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MERINO and 'TRADITIONAL' WOOL |
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MERINO and SYNTHETICS |
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One Merino sheep grows enough wool in a year to make wearwoolfs for about a dozen kids. With over 9,000 follicles in just a square centimetre of skin, each of their fleeces produces more than 100 million fibres! If you joined them all from end to end, just 5 Merinos would produce enough fibre to circumnavigate the world.
Merino has always been much finer than other wool, and in recent years woolgrowers have been able to improve the quality of Merino fleece more than ever before. Compared to synthetics, Merino is way more technically complex. Tiny overlapping scales case the fibre. They're hydrophobic (water resistant), like tiles on a roof. Inside however the fibre is highly absorbent. Merino is the most hydrophillic of all fibres - it can absorb and release 10 times more moisture than synthetics! Each fibre can absorb up to a third of its own weight in moisture without feeling clammy or wet to touch. Your wearwoolf releases moisture into the atmosphere, and that keeps you feeling warm and dry. Wool fibre has evolved over 25,000 years to create a uniquely complex structure of interlocking protein molecules, surrounded by electrically charged lysine side chains. Through a natural process called 'hydrogen bonding', these side chains electrically attract water vapour molecules. The wool fibres actually pull the moisture vapour away from the skin. As so often with nature, it's incredibly complicated but extremely effective - and very hard to imitate. Because its layers of molecules are so much more complex than any synthetic, wool draws moisture vapour away from the skin faster. |