The Feisty Quilter: Wool Felt

Sheep were first domesticated between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE from wild mouflon. A carved statue of a sheep with fleece dated 6,000-5,000 BCE was found in Iran.

Mongolian saddle blanket

unchanged for thousands of years

Ancient Roman saddle blanket reproduction

The Mongolians developed their own breeds 5,000 years ago. Wool felt is the oldest fabric known to man. It was discovered by accident when raw wool was used inside shoes or a whole fleece was used for riding bareback before the saddle was invented. The moisture and alkalinity from sweat combined with the weight and friction from our bodies created the first cloth. It was most likely ancient Mongolians who made this discovery because they raise sheep and are expert horsemen. In fact, they first domesticated the horse and learned to ride it. We still use wool for saddle blankets.

The army of Genghis Khan rode west with live sheep strapped to their horses. Sheep entered Europe from the Middle East in 7,200 BCE. The first spinning whorl is dated circa 7,000 BCE.

The earliest record of fat-tailed sheep is found in ancient Uruk (3000 BC) and Ur (2400 BC) on stone vessels and mosaics. Another early reference is found in the Bible (Exodus 29:22 and Leviticus 3:9), where a sacrificial offering is described which includes the tail fat of sheep.

These sheep were specifically bred for the unique quality of the fat stored in the rump or tail that was used extensively in medieval Arab and Persian cookery. The tail fat is still used in modern cookery, though there has been a decline, with other types of fat and oils having increased in popularity.

Karakul, named after a city in Uzbekistan, is a breed of domestic sheep which originated in Central Asia. Some archaeological evidence points to Karakul sheep being raised there continuously since 1400 BC.

Hailing from the desert regions of Central Asia, Karakul sheep are renowned for their ability to forage and thrive under extremely harsh living conditions. They can survive severe drought conditions because of a special quality they have, storing fat in their tails. They are currently listed as endangered.

Sheep bred for meat tend to have coarse wool that is only suitable for rugs or riding blankets. The American Tunis pictured above is an endangered breed of fat tailed sheep. It is descended from the Tunisian Barbarin sheep from Tunisia. In 1799, Hammuda ibn Ali, sent ten Tunisian Barbarin sheep as a gift to George Washington. The Tunis became the principal meat, fat and wool breed of the Mid-Atlantic and Upper South regions, but virtually disappeared during the American Civil War.

Sheep entered England in 4,500 BCE. One chief difference between ancient sheep and modern breeds is the technique by which wool could be collected. Primitive sheep can be shorn, but many can have their wool plucked out by hand in a process called "rooing". Rooing helps to leave behind the coarse fibers called kemps which are still longer than the soft fleece. The fleece may also be collected from the field after it falls out naturally. This trait survives today in unrefined breeds such as the Soay and many Shetlands. Indeed, the Soay, along with other Northern European short tail breeds with naturally rooing fleece are closely related to ancient sheep.

The Castlemilk Moorit pictured above is a rare breed of domestic sheep originating in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. The Castlemilk Moorit is one of the Northern European short-tailed breeds. It has horns in both sexes and a fleece that is usually moulted or rooed (plucked) rather than sheared. All Castlemilk Moorits are descended from a single flock of ten ewes and two rams. It was created as a decorative breed in the 1900s to adorn the parkland of Sir John Buchanan Jardine's estate. It is a mixture of several primitive types: Manx Loaghtan, Shetland and wild mouflon. The breed's name refers to the Castlemilk Estate on which they were bred, and the Lowland Scots word "moorit" refers to the light tan or reddish-brown color of their fleeces. The British Rare Breeds Survival Trust lists the breed as "vulnerable".

Weaving began with the Babylonians around 4,000 BCE.

Selectively breeding for white wool began in 550 BCE. This early domestic sheep lent itself to Greek mythology in the form of the Golden Fleece that belonged to Chrysomallos, a winged sheep ram. The story is of great antiquity and was current in the time of Homer (8th century BC). The golden fleece is a symbol of authority and kingship because fleece was used as a method of washing gold from streams which was well attested in the 5th century BC. Sheep fleeces, stretched over a wooden frame, would be submerged in the stream, and gold flecks borne down from upstream glacier deposits would collect in them. The fleeces would be hung in trees to dry before the gold was shaken or combed out. Alternatively, the fleeces would be used on washing tables in alluvial mining of gold or deep gold mines. Judging by the very early gold objects from a range of cultures, washing for gold is a very old human activity.

Although linen was the first fabric to be fashioned into clothing, wool was a prized product. The raising of flocks for their fleece was one of the earliest industries, and flocks were a medium of exchange in barter economies. Numerous biblical figures kept large flocks, and subjects of the king of Judea were taxed according to the number of rams they owned.

1770 engraving of Scotswomem singing

while waulking with their feet

There are several Biblical references to fulling (2 Kings 18:17; Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2; Malachi 3:2; Mark 9:3). In addition to this, at least one reference appears in the speeches of Lysias, written in Athens during the 5th century BC. In AD 50, Romans brought the practice of fulling to Britain and Scotland. Fulling (also known as waulking in Scottish English), is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of wool to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and to make it thicker.

