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Below is an edited transcript from Episode 3: From Sheep to Skein – How Wool is Made, originally presented on the Skein and Tell podcast.

Introduction

Gea: Hi yarn bestie! It's Gea here. Welcome to Skein and Tell, the podcast that unravels it all. That's a mouthful, "unravels it all." But for the very first time ever, today we are diving into the most magical aspect of the fiber world, which is the journey of yarn. From its humble beginnings to the soft squishy skeins that we find on our shelves. So, have you ever wondered what it takes to turn a fluffy little sheep into actual yarn? Well, today we are unraveling the entire process. So get comfy, grab a cup of tea or coffee, and let's get started!

So today we actually have a really, really special guest with us, and that is Kat! Kat has been with Hobbii since the beginning of time, and she is the mastermind behind many of the yarns that we love so much today. So without further ado, let's give it up to Kat!

Kat: Hello everyone! Thanks for having me. It's a joy to be here and be able to talk about yarn, which you love so much.

Gea: Are you a little nervous though?

Kat: A tiny little bit. This is my first time in a podcast, so yes, a little bit.

Gea: Yeah, but I think it's just the first five minutes until we really get into it, and after that, we're just going to go on a rampage about yarn.

Kat: We're good at doing that!

Gea: Exactly. Alright, tell us a little bit about your journey, Kat, because you have been with us for how long now?

Kat: Six and a half years. I come from the IT industry initially, but that was a bit too corporate and boring. Now I'm in a yarn company, which is a lot more fun. We work with our very favorite product, yarn. I started here six and a half years ago, and I'm the one making the color cards and figuring out which yarns we need, although I don't do that all by myself. We have a team, and we take decisions collectively.

Gea: But you are the mastermind!

Kat: Well, a little bit. I at least come with all the suggestions of what I think we should have and get.

Gea: Wonderful. Now that we've established you indeed have the best job in the world, let's take a step-by-step look into how yarn is actually made from sheep to skein.

Types of Wool and Sheep Breeds

Tune in at 3:25

Gea: Right, from different sheep breeds.

Kat: Yes! Well, yarn is not just yarn and wool is not just wool. So, there's a lot of different sheep breeds that yarn can come from. The most well-known one, I suppose, is Merino. Merino is also the most luxurious one, you could say. If you're very sensitive to yarn on the skin—if you knit for babies, for example—then Merino is always the good choice to go with because it's so very soft. Compared to Merino, everything else will seem scratchy. Usually, when you buy wool yarn, Merino is often pure; you have 100% Merino yarn. But if you buy yarn that is unspecified—where it doesn't say what breed it is on the label—then it's usually a mix of all kinds of breeds.

Gea: That's actually quite interesting because I never considered that. So unless it says on the label, for instance, like "Highland wool," then you know it's wool from the highlands, or Merino wool, then you know it's wool from Merino sheep.

Kat: Exactly! Usually, the wool is just collected from different farms, different breeds, put together, and they measure the average softness of the yarn.

Gea: Well, let's get into the breeds then! Let's start one by one. Let's start with Merino, apparently the most famous one.

Kat: It is, and that’s of course because it’s so very soft. Wool softness is measured in microns. The higher the microns, the rougher the yarn; the lower the number, the softer the yarn. Merino yarn is usually really soft. I think the highest is about 24 microns for Merino yarn; anything higher isn't classified as Merino. I actually have a 15-micron Merino sample I got from visiting a factory, stored in a glass jar next to my table. It's incredibly soft—you could actually make underwear from it because it's that soft!

Gea: Wow, that's incredibly soft!

Kat: Next, we have Corriedale wool, which originated when a Scotsman crossed Lincoln sheep with Merino sheep. It typically ranges from 25 to about 32 microns, so it can get pretty rough, but it’s really nice for sweaters.

Gea: What's next?

Kat: Icelandic wool. Given Iceland's climate, this wool is very robust and thick, traditionally used by fishermen due to its durability and water-resistance. It's perfect for outerwear.

