Animals that produce wool

Animals that produce wool.

Wool is obtained by shearing the live animal, either by hand or with mechanical shears.

This operation is usually carried out once a year, in late spring. Sometimes, a second shearing takes place in autumn, producing shorter fibers, known as bistosa wool.

The amount of wool that can be harvested from each animal ranges from 0.5 to 7 kilograms per year, depending on the breed, age, sex, and environmental conditions in which it lives.

Animals are often shorn without prior washing, resulting in what is known as “filthy wool”, as it is full of dirt and natural grease from the skin. Occasionally, animals are washed in running water before shearing to remove part or all of the water-soluble fats and other impurities. The wool obtained in this way is called “skipped wool” and typically has a 15–20% higher yield compared to unwashed wool.

Wool can be harvested from various animals, and the quality of the yarn depends largely on the species.

Here are some of the most common and widely used:

Lambswool: obtained from the first shearing of young lambs, it is extremely soft, light, and precious.

-The Merinos wool is obtained from the shearing of Merinos sheep, an ancient Spanish breed, but now widespread in Australia and New Zealand;

the merino wool yarn is very soft and warm.

-Cashmere is obtained from the underfleece (called duvet) of the cashmere goats and is a very precious and warm wool; it is hypoallergenic due to the lack of lanolin, the fat contained in sheep’s wool.

Curiosity: the finest cashmere is the white one, because the goat tends to have spots on the fleece and only the breast part is used to obtain white.

-The Mohair is obtained from the Angora goat, originally from Turkey and whose farms are concentrated in South Africa, it is obtained a wool with very long and silky fibers, elastic and warm.

-Alpaca, Lama and Vicogna are obtained from three different species of camelids native to North America; today they are widely used in South America, especially in the Andes, even if the breeding is more or less widespread all over the world with great success.

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-L’Angora si ottiene dall’omonima razza di conigli, anche questi originari della Turchia e che ormai si alleva anche in Cile, Europa, Stati Uniti e soprattutto Cina; se ne ricava una lana pregiatissima e caldissima, la fibra ha una bassa resistenza e per questo molto spesso è usata in mischia con altri materiali.

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-Camel wool always originates in North America; after the migrations that took place in prehistoric times and various crossings, it became the animal we know today; it has a classic beige fleece and a very soft and compact wool is obtained.

-The quiviut is the most valuable and expensive wool; it is obtained from the undercoat of the musk ox, native to North America and now widespread in Canada, Greenland and Alaska.

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