Fulling involves two processes: scouring and milling (thickening). Originally, fulling was carried out by the pounding of the woollen cloth with a club, or the fuller's feet or hands. In Scottish Gaelic tradition, this process was accompanied by songs, which women sang to set the pace.

The act of fulling (waulking in Scotland), complete with a song was showcased in Season 1 of Outlander. When Claire traveled through the MacKenzie lands with Jamie's party, to collect rent, she spent time with a group of women who were waulking. The names for workers who performed these tasks (fuller, tucker, and walker) have become common surnames.

In Roman times, fulling was conducted by slaves working the cloth while ankle deep in tubs of human urine. Urine was so important to the fulling business that it was taxed. Stale urine, known as wash, was a source of ammonium salts and assisted in cleansing and whitening the cloth. By the medieval period, fuller's earth had been introduced for use in the process. This is a soft clay-like material occurring naturally as an impure hydrous aluminium silicate. It was used in conjunction with wash. More recently, soap has been used.

The second function of fulling was to thicken cloth by matting the fibres together to give it strength and increase waterproofing (felting). This was vital in the case of woollens, made from carding wool, but not for worsted materials made from combing wool. After this stage, water was used to rinse out the foul-smelling liquor used during cleansing. Felting of wool occurs upon hammering or other mechanical agitation because the microscopic barbs on the surface of wool fibres hook together, somewhat like Velcro.

By the time of the Crusades in the late eleventh century, fulling mills were active throughout the medieval world. They appear to have originated in 9th or 10th century in Europe. The earliest known reference to a fulling mill in France, which dates from about 1086, was discovered in Normandy. From the medieval period, fulling was often carried out in a water mill, followed by stretching the cloth on great frames known as tenters, to which it is attached by tenterhooks. It is from this process that the phrase being on tenterhooks is derived, as meaning to be held in suspense. The area where the tenters were erected was known as a tenterground. The person who runs the mill is called a fuller. Fuller's Earth (clay) is used for cleansing the wool of oil. Fuller's mills were originally only used for scouring the raw wool.

The hand that turned the wheel

From the Luttrell Psalter ca. 1450.

The foot pedal would come later.

The earliest illustration of the spinning wheel is from Baghdad in the 13th century. In the 14th century, raw wool exports were replaced by cloth due to fulling mills which were being used to thicken woven wool. Spinning and weaving remained a cottage industry. It seems that fulled wool (felted woven cloth) was considered a finished material preferred over the lighter woven textile.

Woven wool that is boiled and dried on a hot windy day, or washed in hot water and dried in a hot dryer is called fulled wool. This was originally done to increase warmth and the cloth's ability to shed water. For most of us, this would be our worst nightmare because it will shrink, but it also makes a type of felt.

Wool profits from the Spanish Merino sheep financed the discovery and exploration of the Americas. Christopher Columbus brought Churro sheep with him on his second voyage in 1493. The Navajo learned to spin and weave the wool into rugs and blankets. In the 16th century, England and Spain were at war. Spanish explorers discovered South America, Mexico, the American Southwest, Texas, Oklahoma panhandle, Louisiana and Florida. They brought the Churro sheep with them into these areas.

In 1589, stocking frame knitting machine was invented by Rev. William Lee in England. It remained the only one for centuries and its principles of operation are still in use. He was inspired by his wife’s slow knitting skills. He requested a patent from Queen Elizabeth I twice, but was refused both times because she was afraid that such a machine would put hand artisans out of work. She was probably pressured by the hosier’s guild. He traveled to France where he was granted a patent by King Henry IV in 1603. Lee died in distress in 1614. His brother, James, improved on the frame and established two knitting centers. It took the industry nearly a century to develop making wool, silk and lace stockings.

In 1607, the Susan Constant, captained by Christopher Newport, landed in Virginia with 71 male colonists including John Smith. They founded the English Virginia Colony and Jamestown. All of the sheep on that ship were slaughtered due to famine. In 1609, Walter Raleigh brought the first surviving sheep to the Virginia colony. This variety of sheep has been lost to antiquity. However the unknown English breed mated with the Churro and produced the Gulf Coast Native of East Texas, Louisiana and Florida. Other names for this sheep are Louisiana Scrub and Pineywoods Native. They do not have wool on their faces, bellies or legs, which is an adaptation to the heat of the South. The most notable characteristic of the Gulf Coast Native sheep is its resistance to parasites and diseases that flourish among sheep in hot humid climates. Compared to other breeds, they are especially known for their ability to resist foot rot. It is noted as critical on the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy List.

The periods of political unrest and civil war during the 1640s and 1650s, disrupted maritime trade so the colonists were forced to produce wool for clothing. Many islands off the coast were cleared of predators and set aside for sheep: Nantucket, Long Island, Martha's Vineyard and small islands in Boston Harbor were notable examples. Placing semi-feral sheep and goats on islands was common practice in colonization during this period. There remain some rare breeds of American sheep—such as the Hog Island sheep pictured above—that are the result of island flocks.

