Counting Sheep

[Rex_Tremende]

It turned a little nippy here. Today I was walking to my car from the office, freezing my nubbins off in my spring-weight wool suit (despite the long, heavy wool coat), wishing I had on wool hose and eight yards of 16 oz. tartan wrapped around me when I wondered to myself: how many sheep give up their fleece for a typical, traditional kilt in 16 oz. wool. Would anyone with any familiarity on the process of converting sheep hair into fabric care to hazard any estimates?

I figure that sort of factoid might be useful someday when answering the question, "Aren't you cold?"

"Why, no, sir, I'm wearing the wool of over 27 sheep!" one might say. "But the sheep are mighty unhappy at the moment..."

Regards,
Rex.

[Thunderbolt]

Well, I can't give you a straight answer. My search-fu is weak tonight.

However, for discussion, I'll add this:

http://www.virginiafarmwoolworks.com..._a_fleece.html

The article says that you loose between 25-38% from raw wool, depending on breed.

I guess it really depends on how much wool a sheep produces per shearing., and the breed, etc....

Kind of a "All the wood that a woodchuck would chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood." kinda thing.

Anyone? Anyone?....Buhler?

ETA: Sheep are shorn once a year and produce between 6 and 18 pounds of raw wool.....

[Southern Breeze]

It turned a little nippy here. Today I was walking to my car from the office, freezing my nubbins off in my spring-weight wool suit (despite the long, heavy wool coat), wishing I had on wool hose and eight yards of 16 oz. tartan wrapped around me when I wondered to myself: how many sheep give up their fleece for a typical, traditional kilt in 16 oz. wool. Would anyone with any familiarity on the process of converting sheep hair into fabric care to hazard any estimates?

I figure that sort of factoid might be useful someday when answering the question, "Aren't you cold?"

"Why, no, sir, I'm wearing the wool of over 27 sheep!" one might say. "But the sheep are mighty unhappy at the moment..."

Regards,
Rex.

I've often thought about it myself. I keep getting distracted before finding an answer....

[BroosterB1]

According to my dearest mother, who has been a spinner and a weaver for over 40 years, your answer is......it depends.

Depending on the size of thread, the tightness of the spin, and the weft and weave of the twill. But she did say a normal fleece (as judged by fleecing standards) should produce a similar weight in yardage of thread less waistage of 30-40%(plus loss of weight due to loss of lanolin so say 50% is usable weight). That said to weave thread into yardage the modifier is about 60 to 1 (ie 1 yard of fabric needs about 60 yards of warp). @ 16 oz per yard 9 yards = 148 oz. To get 148 oz of yardage from raw wool you need 433 oz of fleece or 25-30 lbs of raw fleece.

So, depending on how heavy your kilt is, will depend on how many fleeces (sheep) you are wearing. The question is what does a fleece weigh? the answer is...........5.8 pounds per sheep http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/15/1/218.pdf. This means for your 16 oz 9 yard full dress tank you are wearing the product of about 6 sheep.

For one of McMurdo's 22 or 24 oz er's add another sheep or two.

No Baahther. Ewe(s) are welcome.

[Nighthawk]

Ya know... I once wondered how many nogga's had to die to make the noggahide jacket I used to have...

[BroosterB1]

Ya know... I once wondered how many nogga's had to die to make the noggahide jacket I used to have...

Ah yes, but the hard thing about Nogga's is finding them in the first place, hence the name noggahide. Noggas streach to a high degree so Ewes only need a few.

[RockyR]

Great research brooster! You are a much better researcher than me.

@ 16 oz per yard 9 yards = 148 oz. To get 148 oz of yardage from raw wool you need 433 oz of fleece or 25-30 lbs of raw fleece.

The math seems a little off though...

1. 9 yards double width for a kilt = an 18 yard kilt. 8 to 9 yards SINGLE width (4 to 4.5 yards double) is all that's needed.
2. 16 X 9 is 144, not 148, but it's 'pretty close'.

So, depending on how heavy your kilt is, will depend on how many fleeces (sheep) you are wearing. The question is what does a fleece weigh? the answer is...........5.8 pounds per sheep http://jas.fass.org/cgi/reprint/15/1/218.pdf. This means for your 16 oz 9 yard full dress tank you are wearing the product of about 6 sheep.

For one of McMurdo's 22 or 24 oz er's add another sheep or two.

trusting all the rest of your math, we can basically divide the final answer by about 2 b/c you counted double width cloth.

If you think about it further, you don't QUITE use all of the single width either... IF the material is 60" wide and you make a 24" long kilt, you only use 40% of the cloth width, not 50%. "What about the waistband?" True, but you only use about 65" length of cloth (about 4" high) for a 40" waist, so it's a moderately insignificant ammount. Let's say it adds another 3%. In reality, you use 43% of a double width cloth, not 50%.

43% of 6 sheep is about 2.58 sheep's fleece.

It also depends on the size of the sheep and how much fleece they have to give!

VERY interesting question though. I think around 2 1/2 sounds like a reasonable answer, so I think we're in the ballpark.

[RockyR]

Let's not discount the contributions of the COW! The 3 leather straps and buckles and the leather belt!

Should the answer be 2.5 sheep and about 2% cow?

[Downix]

What if you use very small sheep?

[Thunderbolt]

Yes, but don't forget everything else!!!

Hose?
Bonnet?
Jacket?
Plaid?(!)

Minus a plaid, the addition of the jacket, hose and bonnet probably makes it over 3...?