#wool

[avayarising]

Sheep’s wool can be machine washed on a gentle cycle at a low temperature (20°C or at most 30°C). Alpaca wool, as I have found to my personal cost, does not like to be machine washed at all.

Wool doesn’t hold smells well though (it picks them up but will lose them again if you hang it up) so you can get away with sponging off any spillages and only giving it a full wash maybe once or twice a year.

It’s also very much worth putting your woollen garb in the freezer now and again to kill off any moth eggs or caterpillars. Either that or get very used to darning. For the same reason I keep my woolly jumpers packed in sealed plastic bags over the summer. (Wool moths don’t seem to like alpaca wool though, which makes up for the extra hassle of hand washing.)

So my routine is that when the weather gets consistently warm enough that I no longer need my woolly jumpers, I give them their annual wash, hang dry them, pop them in plastic baggies and freeze them for a couple of days before storing them for the summer.

Here, a cheater course on caring for natural fibers!

1. Wool. Treat it like it has the delicate constitution of a Victorian lady and the conviction that baths are evil of a 17th century noble. (If I get in WATER my PORES will OPEN and I will CATCH ILL AND DIE.)

2. Cotton; easygoing. Will shrink a bit if washed and dried hot.

3. Silk; people think it’s like wool and has the constitution of a fashionably dying of consumption Victorian lady, but actually it’s quite tough. Can be washed in an ordinary washer, and either tumbled dry without heat or hung to dry.

4. Linen; it doesn’t give a shit. Beat the hell out of it. Historically was laundered by dousing it in lye and beating the shit out of it with wooden paddles, which only makes it look better. The masochist of the natural fiber world. Beat the fuck out of it linen doesn’t care. Considerably stronger than cotton. Linen sheet sets can last literal decades in more or less pristine shape because of that strength.The most likely natural fiber to own a ball gag.

[grechkathekasha]

juliette is dreaming about circus animals. solo drew a couple of those for her yesterday. he said that she looks like a tiny lioness with a bobtail and the wonky creature he proudly scribbled on that chalkboard was ridiculous. jules then remarked that she doesn't think she looks like that.

but in her dreams she's suddenly this silly looking cat, surrounded by bigger cats and those even bigger things with stupid long noses that can grab stuff... jules forgot how they're called again. she will ask solo when she wakes up, trying to keep a spark of curiosity off her face. “…I mean, you just like to talk about it over and over and I feel like listening.”

[bembely]

So, I just finished this Ghost Horses top and I am thrilled with it. Going to give it to my mom because she is a Horse Person™ and loves pink.

In all the hours I spent knitting it I couldn't escape having Pink Pony Club stuck in my head so unfortunately that song is all I hear in my brain now

[dhampyrdreams]

It's also fire resistant! So really good if you are working in a lab or anything along those lines. And it makes for good active wear as it's moisture wicking and it will help keep you from getting sweaty and gross.

I'm seriously thinking about getting into making my own clothes so I can have more wool clothing.

[flufangora]

Beautiful 😉

Please, don't take my photos without my permission. Thank you😘

[emleelion]

If you wanna know how long these took me, I started this back when the Grumps were still playing Dangan Ronpa 2... They've travelled to canada and multiple different houses with me and I FINALLY got them finished! Excuse my terrible photo shop skills. I've never been good at green screening/lasso tool, so everything is very feathered.

Dangan Ronpa template by blueeyewarrior180.

[white-throated-packrat]

Yep, wool is amazing and warm. If you aren't actually allergic to it, it's the best thing for winter clothes.

If you are allergic, see if you can tolerate llama or alpaca or cashmere (100% on all those, no blends). They are also animal fibers that are very warm, they're just not quite as versatile as wool and also more expensive.

dude wool is magic it's like I can actually thermoregulate in the cold now what the hell

[thypandatetor]

TO HELL WITH ALL CURRENT PROJECTS, I GOT SOFT MAIL:

Time to spin and knit me a peach!

