By pure coincidence, two unrelated recent blog posts by two different people (one in Scotland, one in Canada) just happen to fit together perfectly to demonstrate how the hair off a four-legged critter turns into something pretty and warm for humans to wear.

Kate Davies starts off with fleece just as it comes off the sheep (basically grubby, greasy, smelly lumps of matted hair) and photo-tours through the large-scale cleaning and processing that leads to the product known as "top" (fibres that have been combed but not carded): At Haworth Scouring

Then the Yarn Harlot picks up from there with roving (fibres that have been carded) and takes you the rest of the way (on a much smaller scale) to finished garment: Flipbook

Tags: blogs