Tis the season...fiber festival season and the FF Fiber of the Moment is WOOL! While it's true there are many other types of fiber available to fiber

artist, it's WOOL that started the "madness" thirty-four years ago in

Maryland.

Some say wool is the "perfect" fiber. It has memory, it's a "temperature regulator", it won't burn, it's durable...its list of attributes go on and on. Wool is extremely elastic and because of the way it's crimped, it acts like a coiled spring. It can be stretched up to fifty percent when wet and thirty percent when dry and will still return to its original shape. Although wet wool is somewhat weaker than dry wool, the fiber isn't damaged when care is taken. A wool garment will freshen when steam ironed and recover quickly from less than gentle handling.

Wool can bend back on itself without breaking...more than twenty thousand times. Cotton can bend back about three thousand times and silk two thousand times. Wool can be extraordinarily difficult to tear, if not downright impossible. Wool keeps a person warm in cold weather and cool in hot weather. It, naturally, sheds water and can absorb about thirty percent of its weight in moisture without one feeling cold or the garment feeling damp or wet. It's a great fabric to wear year 'round and considered protection against hypothermia. Wool will hold in body heat yet can also cool the skin and is worn throughout the world in desert regions where it keeps one warm

at night and cool during the day.

Chemically, wool is an animal protein fiber growing from sheep and, like human hair, is a keratin type protein. Keratin type proteins contain five elements: sulfur, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. A complex fiber, wool resists dirt and soiling, wear and tear.

Most wool felts and can then be used as fabric or for needle felting. Wool that has been developed to prevent felting is called "Superwash" and been deemed machine washable followed by time in a dryer. The Wool Bureau, Inc. owns the "Superwash" trademark.

Wool is resistant to burning and is a great fiber to wear when traveling. If introduced to fire, wool will char but won't burn and is self-extinguishing. It won't combust and, using no chemical treatment, will resist fire. It dyes beautifully, and is amphoteric meaning it functions with both bases and acids. Dyes penetrate into the medulla core, or the inner core, where the color change is permanent. Fading can take place under the most adverse of conditions however.

Wool, as it regards to "on the hoof", is classified thusly: Fine wool, long wool, primitive and down breeds. Each breed has characteristics that make it better for one project and not as good for another. For example, down breed sheep include Suffolk, Dorset and Hampshire and better suited for projects requiring high loft. Such projects include hats, scarves, gloves/mittens and SOCKS! This wool isn't as soft as Merino but it wears better and, due to it's high loft, traps more air and keeps the body more comfortable. Long wool breeds include Romney, Wensleydale, Border Leicester and Coopworth and are favored by hand spinners for its length and beauty. Delaine Merino, Merino and Rambouillet (developed in France and descended from Spanish Merinos) are fine wool and Delaine Merino is considered to be the best in the world. Primitive breeds include Shetland, Jacob, Icelandic, Navajo Churro and Karakul.

So, all you knitters, crocheters, weavers and fiber artists...while you can grab a hank of wool yarn and begin work, you may also consider the best wool for the job and plan accordingly. It takes "hand crafted" to an all new level!