Magic of Making - Woolly Sweaters

These are the green fields of the English countryside where the farmer keeps his sheep. They spend all year eating the grass and growing their fine woolly coats but now it's summer and time for the coats to come off because we want them for our woolly clothes. Under the watchful eye of the farmer's dog the sheep are guided into the shearing shed. Years ago sheep used to be hairy with only a little bit of wool next to their skins but after centuries of selective breeding the domesticated sheep has lost the hair and grown only wool and that's because farmers and people want wool. On a good day an experienced man can shear about 400 sheep spending only one and a half minutes on each one. This man has done thousands of sheep on hundreds of farms and when it's winter in where it's summer and carries on working. It's a hard job that needs a steady hand, careful not to nick the sheep's delicate skin. It has to be said that this isn't a very pleasant time for the sheep but don't worry because they're not hurt and it only happens once a year. But what a relief when it's all over. The heavy fleece comes off in one piece. It's dirty and greasy. While it's rolled out the shearer gets on with the next animal. The fleeces are tightly packed together and sent away from the farm to a factory and here they will be cleaned for although the grease helped to keep the rain off the sheep we don't really want it on our woollen clothes. The dirt is removed by water detergent and alkali in a process called scouring. The scoured fleeces are pulled along the conveyor to the drying chamber and finally the fleeces are sucked up a pipe that leads them into the carding room. Inside a roller armed with thousands of tiny wire hooks plucks away at the fleeces lining up all the fibres into a thin sheet of material we call web. The web is spun into roving a sort of rope. If you look closely you can still see the little fibres sticking out. In the spinning process these fibres will be wrapped around each other more and more tightly to make a strong thread. Eventually the reels of wool are ready to leave the factory and here they are on a knitting machine. Just look at this gorgeous range of pullovers, sweaters and cardigans and all thanks to our dear old friends the sheep.