A Love Letter to Wool

Dear Wool,

I love you Wool. You form the very foundation of my knits so I feel I ought to start by stating why I love you so much.

Actually this is strictly speaking not a love letter. I started out with a love letter but it got really weird writing to a category of inanimate materials. No matter what format this blog is in, wool is such an amazing fiber! I use wool as the yarn for the majority of my knits.  I thought it would be great to say why I believe it is so awesome. Hopefully you agree with my reasons, maybe you even have some I’ve missed.

Wool is thermoregulating.

Wool is thermoregulating.  Many man made fibers will only warm you by a certain amount, no more and no less. Thermoregulating means it is dynamically warm.  If you only need to be kept a little warm it keeps you a little warm.  If you need to be kept a lot warm wool will keep you a lot warm.  That does have the limitation of how much wool you’re wearing.  For example, an ultra thin wool undershirt will only warm you so much and it won’t be enough on its own outside in a blizzard.  That dynamic ability is pretty amazing.

Wool is the OG renewable resource.

Sheep keep growing wool.  Every. Single. Year.  Sheep have done this for thousands of years. The sheep like eating weeds and produce fertilizer for bugs and other plants. So sheep can also be an active part in regenerative farming.  That’s good for everyone. That makes wool a renewable resource. No petrochimcals are required to make wool. And most importantly, sheep are very cute, especially the lambs. What more could you ask for?

Wool is flame resistant.

Wool is naturally flame retardant.  I can cover my family in wool day and night and know that if there was a spark that got on them it would prefer to go out instead of bursting into flames.  I don’t know were we would find a spark in our house that is entireley electric powered but IF there ever was one I wouldn’t need to worry. And that is done without any added chemicals that have at best dubious health effects, but we don’t need to discuss those today.  Not only do I not worry about flames I don’t worry about chemicals.  Do you know how many things there are you can worry about as a mom?  There are A LOT.  So taking two worries off my plate is a win.

Wool fights the stink.

Wool is naturally antimicrobial.  Those stinky little microbes that make me so smelly just don’t like growing on wool.  If I get stinky in my wool knits, I lay them out overnight and in the morning voila!  Un-stinky knits!  Okay, this is only like nine times out of ten and eventually I do need to wash them, but that’s still a great record.

You don’t need to wash wool as often as other fibers.

Wool doesn’t need to be washed as often as other fibers, which is directly linked to its natural antimicrobial properties.  Look, I don’t like doing laundry.  Laundry and dishes are both in the category of tasks I must continually complete and battles I can never win.  If there is something else I can do that gets me out of doing dishes or laundry you can bet that 99% of the time I will be doing that something else.  If someone invented self washing dishes I’d pay a lot of money to buy them.  A LOT.  Same with self cleaning clothes. Wool is already partially there.  I can wear my beautiful wool sweater all winter and all spring and by the end of the spring I may want to wash it. That’s mainly to remove whatever crud my son or dog got on it. It is in no way a reflection on the level of stink of my wool knits(they aren’t stinky at all) or comfortability.  Wool can even stand up to my son wearing it regularly and doesn’t require washing except every couple months.  Unless he covers it in mud. Then all bets are off. Plus you save water by not doing laundry as often. That’s good for the environment too.

Wool has memory. 

When you knit something out of wool it will go back towards that shape.  It will tend to stay in the size and shape you set it in and return to that once wet. That memory also means that as you wear your wool knits they will conform to you.  Over time they will become like a comfortable glove.  Some of my most comfortable sweaters are old and have been patched many times. This one is a bit of a double edged blade because it is possible to use wool in a way that does not account for the memory and wind up with something that is not as intended. However, in my opinion that is easily outweighed by the many uses of that memory.

Immitation

Ultimately a lot of man made fibers are imitating wool(and other natural fibers). Is there a higher form of flattery?

Wool takes dye very well

Since wool takes dye very well there are tons of colors and shades of wool available. Not only are there a lot of options but the dyeing process uses fewer resources than some other materials and produces less waste. That’s a win for you and for the environment.

Now I’m not saying all of this to slight any other fibers.  All fibers have their uses.  Admittedly I prefer natural fibers but there are uses for all types of fiber.

I know there are people who will say they can’t wear wool.  Have you explored the root cause? Not everyone who has trouble with wool is allergic to wool itself or sometimes it’s something you can work around.  You could be allergic to the dye. Then you can get un-dyed wool or find a dye you aren’t allergic to. Your reaction could be to the detergent the wool was washed in. That’s a simple fix, change detergents. If your problem is with lanolin you can use fiber that doesn’t have lanolin or maybe less lanolin will fix the problem. Sometimes the simple fix is just don’t wear wool next to your skin, wear a base layer underneath.  Or stick to super soft fibers, such as merino. All I’m saying, is there might be a workaround.

Let me know what you think of wool in the comments and add your reasons.