Kathryn

Wool is one of the most popular fibers for the yarn that knitters and crocheters use in your work. It is great for many reasons, but it is not without its controversy. This article explores wool from many different angles. We’ll look at types of wool and wool yarns, different phrases used in reference to wool, pros and cons of crocheting with wool, wool events and more.

What is Wool?

Wool is actually a more confusing term that you might think. In the United States it is generally accepted that when you talk about wool, you are talking about the fiber made from the fur of sheep. However, wool around the world sometimes includes the fur fiber of other animals including cashmere from goats, angora from rabbits, and qiviut from the muskox.

Types of Wool

Even when you limit the term wool just to sheep’s wool, there are still many, many types of wool to choose from. Each different type of sheep produces different wool. Just listen in on yarn spinners chatting for a short period and you’ll hear about Merino Wool, Blue Faced Leicester, Finn, Jacob, Cormo, Flakland, Shetland, Corriedale, Romney, Polwarth, Icelandic Leadersheep, Gotland, Wensleydale, Friessian, Cheviot, Clun Forest, and Coopworth sheep wool. Wow!

Each of the wool’s has different thickness or coarseness, which relates (at least in part) to the crimp of the fiber. The crimp refers to the fineness of the wool so a wool like merino, which is very fine, may have 100 crimps per inch and a really coarse wool may have only 5 crimps per inch. The fibers also vary in length and this affects the feel of the yarn, too. You aren’t likely to need to know this as a crocheter, but it’s helpful to know as a spinner!

Types of Wool Yarns

Things get even more detailed when you talk about wool yarns, because these yarns may be any of those sheep wool fibers but they can also be blends. The blend can be a mixture of different wools or the blend can be any of those wools mixed with another fiber such as silk. Each wool yarn is going to have a different feel, a different drape and possibly a different purpose in your crochet work.

Some of the wool yarns / wool blend yarns I’ve worked with include:

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In one of my recent link love roundups I shared a post from CraftGossip in which blogger JD asks about the pros and cons of using eReaders as a crocheter. I don’t use Kindle or anything like that but I do sometimes just read crochet patterns online … more often, though, I tend to print out the patterns and there are pros and cons to that. I thought I’d share some tips on the topic today.

Pr0s and Cons of Printing Crochet Patterns

I don’t follow crochet patterns to the letter all that often but sometimes I do use the patterns as inspiration or as a guide to getting stitch numbers correct when I’m making something. And with so many great paid and free crochet patterns out there I certainly do use them sometimes. When I do use them, it is pretty common that I will print them out.

The benefits of printing crochet patterns include:

• The pattern is then easily portable. I can read it while crocheting in bed, take it with me to crochet at a house where I’m petsitting or travel with the pattern. A few pieces of printed paper can go with you just about anywhere whereas some of the more advanced technology isn’t as convenient.
• I can easily make marks on the pattern. I can make notes to myself about where I’m at in the pattern, what I’ve changed as I’ve adapted it, etc. I am aware that there are ways to do this in some of the eReaders but I find it especially simple to do it just on a piece of paper. One thing I like is that I can print out two or three copies to mark different changes for different adaptations I’ve tried.
• You can make the text as large or small as you want. If you need a large font to read the pattern more easily then you can do that for yourself. I should note that you can zoom in on mobile devices as well, though.

Tips for Printing Crochet Patterns

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