A

Agriculture - The science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing of the resulting products (Merriam-Webster, 2024).

AGW - A Greener World.

Aran weight yarn - A hand-knitting yarn term referring to a medium weight yarn, usually 3/7’s in commercial spinning terms, not as heavy as chunky but thicker than DK.

B  

Bale (fleece bale) - A large pressed package of graded British wool ready for auction.

Batts -  Carded fibre that is often rolled into fluffy elongated cocoons.

British Wool - British Wool (formerly British Wool Marketing Board) is owned by approximately 35,000 sheep farmers in the UK. They collect, grade, market and sell British wool on behalf of their producers to the international wool textile industry.

British wool - This is a bracket term that is often used to include Welsh, Irish, English and Scottish wool although many farmers like to differentiate their wool to it’s specific region to add more traceability.

C  

Carding - A process of brushing the wool fibres to prep them for woollen spinning.

Clip - Wool fleeces gathered from shearing from one particular year.

Combing - A process of brushing the fibres to prep them for worsted spinning.

Cotts - Matted parts of a sheep fleece, usually needing an additional opening process before carding and spinning.

Crimp (fibre) - The wave structure across individual wool fibres that often vary along the fibre structure and according to the fibre diameter. The crimp structure affects the springiness and airiness of the end yarn.

D

Dags - Short bits of sheep fleece around the rear-end often with sheep poo attached so works as a good fertiliser for land.

DK weight yarn -  Double Knitting is a hand knitting yarn term referring to the weight of yarn, DK is a light medium weight, roughly described as 2/7’s in commercial spinning terms. 

Dyeing - Adding colour to wool fibres can take place at various stages of production, either dyed at the clean fleece stage, yarn stage, or piece dyeing finished products.

Dyer - The person or machine dyeing the fibre.

E

Ecosystem - The complex community of organisms and its surrounding environment functioning as an ecological unit.

Ethical - Referring to a set of moral principles, values or systems of production.

Ewe (animal) - A mature female sheep (usually called after she has had her first lamb).

F 

Fell sheep - Sheep that spend most of their lives living in the hills/mountains, AKA Hill sheep.

Fibre - A thread or structure in thread form.

Fineness (fibre) - Refers to the diameter of the fibre structures and individual mass of unit length, usually. 

Fingering weight yarn - Hand knitting yarn term, American terminology that usually refers to a 4ply (UK term) weight yarn.

Finisher - The person or mechanical process that finalises the fabric/yarn handle often including waxing, steaming etc.

Finishing - After production adding things like trims (buttons, plackets, zippers etc). Also after weaving, the finishing process means washing the fabric to tighten the weave and drying and brushing to achieve different textures or ‘finishes’.

Fully-Fashioned - Machinery and programming that can knit whole garments.

G

Gauge - The size of the knitting machine (needles) which will determine the chunkiness of the garment by stitch density. For example a chunky jumper will be a 5gg whereas a finer knit will be perhaps a 10/12gg.

Gimmer (animal) - Young female sheep, over a year old, before having her first lamb.

GMO - Genetically Modified Organisms.

Grader - The highly-skilled job of separating fleeces according to quality, condition, and colour into different grades similar in character and value still done entirely by hand.

Grading - Separating fleeces according to quality, condition, and colour into different grades similar in character and value.

Graze -Sheep feeding on the land.

H

Handle - The feel of the wool fibres ranging from very soft and lustrous to coarse and harsh.

Hand-spun - Spun using a spinning wheel or drop spindle.

Hogg (animal) - A hogg is an older lamb but not fully mature (a teenager).

Hogg Wool - Hogg wool is the first time it will have been sheared (general practice in the UK), at around 16 months old (lambswool is from younger animals, typically Merino sheep). UK Hogg wool is our best quality wool (specific to that breed), as it’s their lamb wool plus some extra growth.

I

Intarsia - A method of knitting with a number of different coloured yarns, in hand knitting and machine knitting.

J

Jacquard Knit - A fabric of intricate variegated pattern.

K

Kemp - A coarse hair fibre found amongst wool fleeces that is usually short, wavy, and transparent/white that is brittle and doesn’t take dye well.

