Cashmere is the king of sweaters and can cost hundreds of dollars because the long downy hair of the Kashmir goat is relatively rare.  Before you invest in such a garment, make sure it’s a perfect fit and that you’ll wear it at least 3-4 times a year.  Simple, dark colors are ideal because they fit anywhere.  Be sure it’s not a fake; buy from a reputable store or dealer.  People might be shocked at the price of good cashmere but they feel like a million dollars when they wear it.

Wool is the most common type of sweater and has been worn for centuries.  It retains heat, looks beautiful and comes in so many colors and patterns that you’ll be able to find reasonably priced wool sweaters for any occasion.  However, be careful of rough handling and heat that can damage the wool, which loses 30% of its strength when it is wet.

As for styles, there are many different ones that are suitable for all occasions and body types.  Turtlenecks are great for winter and when you wear a dark with dark slacks it makes you look leaner and taller.  You can wear turtlenecks with a suit or blazer or just a pair of jeans.  It’s at home anywhere.  A V neck draws attention to the face—or the décolletage if deep enough—so it makes you look thinner.  You can wear it with a contrasting shirt underneath to really make the color pop.  Crew neck sweaters are very versatile because you can wear a blouse or shirt under it, extending your wardrobe choices.

Cardigans are sweaters that zip or button down the front and have a variety of different collar styles.  You can wear them over nearly any type of shirt or blouse and close them for warmth or leave them open to show off that smart new tailored shirt or form-flattering blouse.  Cardigans can be worn casually or with more dressy clothing and have even been worn with evening gowns.

Sweater vests are great for casual chic and come in many patterns, styles and colors.  Some have short sleeves while others are sleeveless.  They are generally worn for casual occasions but men and women both have worn them as office wear and even in more formal venues such as a courtroom.

Clothing lines are built around the models that are used so look for a manufacturer that uses models that conform to your body as much as possible.  Even an expensive cashmere sweater will look terrible if it’s too tight or too big in places.  Remember that high end designers make their clothes to fit only 10% of the population so a large sweater by L.L. Bean or Ann Klein will be quite different from one found at your local big box store.  In other words, if you have a slight figure and are looking at a sweater modeled by a tall, broad-shouldered man you probably will be very disappointed in the fit of that sweater even in the smaller sizes.

On the other hand, mass manufacturing firms make their clothing to fit most, which pretty much insures a poor fit for all.  This is why nearly every wool sweater you might try on in a Wal-Mart or Kmart dressing room is going to look frumpy, slightly off or downright awful.

If you have the money to indulge yourself and your sense of style you can have a sweater custom made.  It’s really not so much an extravagance as an investment when you think about it; you’ll wear a good quality sweater at least 4-10 times a year over 20 years.  If you spend $400 on a custom make sweater this figures out to only around $10 a year that you’ll be spending to look and feel your best!

Before then people used roots, plants, bark and mineral to dye clothing.  There is a common misconception, perhaps from the film world, that medieval people wore dull, brown or black clothing.  The truth is that browns and blacks were much harder to achieve than brighter reds, blues and yellows so dull clothing was mostly confined to mourners or clerics.  Dyeing was looked upon as an art; women usually did the dyeing of fabric and in fact there were certain rules in each country that applied to this craft.  In Ireland men were not allowed to be in the room when clothing was dyed and dyeing was done on certain days determined by the women to be lucky.

Even underclothing was often dyed in bright colors.  It’s commonly believed that medieval people were smelly and dirty and never bathed but that has been proven untrue.  Their undergarments were frequently washed even though their outer garments were not and they washed themselves at the same time.  Only later during the Renaissance period was regular bathing considered unhealthy; that belief was the reason perfume was invented as a way to mask unpleasant body odor.

Red colors were made using Madder, Brazilwood, St. John’s Wort, Safflower and Cochineal.  Yellow came from Rhubarb, Tansy, Eucalyptus, Goldenrod, Onion, Weld And Chamomile.  For blue they used Indigo, Woad, Alkanet and Logwood.  Most people used the plants, bark and roots available to them in nearby forests or fields although wealthier people could afford import more exotic dyeing materials like Haritake.