My dearest @fossilfibers made the discord our own existential peach colorway since we try to see how many screaming peach stickers we can find when we get new friends lol

[ezekiellsplayground]

Wow, didn’t realise I hadn’t posted an update on this in a while. Anyway, the colourwork is completed & I’ve put a lifeline in before I start the ribbing. I am sooo close…..

[huariqueje]

Hungry Faint - Natalia Leonova

Russian , b. 1983 -

Pastel on paper , 70 x 50 cm.

[fashionsfromhistory]

Riding Jacket

c.1835

Europe

LACMA

[lionfloss]

The Swiss Valais Blacknose have been rubbing themselves against the red feeder while eating and it managed to dye their wool pink.

[kreechur-croft]

Made some little freaks

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Child's Sock from Egypt, c.250-350 CE: this colorful sock is nearly 1,700 years old

This sock was discovered during excavations in the ancient city of Oxyrhynchus. It was likely created for a child during the late Roman period, c.250-350 CE.

Similar-looking socks from late antiquity and the early Byzantine period have also been found at several other sites throughout Egypt; these socks often have colorful, striped patterns with divided toes, and they were crafted out of wool using a technique known as nålbinding.

Above: a similar child's sock from Antinoöpolis, c.250-350 CE

The sock depicted above was created during the same period, and it was found in a midden heap (an ancient rubbish pit) in the city of Antinoöpolis. A multispectral imaging analysis of this sock yielded some interesting results back in 2018, as this article explains:

... analysis revealed that the sock contained seven hues of wool yarn woven together in a meticulous, stripy pattern. Just three natural, plant-based dyes—madder roots for red, woad leaves for blue and weld flowers for yellow—were used to create the different color combinations featured on the sock, according to Joanne Dyer, lead author of the study.

In the paper, she and her co-authors explain that the imaging technique also revealed how the colors were mixed to create hues of green, purple and orange: In some cases, fibers of different colors were spun together; in others, individual yarns went through multiple dye baths.

Such intricacy is pretty impressive, considering that the ancient sock is both “tiny” and “fragile."

Given its size and orientation, the researchers believe it may have been worn on a child’s left foot.

Above: another child's sock from Al Fayyum, c.300-500 CE

The ancient Egyptians employed a single-needle looping technique, often referred to as nålbindning, to create their socks. Notably, the approach could be used to separate the big toe and four other toes in the sock—which just may have given life to the ever-controversial socks-and-sandals trend.

Sources & More Info:

Manchester Museum: Child's Sock from Oxyrhynchus

British Museum: Sock from Antinoupolis

Royal Ontario Museum: Sock from Al Fayyum

Smithsonian Magazine: 1,700-Year-Old Sock Spins Yarn About Ancient Egyptian Fashion

The Guardian: Imaging Tool Unravels Secrets of Child's Sock from Ancient Egypt

PLOS ONE Journal: A Multispectral Imaging Approach Integrated into the Study of Late Antique Textiles from Egypt

National Museums Scotland: The Lost Sock

[probablyasocialecologist]

Maintaining the biodiversity of sheep is not just important for knitters and spinners, but for the health of the environment. Essentially, a sheep functions like a carbon sequestration system. Atmospheric carbon makes up 50 percent of wool's weight, and, unlike synthetic fabrics, wool is naturally biodegradable. When disposed of, wool acts like a fertilizer, slowly releasing valuable nutrients and carbon back into the soil. Wool fixed carbon in the topsoil rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. This process can help regenerate pastures, which sheep will graze. And sheep can help answer the problem of how to avoid far-flung fiber supply chains. Because sheep do well in such an extraordinary range of terrains, wool is a natural choice for people interested in rebuilding local systems of cloth manufacture. Certain breeds are more suited to certain atmospheric and geologic conditions than others, so preserving diversity also means preserving the geographic range in which sheep can flourish.

Sofi Thanhauser, Worn: A People’s History of Clothing