Gea: And Shetland wool?

Kat: Shetland wool from the Shetland Islands isn't as soft as Merino, but it’s excellent for colorwork and lace knitting because of its resilience and warmth.

Gea: Lastly, Romney wool?

Kat: Romney wool is from Kent in the UK, known for its long fibers and nice sheen. It's great for spinning, though it's rougher and more suitable for outer garments rather than sensitive skin.

Gea: Each breed really has unique characteristics!

Kat: Exactly. Every breed is distinct, making them ideal for different knitting projects.

Shearing Process

Tune in at 16:17

Gea: Let's actually talk about hair cutting—hair cutting—shearing the sheep! That's going to be a fun one.

Kat: Yes! I live close to a farm where they also have some sheep, and every year I ask them when they do the shearing because it's such a fun thing to witness. I go by with my kids, and we have a picnic there and watch people doing the hard work, because it's very, very hard work—backbreaking work.

Gea: Yeah, definitely backbreaking.

Kat: Exactly, because they have to take the sheep, lay them on their backs, and then very carefully shear them. Usually, it's done with an electric machine. They don't use scissors anymore; instead, it's more like the electric clippers you'd use to shave your husband's head completely, but bigger for sheep.

Gea: It sounds physically demanding.

Kat: It is! They have to bend over, and I can already feel my lower back hurting just thinking about it. It's always very strong people doing this work.

Gea: Did you know there's actually a world record for the fastest sheep shearing?

Kat: Yes! It's less than 40 seconds per sheep, which is incredible—just imagine how quickly that must happen. And the fleeces can be very heavy; they weigh up to 13 kilos or 30 pounds. It's hard to imagine sheep carrying around that much wool.

Gea: That's amazing—such strong sheep!

Kat: Sheep are typically sheared once a year, usually around spring, like May here in Denmark. It's interesting to think about whether the timing differs in other countries depending on the climate.

Gea: Yeah, because they need to shear before the weather gets too hot but not too early, because the sheep look freezing once they're sheared. Imagine if there's another cold wave after they've been shorn!

Kat: Exactly, it's tricky timing. Here in Denmark, we sometimes get freezing temperatures until mid-May, so it's always a bit of a gamble.

Gea: Fascinating! So what's next after shearing?

Kat: After shearing, the fleece is skirted, meaning it's cleaned of debris like leaves and dirt that sheep accumulate over winter. This is usually done by hand, especially if you have just a few sheep, although larger operations may use machinery.

Cleaning and carding

Tune in at 20:03

Gea: So what happens after you wash the fleece, you know, what's next?

Kat: After washing the fleece, you need to card the wool. Carders look a bit like brushes—not very high, but very broad brushes. You have two of them, and if you're doing it by hand, you take a small amount of raw fleece, place it between the two carders, and pull them in opposite directions. This aligns the fibers, making them parallel to each other. It's just like combing your hair—the fibers become aligned and parallel.

Gea: And is that what factories do as well?

Kat: Yes, exactly! In factories, there are large machines that perform the same task of carding. It's fantastic to watch; the wool becomes soft, fluffy, and cloud-like.

Gea: I'd really love to see that in action!

Kat: Me too! Actually, visiting a large wool factory is one of my big dreams. I'd love to see firsthand how wool is processed on a large scale.

Gea: Sounds fascinating!

Kat: Absolutely! After carding, the fibers become lofty and warm, perfectly prepared for spinning. Depending on the yarn type, additional steps like combing might be required to refine the yarn even further.

Spinning Techniques

Tune in at 27:48

Gea: So tell us a little bit about what it takes to spin the yarn, to make that continuous little yarn.

Kat: Well, you basically twist the yarn, and it depends—you can give it a low twist. If you have only one strand and give it a low twist, it becomes what's known as roving yarn. Examples are our wool or big wool and wool prints; they are just spun fibers twisted slightly. I think when you give it a low twist, it's called woolen yarn, making the yarn really soft and warm because it traps air.

