Pure wool is used for felting clothes, shoes, toys, and for making yarn. Wool is a knitted mass of thin, soft, tightly fitting twisted fibers.
Instructions
Step 1
To determine how to work with wool, you need to find out what kind of wool is intended for which work. Camel, sheep, and many other types of wool are used in the work, but sheep wool is mainly found on sale. The fleece is the wool that is removed from the sheep in one piece. The most important sign that you should pay attention to when buying is its fineness, which is understood as the diameter of the cross-section of the hair. Express fineness in thousandths of a millimeter, micrometers or microns. The fineness depends on many factors - on the conditions of feeding and maintenance, on gender and age, on individual characteristics.
Step 2
First of all, wool purchased and brought home must be washed and combed out. Wool is sorted out from large debris, as there are burrows, other plant seeds, straw and small twigs in it. Before starting the procedure, it is better to protect your face with a handkerchief or a special respirator, and it is more convenient to do this in a well-ventilated area. After all the wool is well sorted out in bunches, it should be washed. Two cans of 40-50 liters will be enough for this procedure. The water temperature should not exceed 30 degrees, you can add grated laundry soap or any other detergent to the water to reduce the smell. It is not necessary to completely degrease the wool, the presence of natural fat will facilitate combing, felting and shorten the time of these procedures. The products are denser and of higher quality. Wool is taken in small portions of 80-90 grams and put into water. After wetting, leave for 3-4 hours, occasionally rubbing heavily soiled ends with your fingers.
Step 3
Then the wool is transferred to a second container, rinsed well and hung across on a rope or on a stick without spinning, so that the water glass itself. When the coat is completely dry, comb it to remove any remaining small debris. For carding wool, there are special hand cards, large square brushes with metal teeth. To comb them, a couple is needed, since all the wool is put on one and combed from there with the other, and then the process is repeated the required number of times. The wool should become hair to hair, then the combing can be considered complete. It remains to put the wool into boxes and from there get the amount of wool required by weight to make the intended product. Beginners are advised to make slippers first of all, since this is one of the most uncomplicated products.
