SHORN SHEEP

SPINNING A yarn

FASHION WOOL

WINTER WOULDN’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT A CARDIGAN OR JERSEY, KNITTED BED SOCKS, A SCARF, A BLANKET OR EVEN A TWEED JACKET OR A BEANIE. ALL ARE GUARANTEED TO KEEP THE CHILLS AT BAY – AND THE BEST ONES ARE WOOLLEN. FIONA MCDONALD WRITES UNSHEEPISHLY ABOUT THIS NATURAL FIBRE.

Merino sheep produce the best wool. It has everything to do with the fineness of the fibre, its individual strand length as well as its crimp – or ability to be bulky, yet soft, light and to trap air in any fabric it’s used in, causing it to retain heat.

The great oracle of Wikipedia also reliably informs that wool “has a high specific heat coefficient, so it impedes heat transfer in general”. Which is why desert dwellers such as the Bedouin or Tuaregs not only wear wool but also use woollen fabric for their tents.

The first ever merino sheep were shipped to the bottom tip of Africa in 1789, making this the first country outside Europe to own merinos. That might seem like an insignificant fact but before the 18th century, exporting merinos from Spain “was a crime punishable by death”! (Wikipedia again.) The Spanish had a monopoly on fine wool and woollen fabrics from the 12th to the 16th century, with most flocks owned by the nobility or the church.

1789 was a pretty important year – historically. George Washington was elected the first ever President of the United States of America, the US Constitution

FASHION WOOL

The World Champion hand sheep shearer is a South African, Mayenzeke Shweni. He took the title for the second time at the world champs held in Invercargill in New Zealand in February.

www.topsatspar.co.za VOLUME 31

ABOVE: A woolly jumper on the hoof. The average yield of fleece from a merino sheep is around 5 to 6kg – but the quality is as important as the weight. LEFT: It’s a snip… World champion hand shearer Mayenzeke Shweni in action, winning not just bragging rights but the admiration and respect of Aussies and Kiwis by his near flawless technique and skill. was drafted, the Bill of Rights proclaimed and the US Treasury established. In Europe, Paris specifically, hundreds of thousands of disillusioned, poor and hungry citizens stormed the Bastille in the French Revolution.

The importation of those merino sheep to South Africa was equally historic. In the space of a few decades these sheep had become significant in the agricultural mix of the Cape. The eastward spread of settlements was aided by the 1820 settlers and then the Groot Trek northwards by the Voortrekkers in 1834 – who took their merino flocks with them. These days, merino can be found from the dry Northern Cape, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State and Mpumalanga.

The world has known about this natural fibre for between 9 000 and 11 000 years, with archaeologists making finds of ancient relics from 6 000BCE and older. Woollen garments have been around for about 4 000 years, with the best preserved example having been found in a Danish peat bog and dated to 1 500BCE. Romans appreciated the benefits of wool, both for garments and for felt and blankets. Leather formed part of the Roman wardrobe, along with linen and wool as the fabrics of choice. Silk from China and cotton from India were considered luxury goods, only within the reach of the very rich or noble. Legionnaires had breastplates made of woollen felt while the ancient Greeks used it to line their helmets when going into battle.

Its versatility means that wool can be spun and woven into fabric such as blankets (for humans or horses) or felt and also carpets – but this is generally a lower quality wool with shorter, harder fibres. As already mentioned, woollen fabrics can trap air within its strands which is why jerseys and scarves keep you warm – but wool can both repel AND absorb water!

The exterior of a wool fibre is hydrophobic and is water repellent while the interior is hygroscopic and can absorb up to a third of its own weight in water. Nowadays, adventure racers and avid outdoors folks who like hiking and camping will tell you that wool base layers are fantastic because of their insulation as well as wicking properties. Many’s the skier who swears by a highpercentage merino wool garment next to their skin!

Around the late 1700s when the first merino rams arrived in SA, Britain was experiencing the Industrial Revolution in which mechanised production and factories were taking over production. Spinning and weaving was among the greatest of them but it also suffered a massive decline just two centuries later.