In 1643, John Pearson built the first fulling mill in Rowley, Massachusetts.

In the 1760s, Robert Bakewell in England developed the Leicester Longwool breed using genetic principles. His work influenced such minds as Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel. It is said that George Washington used Leicester rams in improving his Mount Vernon flock, and he owned several purebred ewes. The breed was popular throughout the early Colonies, but lost favor during the 1800s.

In 1764, James Hargreaves of Stanhill, England invented the Spinning Jenny that saw the end of spinning as a cottage industry. The knitting machine came to America in 1790. The first water powered woolen mill to produce broadcloth was invented in 1794 in Hartford, Connecticut. The Hudson Bay blanket was produced in the late 1700s.

The sheep recognized by 1800 as "Romney Marsh" or "Kent" were improved in body type and fleece quality through crossings with Bakewell's English Leicester.

The Southdown is a small, dual-purpose English sheep, raised primarily for meat. In 1780, John Ellman set out to standardize the Southdown breed. The principal reason for the large concentrations of Southdown sheep on downland farms over these centuries was their role in the maintenance of soil fertility. The large flocks grazed the open downs by day and at dusk they came down to the lower arable land for folding. The downland soils are chalky and not naturally fertile, so the close-folding by the sheep on small areas manured and trod the soil. This meant wheat could be grown successfully the following year. With the gradual introduction of new crops such as field turnips, swedes, kohl rabi and other forage crops, the folding system took off, increasing in parallel with expanding human population. The system reached its zenith from about 1845 to 1880.

The original Southdown breed probably reached the United States in 1803. Their popularity grew because the Southdowns were very easy to take care of and were resilient to many problems for which other sheep are known. They later declined in nearly the same pattern that had occurred in England. One other factor that affected the original bloodlines was that the Southdown could not satisfy the consumer demand for larger meat cuts. This was significant in the development and mass production of the larger, leggier Southdown of today. This divergence from the original breed standards was the beginning of what later became two distinct lines in the US.

The American Southdowns were developed by breeding the original bloodlines to larger breeds of Southdowns from other countries to create a sheep that could compete with the other larger meat breeds in the US. However, many of the original attributes for which the original Southdowns were known were bred out.

The Olde English 'Babydoll' Southdown is a breed of sheep developed in the United States to reflect the original type of Southdown brought over to North America. In 1986, Robert Mock set about searching the United States for sheep that fit this original type, and by 1990 had found 350 suitable animals. These sheep became the foundation flock of the breed, and he set up a registry for them in 1991, naming them 'Olde English Babydoll Southdowns'. They produce a 19-22 micron wool that is highly barbed, ideal for blending with other fibers.

The Phoenicians introduced sheep from Asia Minor into North Africa and the foundation flocks of the merino in Spain might have been introduced as late as the 12th century by the Marinids, a tribe of Berbers, although there were reports of the breed in the Iberian peninsula before the arrival of the Marinids. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Spanish breeders introduced English breeds which they bred with local breeds to develop the merino; this influence was openly documented by Spanish writers at the time.

Before the 18th century, the export of Merinos from Spain was a crime punishable by death. Merino sheep were introduced to Vermont in 1802. This ultimately resulted in a boom-bust cycle for wool, which reached a price of 57 cents/pound in 1835. By 1837, 1,000,000 sheep were in the state. The price of wool dropped to 25 cents/pound in the late 1840s. The state could not withstand more efficient competition from the other states, and sheep-raising in Vermont collapsed.

Merino sheep are prized for their wool which felts smoothly. However, they are a standard size breed that may not be suitable for the hobbyist. Appliqué felt also doesn't have to be made of a soft and expensive fiber. I'd personally rather have a tough felt that can withstand the abuse of being used on a quilt.

A quilt made with real wool felt carries a premium because it can be ironed at almost the same temperature as cotton and can be washed in warm water, unlike cheap polyester that can't be ironed at all. Consider that a 60 piece bundle of 8x12" sheets is $123.95, not including shipping. Depending on size, you won't get many pieces cut from an 8x12" sheet. Most of us use 3 or more colors in an appliqué quilt. Wool felt is expensive. The felting tools are cheap. The cost is in the dye until you learn how to work with it.

It wasn't until the 1850s that the combing process was mechanized. The Pendleton Mill that produced the famous Pendleton blanket was established in Oregon in 1895.

The earliest wool blankets I could find were Linsey woolsey quilts from the 18th century that were contemporary with the early cotton industry. I can't find any felted blankets that preceded them. Perhaps they didn't survive. All of the bedding examples I found from the 14-18th century were linen. The above box bed from the 14th century features lightly embroidered linen sheets, but no blanket.

The above trundle bed from the 15th century features a wool stuffed linen mattress while the bed below it appears to be covered with a gray wool blanket.