NFH grant: A technical woolen fabric without plastic
Hi friends, I got a craft grant! I have never received one before and I’m super proud of it, and also the project I applied with is one that Ive dreamed of for a very long time! The name of my project is “A technical woolen fabric without plastic“ and I can’t wait to get started on it.
A short intro about the grant before we dive into the wool:
In Sweden we have a the National Heritage Council (In Swedish NFH is the short version commonly used) which is a public agency that reports to the ministry of culture. This council allocates state grants with the purpose to develop handicraft in Sweden, and anyone with a registered company can apply for a grant. Well, I had thought of applying earlier and actually did so last year, where I asked for money to write a book about weaving bands… Didn’t get the grant, wrote the book anyway. This spring I thought “Is there anything I would love to be doing this summer? That maybe I’d want to be doing anyway? Oh yes! I want to have time to spin yarn!“
This beautiful black lambs wool fleece has been hidden away in my stash for far too long. I think I bought it on my trip to Iceland in 2020, or perhaps it was earlier? Well, its best not to think too hard on that!
I had the luxury of being able to buy it from the woman who owns the sheep, and as she also has a wool spinning mill she offered to wash the wool for me. That’s an offer I didn’t refuse, as washing a full fleece in the tiny apartment I was living in back then isn’t really a dream situation (of course I did it sometimes anyway).
So, who would I choose specifically Icelandic wool to work with?
On Iceland only one breed of sheep is allowed. I think this is because they want to avoid diluting the typical Icelandic stock, but perhaps there are other reasons! Anyway these sheep have retained many properties of ancient sheep breeds, such as having a wool coat comprised of hairs with different lengths and thicknesses. The hairs can be roughly divided into two groups; the under coat and the outer coat. The outer coat is long, shiny and strong. These hairs are a bit thicker than the others and they have the purpose of laying on top of the under coat where it leads water away from the sheep (of course it does not lead all the water away of it rains heavily but you get the idea). The under coat is shorter, has more crimp and it’s primary purpose is to keep the sheep warm. Wool with this composition is very, very rarely found in textile production because the outer coat is always coarser than the under coat, so most sheep breeds that are kept for their wool have been bred to have only the soft undercoat. You see, the thicker the wool fiber, the more the fabric itches and most people don’t like that. When dual coated wool -is- used the outer coat is often separated from the undercoat and discarded, and I want to see if that can be avoided.
The project description: My application
“It’s no news that the outer coat and the bottom coat of a sheep’s wool have different properties, but can we make use of those properties? On the sheep the outer coat leads away water while the soft warm undercoat grows close to the animal and keeps it warm. I want to explore wether it is possible to combine these two fibers into a double sided fabric that is tough and water repellant on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. This project adds to the focus being placed on heritage sheep breeds at the moment, and I hope it will be a part of raising the value of the wool being short from sheep breeds that have wool comprised of both outer coat and under coat fibers. I believe that if I can show companies that use Swedish wool in their production that the wool with these dual properties is useful the Swedish heritage breeds will gain in status on the wool market!
My goal is to produce swatches of different fabrics where the properties of dual coated wool are used in the best way possible, placing focus of the difference between the under coat and the outer coat. “
Outer coat locks rising over a sea of soft undercoat, or a wool pic to ease up the wall of text about wool I just wrote? You choose!
So, basically, my thought are these: Wool as a material is getting more and more popular in garment production, but it is often combined with plastic additions. At the same time producers of sportswear are always looking to create the next high-tech fabric with super cool features. I think these producers are overlooking something that the sheep know, and us people used to know too.
Last but not least, I really look forward to sharing this project with you guys. I myself have been missing this kind of content on the internet for a long time; I don’t care about what this celeb or that is doing, I want to read spin reports on outer coat wool! And now, I can. At least my own ones. Or I will be able to as soon as I start writing them. And you will too if you stay tuned!
This project is funded by Nämnden för hemslöjdsfrågor, a national heritage council funded by the Swedish state.
Want to read the next blog post on this subject? Here’s a link!