Wool Farming

What is wool and where does it come from?

  • Wool is a natural fiber that is made out of animals fur.
  • Wool is usually made out of sheep fur but can also be made out of camel's, goat's, cow's, alpaca's, and llama's fur.

What is wool used for?

  • Wool is mainly used in jackets, jerseys, socks, hats, scarves, gloves. t-shirts and rugs.
  • Wool is great at keeping us both warm and protects us from the harsh sun

How do we make wool?

  • There are 7 steps to making wool

Step 3: Scouring

  • The fur is then washed and any dirt is removed. A little bit of oil is added to the fur to make it shiny and easier to use.

Step 4: Combing

  • Just like how we comb our hair, Farmers comb the fur to get any knots outs.

Step 5: Carding

  • The fur is passed through metal teeth and is seperated into different lengths. This also helps remove any other dirt and flattens the fur to make it easier to use.

Step 7: Weaving

  • In the last step, the wool is woven to make fabric which is what we would use to make clothing. Not all wool gets woven and you can buy wool at the shops to be able to make your own clothing.

Step 2: Sorting

  • Farmers will seperate the different types of fur depending on which part of the body it comes from. The best fur comes from the shoulders and side of an animal, ths fur is typically used to make wool for clothing.

Step 1: Shearing

  • Fur is removed from the animal gently with shearers. Farmers shear the animals in sprintime so that the animals can still keep warm even without their fur.

Step 6: Spinning

  • The wool is spun to combine the fur together to make a thread. The wool is easy to combine because it sticks easily to another piece of wool. Wool is usually spun on a spindle or spinning wheel. Wool is also dyed into different colours before spinning.

5 Interesting facts about wool

Fact 5:

  • Wool stops stains from ruining you clothes because it doesn't absorb the stain!

Fact 4:

  • Wool makes you less sweaty because it can absorb sweat!

Fact 3:

  • Wool stays drier than other fabrics because it can absorb 35% of it's weight before it feels wet!

Fact 2:

  • Wool can be used to help grow plants. Wool is added to the soil to help keep the soil wet which helps grow plants!

Fact 1:

  • Astronauts use wool for their space uniforms beacuse it doesn't catch on fire easliy!