Having some knowledge of texture materials beforehand

    In today's market, the main wool textures used in the textile industries are animal wool such as sheep's wool, goat's wool, alpaca and rabbit hair. Because of different qualities and blended yarns, they have different effects. Some knowledge of the wool will help you choose the ideal purchase.
　　Sheep's wool
    Sweaters, woolen clothes and felt clothes that we wear most are made from sheep's wool. In the textual industry, the term wool is short for sheep's wool ,as sheep's wool is the most frequently used among all kinds of wool. Argentina, Australia, China, New Zealand and the Commonwealth of Independent States lead in wool production. In China, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang are the main sheep grazing areas, and sheep are also raised on some pastureland in Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan and three provinces in Northeast China where sheep are ranked into several varieties such as upgraded fine-wool sheep and unimproved native sheep. The quality of wool is normally stapled in a yarn system or grade system; the higher the yarn number is, the better the quality is; the higher the grade is, the worse.
　The best quality wool is sheared from sheep raised in Australia (hence the name Australian Wool). This kind of sheep belongs to the breed of merino sheep with long and excellent fine soft fleeces. Well received, now they are raised in New Zealand, South America, European countries and the areas south of the Alps, too.
    Another well-known wool is Shetland from the Shetland Islands in Scotland, UK. The main characteristic of Shetland wool is fluffy commensal with some coarse wool. It is characterized by its bulkiness, softness, luster as well as elasticity with the style of something with boldness and ruggedness. Because the output of Shetland is quite low, the so-called Shetland sweaters in the market are not made of the real wool from Shetland but from the semi fine wool of New Zealand sheep instead. Some fake ones are just ten a penny, copying the style of genuine Shetland.
Lamb's wool is very cheap and popular. As it has a coarse feel, the lamb wool is often spun into yarn first before it is made into any clothes.
　　Goat's wool
   Usually the goat's wool refers to the Kemp sheared from the goat, whose fine wool is too short to be spun into any yarn. The Kemp is quite often made into Chinese writing brush or brush. But exception is mohair, or Angora wool which comes from Angora, Turkey and some areas of North America and South Asia. Mohair is a high-quality fibre. The fleece grows in uniform locks and it is lory, lustrous, strong, resilient and durable like silk, so it is made into jacquard carpet, panne de volours and imitation fur clothes. Mohair absorbs and retains moisture much like wool and has good affinity for dyestuffs. The sweater loosely knitted by hand is quite popular with the style of boldness and ruggedness. Mohair is often combined with other fibres, either blended in yarns or serving as either the warp or the filling yarn in woolen fabric. It has had extensive use in lining fabrics for shaped garments but has recently received competition from synthetic fibres used for that purpose. These synthetic fibres in market are acrylic bulk yarns not the real mohair. The only similarity between them is the style of bulkiness.
　　Alpaca
    Alpaca is South American member of the camel family. The wool of alpaca is normally 20 to 40cm long and the shaggy wool varies in color from the usual black or brown through lighter shades of gray and tan to pale yellow and occasionally, white. Alpaca are limited to central and southern Peru, the wool of which is commonly called Peruvian Wool. Two breeds of alpaca, the Huacaya and the Suri, were developed. The wool of the Suri is fine and silky and grows long enough to touch the ground. The wool of Huacaya is shorter and coarser by comparison, just like mohair. The alpaca's wool is remarkably lightweight, strong, lustrous, high in insulation value, and resistant to rain and snow. It is used in parkas, sleeping bags, and fine coat linings. Alpaca fibre is sometimes combined with other fibres to make dress and lightweight suit fabrics and is also woven as pile fabric used both for coating and as a lining for outwear. Nowadays, most of alpaca in Chinese market are from Eastern European countries.
　　Rabbit hair:
Rabbit hair is sheared from two main breeds, common domesticated white rabbit and Angora rabbit with fleece and coarse hair. A silky, delicate white fibre, it is prized for its fineness, soft texture, and luster. Normally speaking Angora rabbit hair is better in quality than the common white rabbit hair. It is easy to tell the difference between rabbit hair from wool since the former is more lustrous and much longer than the latter. Because of lower intensity, rabbit hair is suit for spinning alone and is often in blends with other fibres to impart warmth and softness to manufacture cloaking and overcoating.
　　What does pure wool mean?
In the market, wool clothes are usually marked pure wool or 100% wool. People take for granted that they mean the same thing. Literally speaking, they should. In practice, wool is often blended with other fibres such as dacron or polyamide fibres to improve the overall quality and make the texture durable. The Chinese national standard series indicate the exact ratio of each fibres of the texture for different fabric product. Then it means that pure wool is not literally 100% wool in practice and the texture marked pure wool should be cheaper than the texture marked 100% wool.
    The market of wool clothes is booming. We should be careful to choose the favorite clothes, using different ways to compare various qualities. What is most important is that we should have some knowledge of wool beforehand, apart from price information.