Coloured fleeces – understanding technical terms

What technical terms mean

Experienced shepherds or craft workers may use terms that are incomprehensible to the newcomer. Here are explanations of the most commonly used words.

Crimp is the waviness of the fibre. In general the more crimps there are per inch the finer the fibre.

Micron measurement represents the wool fibre diameter. 1 micron equates to 0.001mm, therefore the lower the Micron figure the finer the fibre.

Bradford count represents fibre fineness and length. The figure represents the theoretical length of yarn which can be spun from one pound of wool and is quoted in ’Hanks’. 1 hank is 560 yards therefore 1lb of 64’s quality can be spun into 64 X 540 yards of yarn. This means that the higher the Bradford Count the finer the wool.