In India they made green dye from Haritake, a plant native to the Himalayas that was also used as a remedy for many diseases.  India was also responsible for producing calico from Acacia catechu.  Turmeric, responsible for the rich yellow color of their curry dishes, was used for textile painting and printing.  India had many sources of dye that produced brilliant colors.  For centuries Indian cloth was in demand because of its quality as well as its vivid and exotic colors.

The outer skin of onions was plentiful and produced shades of orange, yellow, rust and brown.  Luckily, it did not impart the tantalizing scent of the onion to the material.  Pomegranate was used in tropical climates to produce ocher and yellow dyes; the fruit contains tannin that improves colorfastness.  Since pomegranates don’t produce very bright colors the dye was often mixed with turmeric root to make the color more brilliant.

The dye artists in olden days used what they had at hand. For instance, dipping wool in turmeric and then indigo would produce brown but if they then tossed the fabric in a pot of urine it would turn a lovely green.  You’ll be glad to know that nowadays we use ammonia!

Most dyes need a mordant, a substance that makes the color stick so it won’t wash out.  Alum was a common one, used in the dye bath or as a pre-wash. (Only onion, turmeric and tea don’t need mordants to fix their colors.)  Copper was also used as a mordant and if they wanted to darken the colors they used iron in the after-bath.  Once the cloth was soaked in mordant it was added to a pot of simmering water full of whatever roots, berries or bark was being used.  When the fabric was the desired color it was removed, rinsed and hung up to dry.

When berries were used as dye better results were produced if salt was added to the water as a fixative.  Luckily, salt was plentiful in most places.  With berry dye the fabric would have to be boiled for an hour.  Plant-based dyes were often used with a vinegar fixative.

Most organically dyed material these days still has toxicity because chemicals are allowed to be used during the wet processing before the fabric goes into production.  “Eco friendly” and “low impact” dye processes use chemicals, about 8000 of them, during sizing, scouring, bleaching, dyeing and printing, dye fixing and finishing.  You are not necessarily getting completely organic clothing even if the label says it was organically dyed.

The mill stayed in the family through good times and bad, becoming famous for its Indian blankets which were highly prized and used as standards for trading.  Pendleton’s tightly woven, high quality Indian blankets were made in vivid colors and patterns and provided more warmth than any similar product of that time.  There are Pendleton Indian blankets on display in museums today that are still strong enough to be used for their original purpose!

In 1924 the mill began producing men’s shirts in its legendary Pendleton virgin wool.  In 1949 the company branched out to women’s wear due to a demand for virgin wool classic sportswear for women.  This line was an instant success because of its style and quality of the wool.  Pendleton’s virgin wool was made of fibers that had never touched the floor of the mill; no fibers were reclaimed for re-use when virgin wool was manufactured.  Of course, those fibers were used in other weaves but the virgin wool was and remains a pure, soft weave of first quality.

The original mill in Salem, Oregon, is still in operation as a museum and has one of a very few existing water powered turbines that generates electricity from a millrace.

Pendleton makes several different types and weaves of wool products and wool clothing.  It is famous for its jacquards, a weave where several hundred warp threads are interlaced to make colorful, intricate double sided patterns.  The blanket jacquards and some garments contain 82% virgin wool and some of the lighter jacquards are 100% virgin wool.

Sportsmen like Pendleton’s boiled wool which is fine merino wool that is shrunk using intense steam.  The resulting fabric is very warm, dense and wind and water resistant.  Sailing enthusiasts, hunters and hikers find that this boiled wool is perfect for their activities.

If you are dressing for the office or a dressy business lunch, Luxe wool flannel will fit the bill.  This fabric is woven from fine worsted wool yarns and lightly brushed to give it a velvety smooth finish that drapes beautifully.  It’s never out of place or out of style.  However, many people like “seasonless wool”, a very light 100% virgin worsted wool that can be worn year-round.  It is used in jackets and blazers, pants, skirts and vests.  Seasonless wool is also used to weave Tricotine wool fabric that is more like crepe and is used for softer styles.

