Fabrics: The Natural Characteristics and Eco Properties of Wool

Fabrics: The Natural Characteristics and Eco Properties of Wool

Sue Blacker Monday, 1 January 2018

Sue Blacker is Managing Director of Blacker Yarns and The Natural Fibre Company. She is a huge wealth of knowledge when it comes to wool and the wool industry, so we are so very honoured that Sue is our guest expert for a Technical Tutorial on everything "wool".

The Natural Fibre Company, based in Launceston, which is on the Cornwall-Devon border in the UK, is proud to be “the smallest large spinning mill, or possibly the largest small spinning mill in the world” and are able to provide a wide range of processing services to allow customers to add value to their wool, mohair or alpaca fibres. Blacker Yarns and Blacker Designs are another arm of the business, and were both launched in 2008 as a way to begin to sell some of the yarns that the mill spins.


In this video you’ll learn:

  • About Sue Blacker's life before sheep and her companies
  • The processing of fibre from sheep fleece to yarn
  • The time frame of production of fibre to cloth
  • The wool climate in the UK and New Zealand, and Brexit.
  • How to assess the quality of a wool
  • Which wool you should use for your product, plus characteristic differences between wool grades
  • The special properties of wool
  • Whether wool is responsible, from animal welfare to chemical use

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