One of the most common fabrics in Hellas, produced from the fleece of sheep. Wool is most often worn in the winter over linen underclothing.
Different breeds of sheep produce different ratios of wool fiber to hair fibers, or kemp. These produce different grades of fleece that may be best suited for spinning, felting, carding into batts for the insulated stuffing of quilted fabrics.
Some breeds of goat also produce wool that can be made into cashmere or mohair. At this time, a particularly fluffy woolen fabric made from angora rabbits can be traded from Anatolia.
Properties
Wool traps heat in air pockets, which gives it insulative properties useful for cold weather wear.
History & Usage
Wild sheep have more hair than wool, but the wool content has risen through selective breeding.
Sheering
Sheep are shorn in all seasons. Ewes are normally shorn prior to lambing, but consideration is typically made as to the welfare of the lambs by not shearing during cold winters. Shorn sheep tolerate frosts well, but young sheep especially will suffer in cold, wet, windy weather and will need to be shedded for several nights until the weather clears. As sheers have not yet been invented, wool is plucked by hand with the help of bronze stud combs, which leave more wool on the animal than modern methods.
Classing
Raw fleece is sorted into four classes: fleece, broken, bellies, and locks. Fleece is the most useful and plentiful of the classes.
Scouring
Wool straight off a sheep is known as "greasy wool" because it contains a high level of lanolin grease, as well as the sheep's dead skin, sweat residue, dirt, sand, urine, dung, and whatever vegetable matter the sheep has picked up from its environment. Greasy wool must be scoured clean in a bath in warm water with vegetable matter removed by hand. Wool left in a semigrease state can be worked into yarn and knitted into particularly water-resistant cloth for fishermen. Lanolin removed from wool can be used in cosmetic products, such as hand creams.
Comments