Differences between cotton and wool, and pesticides in wool?

Hi everyone
I just wanted to ask if it makes a big difference to you whether you use cotton or virgin wool. I know that both have different properties, but cotton is plant-based as far as I know, and virgin wool comes from sheep. Since the sheep don’t die when their wool is sheared, this shouldn’t be a problem for vegetarians and vegans either.
Now, there’s a lot of discussion these days about organic farming and pesticides. So if cotton is treated with pesticides, can you be sure that none of those residues remain in the finished ball of cotton, or could that still be a concern for anyone? And with sheep, I have no idea what the animal husbandry practices are like or what factors come into play there. Or rather, you don’t know that when you buy the wool.
Fair trade aspects are also important here.

Is it important to you where your wool comes from? I mean, wool isn’t normally eaten—babies might chew on it, but usually wool and crafts aren’t eaten.

I know these are rather unusual considerations when it comes to wool, DIY, and crafts.
I’m also not sure if the CP forum is the right place for this.

I think we’ve had a thread on a similar topic before—definitely on fair trade—I’ll have to look for it again. But I just read an article the other day saying you should be careful with cotton products, so I wanted to bring this up again.

Which type of yarn is actually easier to felt? Cotton or virgin wool?

Only animal fibers can be felted, primarily untreated sheep’s wool, but other animal hairs as well.
Only animal hairs have a scale-like structure; it looks somewhat like a palm trunk. These scales can lift with friction and heat and become entangled with each other—that is what causes felting!

I’ve already read quite a bit about wool; with cotton, aside from pesticide use, the high water consumption required for irrigation is a major environmental problem.
I’m not aware of any problems with sheep’s wool.
Synthetic fiber uses fossil raw materials, but it is easier to dye....
I only use wool from reputable manufacturers and don’t buy cheap wool. That way, I hope I’m at least on the safe side when it comes to pesticides.
In principle, pesticides should have broken down by the time of the "harvest" if used correctly....

Hi,
all I can say on this topic is that I personally make sure to use high-quality wool.
Whether it’s free of harmful substances, I can’t say for sure. I have to rely on the manufacturer’s information here. Wool from discount stores isn’t an option for me—I’d rather spend a little more money and get the quality that goes with it.

I figure that when I’m doing handicrafts and holding a finished piece in my hands (whether I designed it myself or made it using someone else’s pattern), quality should definitely matter. After all, I’ve invested a lot of time and love into it. In general, the wool I work with should definitely be washable. I always wash the pieces I make (for my own use). That way, I at least feel like I’m washing out any possible residues.

For winter items (hats, scarves, gloves, slippers), I prefer to use wool from Merino sheep.
It’s pleasantly soft.

When it comes to “organic,” I have my own opinion:
Whether it’s truly organic or not is up for debate. I figure that if I hold some wool in my hands and it already has a strange smell, then I’ll steer clear of it (this has happened to me with organic cotton, too).

Best regards and have a wonderful day
Petra

 

Hi,
when it comes to cotton, the longer the fibers in the raw material, the higher the quality of the cotton. To meet today’s standards, the cotton is additionally *finished* to make it *higher quality* and then dyed. Unfortunately, this is when most of the chemicals come into contact with the fiber. Mercerizing and singeing are still the lesser evils in terms of chemical exposure.
New cotton garments should definitely be washed at least once before wearing.
Cotton is grown in monocultures and is heavily dependent on pesticides, so it isn’t very environmentally friendly.
The situation is almost the same with virgin wool; chemicals are used here as well—a process called finishing—where, for example, synthetic resins or silicones are used to make the wool machine-washable. Sometimes chlorine bleach is used, or toxic dyes are applied.
To wash wool, you should use a wool detergent containing lanolin if you want to enjoy the item for a long time.
Best regards

First of all, thanks for your contributions
I took another look and found this
http://www.br.de/themen/ratgeber/inhalt/verbrauchertipps/chemie-in-der-kleidung100.html
So there may be all kinds of chemicals in clothing, including carcinogenic substances. But the worst part for me is that washing only solves half the problem. I always thought it didn’t really matter, you can just put it in the washing machine and then it’s fine again. But then it ends up in the water and possibly in lakes and so on.
The article also has some information on organic clothing labels, although there are significant differences there too.
For me, it was like this: at first I had absolutely no idea about organic products, I just thought the whole organic thing was for people with too much money who like beige sweaters, natural colors, eat whole foods with lots of grains and muesli, and otherwise like to sit in a circle and talk and meditate everything through over a cup of tea. Ommmm and all that,
well, anyway, at some point I started thinking about pesticides, whether they really are that healthy and whether they really have broken down by the time of harvest. And honestly, I doubt it. Have you followed the discussion about Monsanto and Roundup? You know, that company with the well-known pesticide that turned out to be not at all as harmless as it seemed?
I mean, you can’t always avoid harmful substances everywhere. There’s always something in or on something,
but that’s just it, the price of cheap food and cheap clothing, well although the article says that it happens with more expensive things too, so the price of not paying attention to where and what you buy is that you might end up eating harmful substances or having them in your clothes. And not only that, the stuff also ends up in the water because it can no longer be completely filtered out, and then maybe it damages fish populations.
But anyway, I think this could start religious wars, and I don’t want to preach to anyone, everyone has to decide that for themselves. For me, I’ve decided that I want to be a bit careful about it.
On the subject of harmful substances in wool, I think you can compare it somewhat to harmful substances in clothing-
Google also turned up this link from Ökotest
http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/index.cgi?artnr=99711&bernr=10
There’s also some information in there on how handicrafts change after washing :)