This way, they always have a sharp pair of shears. I have seen on YouTube videos people sharpening them with a grinder and some flap disk, but I have never seen this done in person. After the sheep are sheared, the raw wool is washed. Raw wool just means that it has not been processed or refined. In modern times, washing wool is usually done on an industrial level by cleaning chemicals. On modern family farms, this is done with Dawn dish soap and vinegar. Historically, it was done with lye soap and vinegar. An important note about lye, it needs to be watered down in the water and mixed before the wool is placed in. You see, lye water is tested to see if it's actually lye, at least historically, by melting a feather in it. A simple way of saying a very strong soap. You don't want to melt the wool. Therefore, the lye soap will need to be mixed into the water by hand to make sure it is safe. This can and should be done before boiling as your character does not want to scold their hands. Once the soapy water is boiling, it is taken off the heat and the wool is placed into it and submerged in the water. Your character will be careful not to move the wool around as it will felt the wool. Felting means that the fibers become tangled and it's hard to pull apart. This is left to sit for at least a half hour. Then it is taken out and rinsed until the water runs clean. The first time, the water will look like mud. Okay, the first few times it might look like mud, but eventually it will get better. After the water is clear, the wool is placed out to dry. This could take a little time or a long time, but it is important to make sure that it is fully dry. Historically, they were dried many ways. These include, but are not limited to, hanging over trees, bushes, or some wooden rack to dry, placed on a netted area to allow air flow under the wool, left in the hot sun in the desert to dry, and many more. Today, many people use the rinse cycle of their washing machine to spin out as much water as they can before they place the wool out to dry. Next, the wool is processed to make the fibers all face the same direction by something called carding. Historically, this was done by carders. They look like giant dog slicker brushes. They're made of wood with roughly 72 metal teeth on each board that point toward the handle. The boards are 8 inches wide, 4 inches high, and has handled about 4 inches. The board itself has a slightly outward curve. There will be two use at a time as they are both needed to make this work. Dry wool is taken and placed over the bottom inch by pulling it across the metal teeth and out of the card with the fingers, leaving whatever is caught in the teeth as they go. This is repeated across the bottom until it almost looks like a really bad fake Santa beard. At that time, the carders will be placed in opposite directions and the wool will be pulled through in a way that makes the handles pull away from each other. Something that I learned from a friend who does this professionally is that cards are not pushed together. The metal teeth should actually be gently pulled through each other. Although I have heard this done, and it sounds like you're ripping 95 fabric things apart the hard way all at the same time. This is done until the fibers are facing the same way. Then one card is flipped around and the fibers are rolled off by pressing it gently but firmly so that the cards face the same way and it is backwards of what your character just did. This will allow the fibers to roll off onto the second card. Now that all of the fibers are on the same card and facing the same direction, the wool is finger-rolled in the same direction as the metal teeth. This leaves it in a roll of about an inch thick. It looks like a long, furry burrito. These can be called Sausages, but other places have other names for them. There are mechanical carders. These were first invented in 1738 and later patented in 1748 in England. These can be hand-turned with a lever, belt pedal-powered, or in modern times, electric engine-powered. These normally do a lot more wool at a time. However, all of them, even the modern ones, will jam up if too much wool is added or even if too much is at a single spot within the carding machine. After the raw wool has been turned into sausages, it's time for them to be spun. There are several ways to do this, but I'm going to cover the two most widely known ones. If you are writing historically, you can check into the culture to see if they had any variations of these. The first is the drop spindle. It basically looks like a child's toy top, but with a longer shaft under it and a hook on top of it. There will be a string attached to the shaft of the drop the spindle. This is called the lead. Your character will twist a few fibers into the string and then will loop it through the hook and give it a good spin. They will slowly pull out more fibers as they go to become twisted into the yarn or string that they are making. When the spindle reaches the ground or when it stops spinning, it is then unhooked from the hook and wrapped around the shaft. The end of the string by the wool is hooked again, and they repeat this process until they run out of wool or they run out of room on the bundle. This can make yarn or it can be spun extra fine to make thread. Next is a spinning wheel. Yes, the one made famous by a certain princess that shall remain unnamed. This is a pedal-powered machine. A lead thread goes through the spinning wheel and around to where the wool will go in. This one is basically doing the same thing, but it will spin it into a bobbin for you. A bobbin is something that holds the thread or yarn. At this point, the wool can be used for

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sewing, knitting, weaving it on a loom, crochet, and much more. I will cover everything that they are used for next week's episode. Last, let's cover wool moths. Whole moths like to lay their eggs in clothes like wool. When the larva hatch, they will eat the wool, making holes in the clothing. Wool moths do not actually eat at that stage in their life. It is best to prevent these clothing holes, most easily done by storing in a pest-free area. This can be done with plastic in modern times, but historically, this was done with pine chest or a pine wardrobe. Wool do not like pine. Mothballs can also be used to get rid of them. Fun fact. As of the time that I am recording this in 2024, Australia is the number one worldwide producer and exporter of wool. If you're enjoying this podcast, drop me a comment. I love to hear from you and answer questions. And don't forget to share with this friend. Now, for everyone's favorite part! Likely to go wrong. Your character is learning how to use hand shears on a sheep and cuts the sheep's skin. While people try hard not to hurt animals, they are still animals, and they don't always hold perfectly still. Also likely to go wrong. Your character tried to shear off mats that are on a sheep that they bought. The mats pull the skin making wrinkles, and they nick the sheep many times. Possible to go wrong. Your character is using a drop spindle. As they are letting it drop in it spinning, it lands in the mud, making the wool on it dirty. Possible to go wrong. Your character is shearing a sheep and the sheep pees on them. Unlikely to go wrong. Your character refuses to buy a cashmere not knowing that it is a type of wool. Also unlikely to go wrong. Your character is using a spinning wheel, and they try to move some of the string on it and get their finger caught in it. This would hurt and could even break their finger. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities. Your character's dog thinks that the wool is some food. They try to eat it and quickly spit it back out. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Happy wordsmithing.