Wool Yarn Characteristics Made from Wool of Six Different Estonian and Norwegian Sheep Breeds

Special Issue: Yarn

Res Text Eng. 2023; 8(2): 1085.

Wool Yarn Characteristics Made from Wool of Six Different Estonian and Norwegian Sheep Breeds

Tuulik D1,2*; Beilmann M2; Matsin A1*; Espelien I1; Kaljus A1; Wendelbo E3; Espelien Blomli M1; Lehis L

¹Viljandi Culture Academy, University of Tartu, Estonia

²Institute of Engineering and Circular Economy, TTK University of Applied Sciences, Estonia

³Department of Traditional Arts and Traditional Music, University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway

*Corresponding author: Tuulik D Viljandi Culture Academy, University of Tartu, Posti street 1, Viljandi 71004, Estonia. Matsin A, Viljandi Culture Academy, University of Tartu, Posti street 1, Viljandi 71004, Estonia. Email: diana.tuulik@ut.ee; ave.matsin@ut.ee

Received: July 17, 2023 Accepted: August 14, 2023 Published: August 21, 2023

Abstract

Wool as a natural fiber is of increasing importance nowadays because of its natural renewable source. In Estonia, up to 90% of local wool is not adequately valued, while Norway has a functioning wool buying and sorting system. However, both countries have room for improvement in the better use of local wool. The article provides an overview of the Estonian-Norwegian wool research conducted in 2020-2023 and its main results according to yarn and measuring its properties. During the research, wool was collected from three Estonian and three Norwegian sheep breeds, semi-worsted yarn of two different sizes was made from it, and knitted and woven fabrics, each with the same structure, were produced. The tensile strength and elongation of the yarns and fabrics were measured. The paper focuses on yarn characteristics such as tensile strength and elongation at break and brings up some possibilities about how the wide range of different sheep breeds wool qualities can be used in innovative ways of creating textiles. The smart use of materials is based on the possibilities offered by medium-sized production and knowledge about local wool.

Keywords: Local sheep breeds; Testing the properties of wool yarns; Wool value; Heritages sheep breeds; Local wool production

Introduction

In the cold Nordic climate, sheep's wool is the oldest and most valuable source of textile material. Today, the extent of the use of wool varies greatly from country to country and depends on the supporting systems and existing value chain. An excellent national wool collecting, and grading system has been developed in Norway, because of the importance and wide usage of local wool. In Estonia, on the other hand, meat has become a more important sheep product, next to which wool has regressed to the status of an annoying by-product and most of the wool is destroyed and insufficient attention is paid to increasing the value of wool as a renewable resource. Purposeful use of wool is a problem in most of the Nordic and Baltic countries [1]. But this is a problem also in other countries, like in Turkey where sheep farming has been mostly for the purpose of meat and milk production [2,3].

To increase the valorization of local wool, the project "Estonian and Norwegian local sheep wool - research and study materials for textile students in higher education" (2020-2023) was carried out. Project was funded by European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2014 2021 grants in higher education. The purpose of the project was to introduce the unique properties of wool and to encourage craftsmen and designers to use domestic wool more than before. A special feature of the project was the collaboration between craft practitioners, wool processors, and industrial fabric testers. As a part of the project, there were carried out a lot of tests of wool, yarns, and fabrics made of wool from six sheep breeds from Estonia and Norway. The main goal of the tests was to obtain new information about the properties of the wool of different sheep breeds and the fabrics made from it, which would help to use different materials as efficiently as possible. The paper gives an overview of the test made of wool yarns during the project and brings up similarities and differences of Estonian and Norway wool according to different breeds.

Historically, wool has been mainly used in the production of clothing and interior textiles. While today finer wool finds use more easily, it is problematic to find use for coarser single and double-coated wools [2]. Coarser fiber and uneven, felted or soiled wool is increasingly used in the production of technical textiles and in technical applications [4–6]. The notion that there is no good or bad wool is becoming more and more common. It is possible to find the most suitable application for wool fibers with different properties. The research carried out in this project mainly focused on finer and medium, uniform wool suitable for textile production. There was a series of tests aimed to map the different properties of the wool from different sheep breeds to better understand the possible usage area of different wool types.

As of 31.12.2021, there are a total of 65,658 sheep in Estonia (including 31,466 ewes, 26,304 ewe lambs and 7,888 rams). A total of 31 breeds are registered in the PRIA (Agricultural Registers and Information Agency in Estonia) register, but many of them are very small in number. There are over a thousand sheep in only seven breeds: the most common of them are the Estonian Whitehead and Estonian Blackhead sheep. They are followed by the Kihnu native sheep: the oldest local native breed, only recently officially recognized. However, the largest number (30728) of sheep in Estonia are different crossbreeds [7]. Dividing sheep according to their wool, the only local breeds with double-layered wool are the Kihnu native sheep and Estonian native sheep. As of the beginning of 2022, the calculated amount of wool in Estonia is 130 tons. About 90% of it does not find enough valorization [8].

In Norway there are 15 times more sheep than in Estonia. A total of 1 million breeding females are kept during the winter [9]. There are 3 types of short-tailed sheep: the Gammel Norsk Spælsau (Old Norwegian Spæl sheep), the Gammel Norsk sau (Old Norse sheep) and the two variants of Spælsau, white and pigmented. The other sheep breeds are long-tailed, and in Norway, they are defined as crossbred sheep. This is because their origin is a crossbreeding between local sheep and imported sheep, mostly in the late 1800’s. The wool of these sheep is uniform. Norway produces an estimated 3500 tons of wool per year. The wool that is delivered directly to the spinning mills will not be counted in the wool statistics, and this must be kept in mind when looking at the numbers in wool production.

Materials and Methods

Materials

Three Estonian (Estonian Whitehead (EV, Figure 1), Estonian Blackhead (ET, Figure 2) and the Kihnu native sheep (KM, Figure 3)) and three Norwegian sheep breeds (Blæset sau (Sheep with white stripe in the face, NB, Figure 4), Gammelnorsk spælsau (Old Norwegian Spælsau, NS, Figure 5), and Gammelnorsk Sau/Villsau (Old Norse Sheep/wild sheep, NV, Figure 6)) were selected to carry out the research. The choice turned out to be in favor of these breeds, because Whitehead and Blackhead are historical Estonian sheep breeds while Kihnu native sheep is the oldest local breed. The mentioned three sheep breeds are statistically the most cultivated sheep breeds in Estonia.