Understanding Wool Grades for Warm Handwoven Textiles

Why Fibre Grade Matters at the Loom

Ask any handweaver what makes a piece of cloth feel the way it does, and they will usually mention the sett, the weave structure, the finishing. All true. But underneath all of that sits the fibre itself. Wool is not one material; it is a family of them, and the grade you choose will shape how your cloth drapes, how it wears, and how it feels against the skin for decades.

In Britain we are lucky. Centuries of breeding and trade have given us an extraordinary range of fleece types, from the silky downy wool of the Southdown to the crisp, almost wiry fibre of the Scottish Blackface. Understanding the broad grades helps you match wool to purpose, whether you are weaving a shawl, a rug or a winter jacket length.

Micron Counts and the Bradford Scale

The technical measure of wool fineness is the micron, one thousandth of a millimetre. Merino might sit around 18 to 22 microns; a good Shetland around 25 to 28; a carpet-grade wool can run past 35. The lower the number, the finer the fibre, the softer the hand.

The older British trade used the Bradford count, a spinning count that runs in the opposite direction: the higher the number, the finer the yarn it could produce. A 60s wool is a fine worsted type; a 36s is altogether coarser and sturdier. You will still hear the term in Yorkshire and in vintage weaving books, and it is worth knowing both systems.

• Fine wools (under 24 microns): merino, Rambouillet, and the finest lambswool. Superb next to skin, less resilient under hard wear.
• Medium wools (24 to 30 microns): Shetland, Bluefaced Leicester, Romney, Cheviot. The great all-rounders of British weaving.
• Coarse wools (over 30 microns): Blackface, Swaledale, Welsh Mountain. Strong, springy, ideal for rugs, upholstery and outerwear that must take punishment.

Lambswool and Merino: Softness First

Lambswool is the first clip from a young sheep, typically under seven months old. The fibre tapers to a fine tip, which gives it a distinctive downy softness and a lovely bloom after washing. It is not automatically finer than adult wool from the same breed, but that tapering tip is what makes it feel so gentle. For scarves, baby blankets and lightweight throws, lambswool is hard to beat.

Merino and its close relatives push fineness further still. Weave a fine merino at a close sett and you get cloth with real fluidity, the sort that folds softly into a bag. The trade-off is durability: fine fibres have fewer scales and less crimp, so they pill and abrade more readily. Use them where softness matters more than longevity, and consider blending with a medium wool for socks or everyday garments.

Shetland, Bluefaced Leicester and the Great Middle Ground

Shetland wool is the classic British weaving fibre. It is soft enough for garments, springy enough to hold structure, and it blooms beautifully when fulled, filling in the gaps between threads and giving cloth a gentle halo. Its natural colour range, from misty greys to deep moorit browns, is unmatched for colourwork and hap shawls.

Bluefaced Leicester is the other fibre many weavers reach for. Long, lustrous and surprisingly fine for its strength, it takes dye with a brilliance that Shetland cannot match and gives cloth a subtle sheen. It is a superb choice for drapey wraps and for anything where you want colour to sing.

If you are unsure where to begin, buy a small quantity of each, warp a short sample and weave the same structure in both. The difference in handle will teach you more in an afternoon than any book.

Coarse Wools: Built for Hard Wear

Not every textile needs to be soft. Blackface, Swaledale and Welsh Mountain fleeces are long, strong and packed with crimp. That springiness means they resist compression, which is exactly what you want in a rug or a floor cushion. They also shed dirt and wear slowly.

The catch is that coarse fibres have prominent scales and a pronounced prickle. Against a wrist or neck they can feel scratchy, so keep them away from skin: use them for rugs, bags, upholstery panels and heavy outerwear where a lining sits between cloth and body. Blending a little coarse wool into a medium fleece can add durability without ruining the hand.

Reading a Fleece Before You Buy

When you handle wool, either as fleece or as yarn, a few quick checks tell you a great deal. Roll a staple between finger and thumb. Fine wool feels almost like cotton and disappears against the skin; coarse wool feels crisp and springs back. Look at the crimp: tight, regular waves usually mean fine, elastic fibre. Check the staple length: longer fibres spin and weave into smoother, stronger cloth with less pill.

• Ask about the breed, not just the colour. Breed tells you more about performance than any marketing name.
• Test against your neck or inner wrist, the true test of next-to-skin comfort.
• Weigh your purpose: a shawl wants softness, a rug wants resilience, a jacket wants both in different places.
• Sample the same sett in two grades and wash both. Fulling changes everything.

Choose the grade to suit the job, weave your sample, and finish it properly. Do that, and your handwoven cloth will do exactly what it was made to do: keep someone warm, for a very long time.