Tropical weight wool is ideal for summer or warmer climates when you want to look stylish and professional without suffering in the heat.  It is an open plain weave made of ultra-lightweight worsted wool that breathes and is naturally cool.

Pendleton wool is considered some of the finest that is manufactured and sold on the market today.

Wool has always been a staple of the average household.  It repels water, keeps us warm when the weather is cold and since the fibers stick together naturally it is easy to spin.  It’s durable, wrinkle and stain resistant and easy to dye.  The sheep that it comes from are a renewable resource, yielding an average of 20 pounds of wool each year. Wool maintains its shape and is hypo allergenic, resistant to bacteria, mold and mildew and is naturally flame retardant.  In fact, firefighters wear wool under their turnouts to protect them.

So aren’t sheep organic already?

Sheep themselves are natural and therefore they qualify as organic.  But once they are in the hands of ranchers, their organic qualities are usually a thing of the past.  Synthetic pesticides are used to keep them free of ticks and fleas and are used on the pastures they graze upon.  Hormones and steroids are added to their food to make them grow faster or yield more meat and some ewes are even given hormones to encourage fertility.  Sheep are genetically modified to increase the amount of wool that they grow; some sheep modified in this manner die of heat exhaustion from their heavy coats

In order to qualify as organic wool growers, farmers have to adhere to a strict set of rules.  The pastures their sheep graze in must be pesticide free for at least three years before the sheep are turned out into it.  The grass must be sufficient for the size of the flock, for over-grazing would cause a farmer to lose his organic certification.  Any grain or supplements the sheep are given must also be natural and pesticide and hormone free.  The sheep cannot be chemically treated for fleas and ticks so farmers find natural ways to keep the pests at bay, such as organic brewer’s yeast or organically grown garlic.  During and after shearing, wool from organic sheep must be kept separate from non-organic wool during the cleaning, carding and spinning and any dyes used must be metal-free.

Organic sheep farmers are also prohibited from the practice of “mulesing”, a cruel and inhumane practice that involves removing strips of skin from the sheep’s hindquarters to prevent flystrike.  Flystrike is the common name for myiasis, a disease caused by fly larvae feeding on the sheep’s flesh.  Mulesing is done by tearing the skin off without anesthetic and without regard to the misery it causes a sheep.

Buying organic wool also means that you are encouraging responsible shearing practices.  Shearers are paid per sheep so they try to shear as many sheep possible in the least amount of time.  This often means that sheep are injured through rough handling and careless movements that leave them with painful wounds from the sharp blades of the shears.  Organic sheep farmers are regularly inspected during and after shearing to insure that the sheep have been treated humanely.

In 2001 a total of 2300 sheep yielded nearly 30,000 pounds of wool in the United States and Canada.  Most of those sheep were grazed and sheared in the Western United States where the human population is relatively small and the grasslands are extensive.  New Mexico is the main producer of organic wool, providing 81% of the organic wool in the United States.

Wool is very popular as bedding since it keeps you warm in cold weather and comfortable in the summer.  That is why the desert dwellers in the Sahara Desert have worn wool for centuries to keep them dry and comfortable in even the worst heat!  Wool can absorb the pint of water vapor the average body gives off during a night’s sleep without becoming wet and clammy.

Many people avoid buying organic wool because of the price but farmers are trying to find ways to cut their overhead and thus the price of the wool.  Those that do spend a few extra dollars on a wool blanket, sweater or other item can rest easy knowing that their item comes from a free-ranging, well cared for and humanely treated animal.

This type of sheep was introduced to North Africa by the Phoenicians from Asia Minor.

Eventually the Moors introduced Merino sheep to Spain around the 12 ^th century.  In the 1500’s genetic material from England was introduced and Spain became famous for fine wool thanks to this new strain of Merino sheep.  Most of the large flocks were owned by the church or by nobility.