A few years ago, heir to the British throne, Prince Charles, began a campaign to promote the country’s local wool industry because wool prices had dwindled dramatically. Farmers were being paid 63p (R10.40) per kilo in 1997, down from 90p. He implored British fashion houses like Burberry, Jasper Conran, Gieves & Hawkes and others to use wool in their designs and ranges – and it’s had tangible results.

Reported in the The Daily Telegraph , a Clarence House spokesman said: “The Prince was getting very concerned about the prices that farmers were getting for their fleeces and decided that something had to be done to help them.

“He got together all the interested parties, including people in fashion, clothes retailers, carpet manufacturers and representatives of the wool industry, and they agreed to work together to promote wool.

“The plan is to try and overturn some myths and to talk up the beauty of wool and the ecobenefits of wool, which lasts longer than synthetic materials and is fully biodegradable. This way we hope to reawaken interest in wool.”

Seems like the plan worked because the Express reported in 2014: “Forty years after nearly being destroyed by the trend for synthetic fibres, the British wool industry is undergoing a renaissance.

“It is one fuelled by a new fascination with the natural material from luxury fashion houses such as Ralph Lauren, Chanel, Burberry and Louis Vuitton. As a result exports are up, British mills are seeing a year-on-year increase in demand and suddenly wool is everywhere you look – from 30something knitters to the catwalks of Paris, Milan and London. The nascent international desire for high-quality woollen clothing bearing the allimportant “made in Britain” label is fuelling a boom in our wool industry.

“Figures from 2008 to 2010 show that the value of the UK wool clothing market has soared to £1.25 billion (R20 billion), including knitwear and work gear as well as suits and luxury fashion brands. A 50% increase in annual sales from £180 million (R2.9 billion) to more than £270 million (R4.45 billion) in just five years is seriously good news for the UK’s 90 000 wool producers who between them produce nearly 40 000 tons of fleece a year processed by more than 40 operational mills.”

That’s a tiny proportion of the world’s annual production of 2 million tons, most of which is produced by Australia (25%) and now China (18%), followed by New Zealand (17%) the United States (11%). South Africa produces just one percent of the world’s total and occupies 11th spot.

Can you look at a woolly sheep the same way now, knowing all this?

BELOW: Still producing beautiful tartan and tweed fabric to this day is a Victorian era steam-driven weaving machine. The Islay Woollen Mill Co. maintains this clacking machinery to keep the craft alive on the Hebridean island best known for its peated malt whiskies.

INTERESTING INFO

New Zealand has six sheep per head of population.

Wool can be used as a soil fertiliser, since it’s an animal protein and a slow-release source of nitrogen. (Wikipedia) High safety environments such as aircraft and trains specify wool carpets because it ignites at a higher temperature than some synthetic fibres and cotton. It also has a lower flame spread rate, lower heat release rate, doesn’t drip or melt and also forms a char, which is insulating and self extinguishing. There’s also less smoke and fewer toxic gases given off when it does burn. (Which explains why wool is part of the specified kit for fire fighters.) (Wikipedia) Garment manufacturing accounts for 60% of the total usage of wool.

Australian researchers at Melbourne’s school of fashion and textiles found that a blend of wool and Kevlar, the artificial fibre used in body armour, was lighter, cheaper and more effective in damp conditions than Kevlar alone. Up to 20% of its effectiveness is lost when Kevlar is wet. When used with wool, just 28 to 30 layers of fabric were needed for body armour versus 36 layers of Kevlar alone. (Wikipedia) The expression “taking the p**s” comes from the production of Tweed woollen fabric. In Tudor times urine was collected in London and shipped northward for use in woollen mills as the urine softened the woollen fibres. Shipping record reflect that in 1612 13 000 gallons – or 60 000 litres – were shipped … and people were paid a penny a bucket! Sheep aren’t the only source of wool. Goats, rabbits, camels, lamas and alpaca all provide the necessary fibres to keep knitting needles clacking and crochet hooks busy.