Image courtesy of Shorpy Historic Photo Archive (Shorpy.com). August 1942 in Madison County, Montana. Sheep grazing the Gravelly Range at the foot of Black Butte. View full size by clicking on image. Gorgeous 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Russell Lee for the Farm Security Administration.
If you watched The Thorn Birds, you know that it takes place on a sheep station in Australia (a station is the Australian version of the American ranch). Watching (and crying…okay, sobbing) that miniseries was my first real introduction to sheep production. Until then, I’d never seen a sheep shorn.
I love wearing wool. But I also have to grapple with some hard facts related to wool production. Most of the wool produced in the United States comes from sheep that are raised for food. Great! You might say. Since it is slaughtered anyway, we’re okay. Unfortunately, most of that wool is poor quality and not used for clothing. Wool that is used for clothing is removed by shearing, chemical feed additive, or injections to cause shedding. After my last post about wool, Faith sent me an excellent article about “factory farming” and shearing of sheep. Of course, the researcher in me wanted to know what the other side has to say. It appears that most of what is described in that article primarily occurs in Australia. That makes sense, given that Australia is the largest producer of wool. However, there are wool producers in other parts of the world who do try to raise and shear their sheep humanely. Laney, on her The Almost Vegan blog, writes a well thought out post on why she continues to wear wool despite being lambasted (no pun intended) by other vegans: The Wool, Our Eyes, and “Truth.” In order to prevent flame wars from occurring in the comments section, I’m going to trust that you will make the right decision for you…whether that is to continue or discontinue using wool (or finding alternative sources of wool).
After the sheep is shorn, the raw wool contains between 30 and 70% (by weight) of sand, dirt, grease, and dried sweat. The impurities are removed and the grease is purified into lanolin (50′s Gal recently talked about lanolin her blog…you have to scroll down to read her information about it).
The next steps are grading and sorting the wool. Grading involves evaluating the entire fleece for fineness and length of the fibers. The quality of the wool is determined during sorting, thus determining its use. The best-quality of wool works well in lightweight fabrics whereas the coarser wool is often destined to become a carpet.
The Federal Trade Commission defines the terms for the labels of wool garments. The terms refer to their past usage and not the quality of the product produced. The terms are as follows (from Textiles, 10th Ed. by Sara J. Kandolph):
- Virgin Wool–wool that has never been processed. If you see “wool” on a label, it implies that it is virgin wool
- Wool–new wool or wool fibers reclaimed from kit scraps, broken thread, and noils (short fibers)
- Recycled Wool–scraps of new woven or felted fabrics that are shredded back into the fibrous state and reused.
Note, the term “lamb’s wool” is used for wool obtained from animals that are less than seven months old. It is not required by the FTC to be identified on a label, even though it usually is because it is finer and softer than other wools.
Next time, we will examine “specialty wools.”
As a teen in the ’60s, I had many wool plaid outfits made meticulously by my mother. I also learned to match plaids and loved to work with wool. In those days, we sent clothes to the dry cleaners on a weekly basis and thought nothing of it. I had a few Pendleton wool outfits, too, which I loved, and I resolved that when my children were grown, I would have a wardrobe from the Pendleton company. When I shared this goal with a friend, she commented, “Wool is not great. It has to be cleaned with care and it’s subject to moth damage.” And of course, I don’t need such a wardrobe in my present life. I have not researched the animal-related issues, but I guess it has worked out to the good. I buy very little wool.