L

Lace Weight Yarn - A hand-knit yarn term, referencing a very fine, often 1ply or 2ply thread to create fine gauge fabrics.

Lambs Wool - A soft wool from the first shearing of young sheep under one year old (not usually done in the UK).

Lead time - The amount of time it takes for the process to be completed (for  example the time from delivering the raw fleece to the mill to when it is ready for collection on a cone).

Length (fibre) - How long each individual fibre is, this often determines what processing the wool can go through, the woollen process can utilise shorter fibres, whereas the worsted process needs longer fibres to create a strong yarn.

Lustre - The sheen and silkiness of a wool fibre.

M

Merchant (wool) - A buyer and seller of wool.

Merino - A sheep breed established in Spain in the Middle Ages, subsequently spread to many parts of the world such as Australia and South Africa and is renowned for its fine and soft wool.

Mordant - A substance that fixes a dye onto a material. 

Micron Count - Size by diameter of the fibre under a microscope.               

MOQ’s - Minimum order quantity, the amount of kilos of fleece you need to get spun in order to make it feasible for the spinners and to be able to make an order. Some facilities will be happy to spin just one fleece while others will require higher minimums.

N

Natural Fibre - A raw material obtained from an animal, vegetable or mineral.

N/m  Normal Metric -  Linear density of yarn for knitting (the thickness of the yarn by ply) Number of km per kg (or 1000m per kg).

O

Onshoring - Bringing a business or operation that was moved overseas back to the original country it was located.

Organic - Describes things that are natural or related to nature. It is also used to describe  a food or fibre standard that means without using artificial pesticides, fertilisers etc.

P

Pills - Small balls of fibre collected on the surface of fabric, usually on clothing, where there has been friction (pilling).

Q

R

Ram (animal) - A male sheep, ‘entire’, used for breeding.

Regenerative - The improvement of a place or system which has land, animals and peoples well being at the centre of its practice.

ROA - Regenerative Organic Alliance.

Roving - A twisted strand of textile fibres.

RBST - Rare Breed Survival Trust.

RWS - Responsible Wool Standard (an accreditation used for extensive livestock systems to assure buyers of good animal welfare and land health). Animal welfare in the UK is already amongst the highest in the world so typically this accreditation is not used.

S

SA - Soil Association.

Scouring - Cleaning the fleece, removing vegetable matter, dirt, lanolin and sheep poo. 

Slub - Yarn that is spun as uneven (this is common with hand spun yarn) as it is done by the tension of someone's hand rather than a machine. 

Spinner - A person or machine that twists and plys fibres into a stable useable yarn.

Sport Weight = American Hand Knit Terminology.

Staple Length - Length of the sheep fibre (this is important for the spinning process and overall garment performance).

Superwash - A treatment applied to wool fibres that makes them resistant to felting and more suited to machine washing.

Supply Chain - The sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of goods and products.

Sustainable -  The ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time whilst trying to prevent the unnecessary  depleting natural or physical resources.

Synthetic - The compounds used to make synthetic fibres come from fossil-fuel-derived resources including petroleum-based chemicals and petrochemicals.

T

Tops (wool) - A semi-processed wool product that has been carded and sometimes combed.
Tup (animal) - A male sheep, kept ‘entire’ (ie. not castrated) for breeding.

U

Uniformity - The quality and similarity of structure across the fibre structures.

V

Vegetable matter (or VM) - A term to describe grass seeds, burrs, moss etc. found in wool and is a contaminant to be avoided.

W

Weaver - A highly-skilled person who uses a loom to create warp and weft structured fabric. 

Wether - A castrated male sheep. In the UK, historically kept for wool production

Woollen Spun - Scoured and carded fibres then spun to be bouncy, trapping air making it light and fluffy in appearance.

Worsted Spun - Scoured, carded and combed fibres then spun - the extra combing stage aligns the fibres for a smooth yarn.

Worsted Weight - Fibres are spun tightly and compact to have the opposite effect of woollen.

X

Y

YSW (Yorkshire Skein Weight) - Number of 256 yd lengths per lb, Yorkshire Skein Weight.

Z