The Mesta was formed, a club of exclusive sheep owners who worked on developing the breed and controlling the flocks’ migrations to protect their monopoly.  In fact, before the 18 ^th century it was a capital crime to export Merinos from Spain.  Gradually, though, Merinos were introduced to Sweden, Hungary, Prussia and France.

There are two types of this sheep, the Poll Merinos who are hornless and the horned rams that have long, curving horns.

They are an adaptable breed, smaller than sheep bred for meat, thriving nearly anywhere that has proper forage.  Their wool is finely crimped (wavy) and very soft.

There are five different grades—strong, medium, fine, super fine and ultra fine.  The fineness is measured by micrometers; the lower the measurement the finer the fiber.  Since the fibers are so thin, bacteria can’t find a surface to grow on so it doesn’t retain odors.  This is why Merino wool can be called anti-microbial as well as hypoallergenic. Although it will shrink when washed or dried (at about the same rate as cotton), it can easily be stretched back to its original shape.

There are different strains of these sheep giving differing amounts of wool.  A Saxon Merino yields between 6-13 pounds of greasy wool a year, about 3-6 pounds after cleaning.  The Peppin Merino can produce up to 40 pounds of greasy wool per year.

Merino wool is very popular for athletic clothing because it’s good at regulating body temperature when it’s worn next to the skin.

It keeps a person warm without overheating, drawing moisture away from the skin (wicking).  It can absorb water up to 1/3 of its weight but retains its warmth when wet.  For this reason it is the first choice of athletes like mountain climbers, who use it to avoid hypothermia.  The fibers have microscopic pockets of air that trap the body’s heat, similar to how a sleeping bag keeps someone warm.

Buying an item that says “Merino” doesn’t mean you’re getting wool from a Merino sheep but often means only that the wool is as fine or equivalent to the Australian and New Zealand Merino wools.  If you want 100% Merino wool, check the label carefully.

Shearing has not changed much in modern times.  Rather than a sharp razor, shearers now have electric shearing scissors that hang from the ceiling for ease of use.  By hanging them above the floor the cord doesn’t get tangled in the sheep’s limbs or around the legs of the shearer.  Just as in the olden day, however, the shearer has to keep the skin of the sheep taut so as not to cause injury.  A good sheep shearer can shear one sheep in two minutes or less without injury or discomfort to the sheep.  The shears must be kept sharpened and in good condition for the safety of both the sheep and the shearer.  Most shearers are independent contractors who go from farm to farm during shearing season.

Professional sheep shearing is a valued profession in sheep farming country.  Sheep are usually sheared in the spring, as a ewe will be much more disposed to stay by her lamb to shield it from the weather if she can feel the chill in the air.  A sheared ewe also provides a cleaner environment for her lamb.  Sheep with longer fleece are often sheared twice a year.

Advances in shearing are being worked on so that it isn’t so labor intensive.  In Australia, researchers have developed a chemical called “bio clip” that they inject into the sheep.  It contains a natural protein that causes the wool follicles to break so that the fleece drops off on its own.  There has also been a shearing table developed that free the shearers from holding the sheep and a robot for shearing.  These inventions are still in the experimental stage but could put traditional shearing out of business.

Next the wool is sent to a grading and sorting facility, although many farms still do this step by hand.  Damaged or inferior wool is removed and the wool is sorted according to the fiber quality.  Quality is judged by the strength of the fibers, their fineness (diameter), length, waviness and color.  The best wool is from a sheep’s shoulders and sides and is used for clothing.  Lesser quality wool is on the lower legs and is usually used to make rugs.

Cleaning can now be done by machines that scour the fleece to remove impurities like sand, dust and tags (bits of manure).  Contaminants actually make up about 30-70% of the weight of an uncleaned fleece.   Fleeces are scoured in a series of alkaline baths that use soap, water, soda ash or other alkali.  The byproducts like lanolin are saved to use in household products like soaps and lotions.  Rollers in the scouring machines get rid of extra water and the damp wool is lightly oiled so that it’s more manageable.

