Wool is a natural fibre obtained by shearing the coat of a sheep. While many of us associate wool with sheep, other mammals — including alpacas, camels and goats — also produce fibres that can be twisted into yarn and then textiles. Alpaca wool comes in 22 natural colours, the most of any wool-producing animal.

Wool fibres are made of alpha-keratin, which is found in all mammalian (including human) hair as well as horns and claws. In its natural state, wool fleece contains lanolin, however this is washed out during the spinning and dyeing process so that your regular wool jumper fibres do not contain lanolin or other foreign particles from the fleece, like grass seeds.

Wool fibres stick together easily. The cells of their tough outer layer, or cuticle, have evolved to overlap like tiny shingles, creating spots for one fibre to catch on another as they are twisted.

If you could look close-up at a strand of wool, you would see it has a natural crimp, or ripple. That crimped structure gives the wool a natural elasticity that makes it strong. It comes from a helix, like a spring, deep inside each fibre. You could bend the wool fibres back and forth more than 20,000 times without them breaking or tearing.

As a result, wool can stretch comfortably with the wearer, and then return to its natural shape. Wool carpets have a natural bounce when you walk on them. They might flatten if something heavy is on them but, once it is removed, will bounce back. Wool, therefore, maintains its appearance over time, adding value to the product and its lifespan.

The fleece of just one sheep can be spun to produce a strand the length of approximately 200 kilometres.

Here at dgjiayan, we use predominately Australian Merino Wool.