Gea: Exactly! So that's really nice. It's good for shawls, scarves, thick warm sweaters, and blankets. And the texture when you crochet or knit with it is very squishy due to the trapped air.

Kat: Exactly. If you give the yarn a higher twist, then it becomes stronger and less prone to pilling. It's good for everyday wear sweaters that see regular use.

Gea: Interesting! And then there are yarns made from several strands?

Kat: Yes, some yarns are made from multiple strands—two, three, four, five, even six strands twisted together. The number of strands changes the texture, appearance, and stitch definition. It's interesting to notice how different yarns look based on their strand count.

Gea: That really gives variety!

Kat: Absolutely. Each twist and number of strands creates distinct qualities suitable for different projects.

Dyeing Process

Tune in at 36:05

Gea: Tell us what the next step is.

Kat: Well, the next step is giving the yarn color, if that's what we want. You can always go with the natural fibers, but dyeing would be the next step. There are different techniques for dyeing, right? But it's beautiful to see, especially in factories. They have these big tops, which are the raw fibers—woolen fiber, cotton fiber, acrylic fiber, or whatever it is—that can be dyed directly and later blended together to create other colors.

Gea: Right, that's interesting.

Kat: Yes, but you can also do skein dyeing, where the yarn is already spun, plied, and in its final thickness. Then it can be dyed in hanks.

Gea: And then there's hand dyeing, which is becoming increasingly popular.

Kat: Exactly! Hand dyeing is wonderful because it creates an artisanal, one-of-a-kind effect that we really love. For example, our yarn called "Unicorn" is hand-dyed and one of our favorites. We actually have some exciting new colorways coming soon that people can look forward to.

Gea: Oh wow, I didn't even know that! That's exciting!

Kat: Yeah, we're very excited to see how people like them. Hand dyeing can be done with both natural and artificial dyes. Natural dyes are typically plant-based, while artificial dyes are usually acid dyes.

Gea: Did you know synthetic dyes were actually invented a very long time ago?

Kat: Really? I didn’t know that.

Gea: Yes, in 1856! Isn’t that crazy? Because in my mind, artificial dyes would have been invented much later, perhaps in the 1950s when acrylic was invented. But no, they've been around since the mid-19th century.

Kat: Wow, that's really surprising!

Gea: Until synthetic dyes came along, dyeing was done entirely with natural dyes from plants, insects, and minerals for thousands of years. There are some fascinating stories about insect dyes, like the Imperial Purple from sea snails—it takes 10,000 sea snails to produce just one gram of dye, and it was so expensive that only royalty could afford it.

Kat: That's incredible. Imagine being the person who discovered you could make dye from a sea snail!

Gea: It's truly mind-blowing. But yes, dyeing really adds an incredible depth and beauty to yarn.

Packaging

Tune in at 40:10

Gea: So then we’re done after dyeing, right?

Kat: Well, yes and no. In theory, you're done in terms of the preparation of the yarn, but it still needs to be balled up. Yarn can come in different shapes. It can come in a hank—that’s the artisanal yarns usually—or a cake if you use a yarn winder. There are also pull skeins, like our silly socks yarn, and traditional round balls.

Gea: I guess the format depends on how you intend to use the yarn and sometimes also the price point.

Kat: Exactly. Higher-end yarns often come in hanks because it helps you appreciate the color transitions more clearly. But the choice of form also influences how easy it is to use right out of the store.

Gea: And winding the yarn yourself is sometimes part of the whole enjoyable process!

Kat: Absolutely! It's part of savoring the journey, not just rushing to the finished product.

Closing

Gea: Thank you so much, Kat, for joining me today and for sharing all your knowledge about yarn's incredible journey from sheep to skein.

Kat: Thank you for having me! It was so much fun!

Gea: And thank you to everyone who tuned in to listen! We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the fiber world as much as we did. Stay tuned for more episodes where we unravel even more yarn secrets. Until next time, happy crafting!