Now the fibers are carded with machines that aren’t that different from traditional carding paddles.  The machines have metal teeth that remove lingering matter in the fibers and can be set for coarse or fine fibers.  Carding machines look like a series of rollers and the wool is fed into it with a belt that looks like the one at a supermarket cashier’s station.  Wool that is going to be made into worsted yarn is gilled and combed to remove the short fibers and make sure the longer fibers are parallel to each other.  The finer fibers are compacted and thinned with a process called “drawing”.  The wool intended for yarn is then sent to the spinner.

Woolen yarn is soft and fuzzy while worsted yarn is lighter and twisted more tightly; it is smoother than and not as bulky as woolen yarn.

There is a lot of waste in making wool but it is used instead of disposed of.  Noils, which are short fibers that are separated from long fibers during the carding process, are of the same quality as virgin wool and are re-used in quality products.  Soft waste consists of high quality fibers that fall out during carding; it is collected and put into the next batch of carding.

If you prefer to process your wool by hand machines you can convert a washing machine for the purpose by inserting finely meshed filters to prevent loss of fine fibers.  Carding machines are available in home-sized versions as are automated spinning wheels.

Of course, the sheep must first be sheared.  The shorn coat is called grease wool because of the oil and lanolin it contains.  It has to be cleaned of vegetable matter, dirt, manure and its natural oils. Before it’s cleaned it is “skirted”; the edges of the wool coat are removed.  The wool from the hindquarter and belly is often full of manure, called “tags” that have to be cut off.  After cleaning it may be as much as half its original weight because of all the material cleaned out.  The fleeces are then sorted according to their texture and length.

The fleece must then be washed with soap or detergent or put through an acid bath which dissolves the grease and vegetable matter.  Then it is “picked”, opening up the locks of the wool much like untangling a lock of hair.  These days a machine is used for this that produces clean, fluffy wool and adds a “spinning oil” that makes it easier for the fibers to stick together throughout the processing.  In the old days they didn’t have machines or special oil.

Next the clean wool is carded; carding is another word for combing, used to prepare it for being turned into thread by spinning.  Carding separates and straightens the wool fibers.  The result is a bat of lofty wool.  Carders are a pair of wooden paddles with wire faces, much like a wire brush you would use to groom an animal.  The teeth can be coarse for wool and mohair or fine for carding cotton and softer fibers such as angora.  You lay the wool across the teeth of the carder, laying it evenly across the entire surface until the teeth are barely visible.  Then the second carder is placed directly over the first and used to gently brush the first about 5-10 times until the fibers are distributed evenly among both cards.  The bottom edge of the first carder is then lined up with the handle edge of the second and the fiber is lifted and pushed until it reaches the other edge, forming a roll called a rolag or bat.  This is what is used for spinning the fibers into thread.

Once you have a bat you take it in one hand and with the other you gently pull out about 18 inches of fiber.  You’ll need a spindle to hold the thread and a distaff to hold the bats.  A spindle is a rod with a solid base and looks a lot like a CD with a rod protruding from the center and above and below it…it looks rather like the “ab rollers” that used to be advertised.  Add a hook to the top of the rod.  Pull the fiber as thin as you can without pulling it apart and attach it to the spindle, holding it there with the hand you use the least.

Keeping hold of the fiber, use your other hand to roll the spindle up the length of your leg smoothly then let it go so that it spins in the air.  While it spins, keep pulling the fibers thin without separating them.  When the strand of what is now yarn is long enough to reach the floor and can’t be spun anymore, take it off the spindle and wind it around the lower portion of the spindle before the base, keeping some of it to wind back up and over the spindle.  When you reach the end of the bat leave it as is and add it to the first section of the fiber from a new bat so that the sections combine.  Then continue spinning until you have all the yarn you want for your project.

People spun by hand, with spindles, for century before the spinning wheel was invented in the High Middle Ages.  Many people still love to spin by hand, considering it a relaxing and productive hobby.  They also enjoy hand dyeing the yarn that they’ve spun with their own hands.