Woven Through Time: Five Historical Uses for Wool for Fiction Writers

What types of clothing can your character make with wool? What is the earliest era you can write wool into your story? How can wool help a horse? What about Christmas ornaments? Learn about all this and more on today’s episode. 

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What types of clothing can your character make with a wool? What is the earliest era that you can write wool into your story? How can wool help a horse? What about Christmas ornaments? Learn all that and more on today's episode. Welcome to Writing Rural With Alley, the Fiction Writers Weekly Inspirations Station for Rural Life and Lifestyles, from historical to post-apocalyptic, helping you bring your rural stories to life. I'm Alley, and this is episode number 83, Top 5 Historical Uses For Wool. Stick around to the end to find out all of the ways things could possibly go wrong. Now, let's get into this. Wool has been used by humans since caveman times. That means it can be in any story from historical to post-apocalyptic. So today we will cover five things it is commonly used for. Number one, clothing for heat and cooling. In case you didn't know, wool can keep your characters warm in the winter. I know, shocking! It does this by creating little air pockets that trap the body's heat to help your character retain their heat. Wool also will keep your character's retained body heat even if it is wet. You see, and not only does the carotene that is naturally found in wool act as an insulation, wool can also soak up the 30% of its body weight in water before it even feels damp. But don't let that fool you. Wull is also used in the summer for a cooling method. Wull is a great UV protection, breathable, and has moisture-wicking properties. This means that the wool will allow your character to stay dry and provide the same cooling effect of moisture evaporation on the skin. Okay, I know what you're thinking, but Alley, you just said that stays warm in the winter when it's wet. But I said retains body heat. There is no guarantee that they will not get hypothermia, but it is less likely if they are wearing wool. It's also better than nothing. From my experience of wool blankets, it's like having an igloo. The water will freeze if it is below freezing, but the inside of it doesn't melt in the heat. The moral of how I know that? Don't wash your wool blankets on cold winter nights, especially if there's an ice storm. One other thing to think about is that historically, most people had summer and winter clothes just like we do today. The winter wool was likely to be thicker and the summer wool thinner. Granted, most people historically did not have too many changes of clothing unless they were rich or maybe the shepherd's family. Number two, carpets and rugs. Carpets and rugs have been made of wool for thousands of years. Every culture has some version of a rug carpet. Many Native Americans used to make rugs out of cattail reeds or willow branches. Tribes in South America used pumpkin shell husks and made mats similar to throw rugs. While some lucky places that had wool, they made rugs with. It is true that it has been used as a status symbol before. Persian rugs being the top example that I can think of. But do you know why they made rugs? Anyone? Well, there are many reasons. First is that they are placed down to make things soft to walk on. Most of history, the average person had a dirt floor. Dirt has rocks, pebbles, and other tiny things that can hurt the feet. Another reason is to place the feet on them straight out of bed so that you don't feel the cold of the ground before you put shoes on. More modern times have come with wiping feet on the mat. However, historically, the options were to remove the shoes to clean them or wipe them in the grass. Number three, a horse blanket. Okay, maybe this is not as common today since more people drive cars than horses. But I do know people that still own and ride horses. And yes, there are still working animals within the Amish communities and some Mennonite communities. Horse blankets are used for three basic things. Yes, there can be more options, but they're not normally made of wool. The first is to help keep the horse warm. Yes, they too can get hypothermia and frostbite. Wool is a great option to keep them warm. These are most likely to be used when the horse is not being ridden. But can be, and sometimes are, made to attach to the saddle. The next is to protect against the elements. This can be rain, snow, freezing rain, wind, or things of this nature. It technically could be used as a hail protection, but that is less likely. Mostly because if there's a storm bad enough to produce hail, the owner has already likely placed them in the barn to keep them safe from the storm. Last is the protection from bugs. Mosquitos bite anything with blood. But the most common bug is the horsefly. These little flying to vampire bite. And as someone who has been bitten by them more than once, I can tell you it hurts. Not only that, but they will swarm and bite the horse so badly that they leave open wounds on horse that can easily be infected by the same flies as they land on there who have also landed on poop. This can quickly turn into a very nasty wound. Number 4, tapestries. Tapestries makes this list as more of a historical number. You see, while most of us think of them in historical castles looking pretty on the walls, tapestries actually had a function both in castles and normal homes. Although in the home would be more likely to look like a quilt blanket than the Hollywood-style pictures that you see of tapestries in the movies. So what is the important function? It acts as an insulation. Today, we tend to take our wall insulation for granted unless we lived in a bad insulated house that was very drafty. Secretly raise his hand where you all can't see it. Tapestry is cut down on the cold draughts. They also act as an insulating barrier between the warmth and the cold outdoors. If you listened to my podcast episode on leaves, you remember that I remember poor people when I was young, insulating their homes with bags of leaves. This is a huge fire hazard. While wool, on the other hand, is classified as flame retardant, this means it takes much more to catch it on fire and it has a low burn rate. This could even put itself out. With no smoke alarms in most of history, this is a very good thing to have. Number five, yarn. Okay, maybe yarn should have been first on the list. Why is yarn so important? Well, wool yarn is used to make a lot of things, some on this list, but a whole lot more. The list includes, but is definitely not limited to. Shirts, hats, scarfs, sweaters, blankets, socks, shalves, ponchos, gloves, mittens, bags, pillows, rugs, wall art, toys, decoration, coasters, headbands, ear warmers, leg warmers, cup cozies, bookmarks, dolls, dolls clothes, Christmas orderments, and a whole lot more. One more quick note on this one. Wool comes in several colors depending on the animal and the breed of animal. See my episode Woll 101 for a bit more detail on this. The natural colors that wool can come in are silver, black, brown, gray, beige, and creamy white. There can also be any type of mixture of these colors that that you can think of. Most of these colors can be died. Creamy white would be the easiest to dye, but brown could be died to a darker color. If you are writing historically, you will need to look up what colors, natural and dye, that they would have access to in the place and era that you are writing. Fun fact. As of the time I'm recording this in 2024, wool clothing for winter is more expensive than synthetic replacements. Synthetic materials are just cheaper to make clothing with, making wool the more expensive option. If you're enjoying this podcast, drop me a comment. I love to hear from you and answer questions. Now, for everyone's favorite part, likely to go wrong. Your character is used to the super soft feeling of modern luxury clothes. After the Apocalypse, they think the wool is very itchy. Also likely to go wrong, your character's child tries to make something with yarn and gets the yarn tied into knots. Possible to go wrong. Your character is gifted a nice tapestry. However, they have no idea that it's a tapestry and use it as a blanket instead. Also possible to go wrong. Your character bought a wool coat online. When the coat arrives, it's not made of real wool, but synthetic materials. Unlikely to go wrong. Your character wears a thick sweater in the summer heat. While it keeps them safe from the UV light, it is so thick that it makes them overheat. Also unlikely to go wrong. Your character tells their children to take the rugs out and beat them the rug beater to get rid of the dirt. They do as told, and one soon has hives and is having a hard time breathing. Many people are allergic to dust mites, and they do not always know it. Improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities. Your character's children decide to tie each other up with a yarn to see if they can untie themselves. One child can't, and the knots are too tight for their siblings, leaving them stuck. Also improbable, but still technically in the realm of possibilities. Your character is being chased by there is no shelter nearby. They see a horse blanket and quickly dart under it, praying that it will hide them from the sworn of stingers. Thanks for listening. Until next time. Happy wordsmithing.