Wool facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Wool.www.usda.gov
two different types of wool

Wool is the hair of certain mammals. Most wool comes from sheep and goats, but wool is also taken from camelids (camels, llamas, etc.) and special rabbits. Wool is a natural material. Wool is also the name for the material made from raw wool; people use wool cloth to make clothes, blankets, and other things to keep warm.

Wool can be spun or made into yarn. The yarn is used to weave fabric or material. The yarn of wool can also be knitted into fabric or clothing like jumpers.

Wool can also be made into felt after it is boiled in hot water and rubbed together. Felt is a kind of fabric that is not woven. Felt can be used to make clothes to keep warm in cold weather.

Australia is the world's largest producer of raw wool, growing about 30 percent of the total world supply.

Sheep were domesticated (tamed) in southwestern Asia about 11,000 years ago and now about 1 billion are now widely bred around the world.

Wool fabrics clean easily. Wool also absorbs moisture and insulates against heat and cold.

There are 2 types- natural & synthesised wool.

Images for kids

  • Royal Winter Fair Wool 2

    Wool just before processing

  • Flock of sheep

    Sheep before shearing

  • Sheep eating grass edit02

    Merino sheep

  • Hogget fleece

    Fleece of fine New Zealand Merino wool and combed wool top on a wool table

  • Merino shearing

    Fine Merino shearing Lismore, Victoria

  • CSIRO ScienceImage 11160 Siroscour

    Wool before and after scouring

  • Wool samples 2

    Various types and natural colors of wool, and a picture made from wool

  • Tibetan spinning wool

    A 1905 illustration of a Tibetan man spinning wool

  • Sheep club2

    A World War I-era poster sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture encouraging children to raise sheep to provide needed war supplies

  • CSIRO ScienceImage 1054 Wool Fibre of the gods

    "Wool: Fibre of the gods, created – not man-made" CSIRO marketing poster describing the benefits of wool

  • Wool auction

    Wool buyers' room at a wool auction, Newcastle, New South Wales

  • Worsted wool yarn
    Woollen yarn
  • Lady Weaving Wool

    Andean woman sorting wool as part of the theme park Los Aleros in Mérida, Venezuela

  • Wool samples

    Merino wool samples for sale by auction, Newcastle, New South Wales


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Wool Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.