As a wool-fanatic, spinner, knitter and budding weaver I was delighted to read Wayland's piece in Ice Raven on arctic clothing ...
Outdoor clothing manufactures spent decades trying to develop the latest miracle fabric that traps air, moves moisture but does not harbour the common bacteria that create unpleasant smells.
Nature on the other hand has been doing it for millions of years... Wool.
Although it is more absorbent than most synthetics, it transports most of that moisture away from the body.
It traps air well and it has natural antibacterial properties that resist odours better than anything else I have found.
Believe me, when you have to board a plane in your last set of clothes that you have worn for a week in the wilds, not only you but your fellow passengers will be very grateful that evolution created wool for us to wear.
Soooo true. I wear wool all the time when I'm out, usually homespun and homemade, and find it so comfortable, even in summer. I don't smell, I'm not wearing wet stinky clothes and I'm warm. My North Ronaldsay socks were comfy even on the only hot days of last August when I was walking and working in Ashdown Forest. Good, relatively rough, wool also "sheds" rain - rather like the sheep I suspect - so the outside of my woolly jumper is damp but not the inside, and it dries quickly. Don't do this with your cashmere pully that you wear to bed on cols nights in Glencoe though! That doesn't shed quite so well. If you can manage to get wool that still has he lanoline in it then it will shed really well as the old fishermans jerseys did/do.
Suitably encouraged, Im now off to knit some Shetland socks, probably with some mohair plied in to add even more silkiness and hardwearing qualities
Outdoor clothing manufactures spent decades trying to develop the latest miracle fabric that traps air, moves moisture but does not harbour the common bacteria that create unpleasant smells.
Nature on the other hand has been doing it for millions of years... Wool.
Although it is more absorbent than most synthetics, it transports most of that moisture away from the body.
It traps air well and it has natural antibacterial properties that resist odours better than anything else I have found.
Believe me, when you have to board a plane in your last set of clothes that you have worn for a week in the wilds, not only you but your fellow passengers will be very grateful that evolution created wool for us to wear.
Soooo true. I wear wool all the time when I'm out, usually homespun and homemade, and find it so comfortable, even in summer. I don't smell, I'm not wearing wet stinky clothes and I'm warm. My North Ronaldsay socks were comfy even on the only hot days of last August when I was walking and working in Ashdown Forest. Good, relatively rough, wool also "sheds" rain - rather like the sheep I suspect - so the outside of my woolly jumper is damp but not the inside, and it dries quickly. Don't do this with your cashmere pully that you wear to bed on cols nights in Glencoe though! That doesn't shed quite so well. If you can manage to get wool that still has he lanoline in it then it will shed really well as the old fishermans jerseys did/do.
Suitably encouraged, Im now off to knit some Shetland socks, probably with some mohair plied in to add even more silkiness and hardwearing qualities
