WOOL LITERACY, is a weekly series that we hope will get readers a little more literate with wool. Our teacher is none other than Peggy Hart, Founder of Bedfellows Blankets.

Woolen=Yarn spun from short staple wool fibers which have been carded before spinning.
The fibers in woolen yarn lie in every direction (see drawing) resulting in a fuzzy and lofty yarn.
Cloth made with woolen yarn might include flannel, broadcloth and blankets.

(Top image is of woolen and bottom is of worsted)

Worsted=Yarn spun from long staple wool fibers which have been laid parallel by combing before spinning, resulting in a hard wearing yarn with a smooth surface.
Cloth made with worsted yarn is mostly used for suiting and includes gabardine and serge.

Sometimes there’s a confusing convergence of terms: what is termed knitting “worsted” is not a worsted yarn but a weight of woolen yarn, generally 900-1100 yards/lb.

Sources:
Hollen and Sadler, Textiles, NY: Macmillan Co. 1968
Montgomery Textiles in America, NY: Norton and Company, 2003

About our Wool Literacy teacher:
Peggy Hart is a production weaver and teacher who designs, produces, and markets hundreds of blankets each year including custom blankets for sheep and alpaca farmers using their own yarn. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design, worked as a weaver in one of the last mills in Rhode Island, and has woven for the last thirty years on Crompton and Knowles W-3 looms. She has a special affinity for wool, and her book Wool: Unraveling an American Story of Artists and Innovation was published in December of 2017.
Read more about her here.