Wool Fact Sheets Processing

PROCESSING WOOL Fact Sheet
Shearing & grading

Washing & scouring
Blending & dyeing
Carding
PRODUCING WOOL For thousands of years sheep have been among the
most efficient of all the domestic animals. Unlike cattle and swine, they thrive
in the most extreme conditions of climate and habitat. Sheep graze easily on
noxious weeds in the highest reaches of mountain vegetation where neither
cattle nor elk nor deer choose to feed; thus they convert to protein for human
use a whole variety of natural resources that would otherwise be wasted.
These conversions are, of course, wool—the perfect fiber for uncounted
varieties of fabric, and lamb—the most tender and succulent of meats. Shear a
sheep and spin its wool into yarn for a sweater or a skirt. Before you know it,
the sheep has grown a new fleece and the cycle starts all over again. Wool is a
renewable resource.
SHEARING AND GRADING The first step in processing wool takes

place on the farm or ranch with shearing… usually in the springtime just before
lambing. A skillful shearer, using fast electric hand clippers similar to enlarged
barber’s shears, can shear a sheep in about 5 minutes. He uses long, smooth
strokes close to the skin in order to preserve the length of the fiber and hence
the value of the fleece.
The shearer usually peels the fleece off in one piece. Then a worker rolls and
ties it and stuffs it into a long bag with 19 or 39 other fleeces which together
weigh from 200 to 400 pounds. He also marks the bag to identify its source
(owner) before it goes to the warehouse.
Next come the buyers. They are the final judges of the value of the wool.
Many times they take core samples of the bags of wool in order to measure fiber
length, diameter, amounts of dirt, plastic, and vegetable matter. These factors
can also be determined by experienced graders who make their judgments by
visual inspection. The buyers bid on “the lot” based on the grade and/or the
core samples of the wool.
Fine and medium-fine wools of longer staple lengths (more than three inches)
usually go to make light-weight worsted suit and dress fabrics. Coarser and shorter
fibers, under three inches long, usually go into bulky sweater and carpet yarns.
WASHING AND SCOURING The next step in the process is washing
(scouring) the wool to remove grease (unrefined lanolin), vegetable matter and
other impurities which gather in the wool from the range, feedlot, or shearing
floor. A set of rakes moves the fleeces through a series of scouring tubs of soap
and water. Impurities can weigh from 30 to 70 percent of a raw (unscoured)
fleece. The first wash waters are warm—up to 140 degrees F—and the rinses
are cold. Then squeeze rollers and a hot-air drying chamber bring the moisture
content to the right level for the next step in processing.
The grease in wool is a wonder of its own… lanolin. It is separated from
the wash water (oil and water don’t mix), purified, and used in creams, soaps,
cosmetics, and other products.
BLENDING AND DYEING Clean wools from several different batches

or lots are often blended—mixed mechanically—at this stage. Blending unifies
the slightly-different basic colors of raw wool, and also helps to standardize
staple length and diameter for uniform quality.
Each wool fiber absorbs dyes so deeply that dyeing at any processing
stage is equally effective and durable. Wool dyed immediately after it is scoured
(washed) and blended is stock-dyed. Spin it into yarn first and then it’s yarn-dyed.
Weave it into a piece of fabric and then it is piece-dyed. To weave a patterned
fabric, use either stock-dyed or yarn-dyed threads. Plain-colored fabrics are usually
piece-dyed. And woolen fabrics can, of course, also be screen or roller printed in
myriad colors and patterns.
CARDING The carding process passes the clean and dry wool through a
system of wire rollers to straighten the fibers and remove any remaining
vegetable matter. The rollers vary in diameter and turn at different speeds in
order to form a thin web of aligned fibers. Smooth steel fingers then divide the
web and roll the strands over onto one another to create narrow continuous
ropes of fibers called “slivers.”
If the batch of wool is of coarser fiber and shorter staple length (three inches
or less), the machinery gently twists the slivers into ropelike strands called
“roving,” and winds the roving into balls ready for spinning into woolen yarns.
If the batch is of finer fiber and longer staple length (longer than three
inches), the slivers usually go to the combing and drawing steps which prepare
them for spinning into worsted yarn.
Division American Sheep Industry Association, Inc.

6911 South Yosemite Street
Centennial, CO 80112-1414
(303) 771-3500 • Fax (303) 771-8200
www.sheepusa.org

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Wool Fact Sheets Processing

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PROCESSING WOOL Fact Sheet

Shearing & grading

SHEARING AND GRADING The first step in processing wool takes

BLENDING AND DYEING Clean wools from several different batches

Division American Sheep Industry Association, Inc.

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