First , so you know where I get my information and credibility from, I am a handspinner, and raise sheep,.I Specificly raise sheep for high quality wool. MOST people who believe they are allergic to wool really are NOT. They are in fact allergic to weither the processing, the dye, the cleansing agents, or some other process that happens in large scale manufacturing. the chemical make up of real wool, is so similar to human hair, if your allergic to wool, you are likely also allergic to your own hair. I have ment people who are allergic to lanolin however. lanolin is the normal oil produced by the sheep . Ok the US wool industry has a group, also known as "The wool pool" . IF I raise lower quality fleeced (wool on the sheep) sheep, that was all white, I would sell my wool by the pound for about $ .19 hardly worth driving it to the wool pool. IF I raise meat sheep, or dont understand the value of my wool, I may also sell to the wool pool. BUT many US sheep raisers are now, hand spinners.
A handspinner, chooses the highest quality wool from some of the best fleeces in the country. Frequently we will pay top dollar for the best fleece in a show, that is shown against hundreds of like fleeces, and judges for length, cleanliness, sheen, texture, softness etc.
There are many many breeds of sheep, some long wool is also coarser than fine wools. , there are naturally colored fleeces, and those are a bit more costly than a white one but a naturally colored fleece, is usually a little more coarse than a white fleece of the same breed, and yes there are exceptions. a badly bred white fleeced sheep still had bad breeding and thus a worse fleece.
Hand spinners, will often sell finished garments.
the normal purchase works like so.
if the raw wool costs the spinner 8$ a lb. plus 8$ to process, meaning wash, comb, card, etc
they spin and charge you, 32$ or so dollars a lb this is undyed.
if the garment you wanted is 1 lb wt, they charge around 64$ for it. if knitted or crochet .
that is with NO embellishments.
considering the quality of the work your recieveing, this is VERY cheap labor!
super fine white roving can cost a spinner, 22$ a lb
cashmere is 60$ per 1/2 lb
mohair is 3$ per oz raw
angora costs 5$ per oz raw.
there are litterally hundreds of breeds of sheep, these animals give many textures and colors naturally, and NO petroleum products are used at all!
hand spun, REAL HANDSPUN is NOT machined at all.
MOST large stores cannot carry true hand spun yarns. Not hand spun in the US anyway. they also cannot tell you
what breed of sheep the wool came from. because they bought it from the wool pool.
cheap acid washed wool IS itchy. It falls apart and it is like over color treated hair. broken ends cause the scratching.
properly treated wool is VERY soft.
wool with a super fine comfort factor (how soft it is against bare skin) is soft enough to lay a baby in.
Myths about wool,
you cant wash it.
YES you can
hand knitted, hand crochet wool garments can be washed cool-luke warm depending on dye color. and how long you want the color to last. the first detergent you THINK you use on wool is actually the worst.
use Ivory or a mild shampoo unless you have access to a wool wash type soap.
hand wash and squeeze excess water out. then lay flat to dry be sure to "shape"
as you need to. never put into the dryer.
wool insulates wet or dry, and is not as un user friendly as you think !
several kinds of wool can be blended to "resemble" cashmere. like silk,angora, and a fine wool do the job beautifully.
shop online for handspun items . these people will often take special requests if you give them the time !
http://www.tail-spinner.com/
http://abcwoolcrafts.mralter.com/
for a few very unique places to start.
also there are wool items sold on e-bay, and handspinners shops there too. ! you would be getting a higher quality garment from a handspinner than from a store. but even better than that, unless Macey's can hunt down that one sheep with those random red hairs in just those places creating just that texture and can knit just like this lady etc etc etc, they cannot reproduce your very unique work of art. all hand spun hand knitted, needle felted, woven items are so unique they are difficult to reproduce. you will never walk into a room and have someone else wearing the item you have on.
and you in no way assisted in the use of more petroleum products like nylon or polypropolene, below is an excerpt about the differences between wool, and acrylic yarns in carpet but they also apply to wearables.
( copied from ifloor fiber primer http://www.ifloor.com/articles/rug/fiberprimer.html#Nylon)
Polypropylene or Olefin
Polypropylene or Olefin fibers are petroleum products, derived from propylene and ethylene gases. Polypropylene fiber is characterized by its resistance to moisture. It is strong, abrasion-resistant, quick drying, colorfast, mildew-resistant, and soil- and stain-resistant. Its fibers have the lowest density of all manufactured fibers giving olefin textiles a very lightweight quality. Polypropylene is inexpensive and due to its lightweight nature, not very resilient to long-term wear.
Natural Advantages of Wool
Wool has all the advantages!
Retains its shape. Wool has natural fiber elasticity that can stretch up to 40% and bounce back again and again, so wool carpet retains its shape even under heavy traffic. Look at wool fiber under a microscope and you will see a fine crinkly hair. If you were to cut the fiber and peer at its cross-section, you would see an oval, not a circle. The oval shape forces the woolen fiber to curl as it grows, becoming naturally spring-like. Wool can be stretched and stretched further still before it breaks. Compress it and like a spring, it bounces back to its original shape. This elasticity makes it very strong, an ideal fiber for floor coverings. Okay, maybe we're being redundant here having just said that wool fiber is tough, but read on: Wool, when viewed under a microscope, is characterized by scales. These scales are important because they act as a protective covering for the fiber causing it to be very resistant to wear. Another reason wool is a better choice for floor covering material: have you noticed after time, a nylon carpet shows those ugly traffic patterns? Well, wool's resilient features all but eliminates this ugly characteristic of nylon.
Naturally repels water and stains. Thanks to a waxy outer membrane that covers the fiber's core, it keeps water from penetrating easily. 80% of all stains are water-based and won't soak into wool. They remain on the wool carpet's surface allowing you to wipe them up. Wool carpets and rugs are easier to keep clean. The wool's scaly characteristic keeps soil particles on the surface, allowing for much better results when vacuuming and cleaning. Dirt doesn't have the opportunity to sink in, so regular vacuuming keeps wool carpets looking clean and new.
Resists fading. Dyes penetrate to the fiber's core. These are then actually "locked in" by a molecular bonding process that occurs inside the fiber so color can't get out, making it retain its original color for years. Because of wool's increased surface area, wool's scaly characteristic causes it to receive dye readily, making a wide range of colors as well as printed patterns, possible. As time passes, the colorful dyed wool yarn will age gracefully to a wonderful patina.
Resists static and mildew. Static is reduced by wool's natural ability to retain up to 30% of it's weight in moisture. And because wool has a naturally low PH , it resists mildew, mold, and fungal attack in almost every climate.
Naturally flame-resistant. Wool fibers can withstand high temperatures, and therefore it does not readily catch fire. Wool tends to smolder slowly instead of bursting into flames. By comparison, man-made fibers will melt and combust. Nylon's raw ingredients are petroleum-based. With wool, drop a lit match on a piece of carpet and you'll see the flame go out and the lack of damage to the fibers will amaze you. Simply brush away the charring. The fact that wool self-extinguishes when the source of flame is removed instead of flaring is an important safety factor for any home or business.
Natural Wool has all the Advantages!