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Some thoughts about comparisons between different wool blends
There are blends of wool with different materials. Some of you might be wondering which is "the best", and how they compare.
Is it better to get a wool blend with acrylic, nylon, or cotton?
Nylon is the strongest fiber of the three. This means that when the blend has nylon, less nylon can be used, and that maximizes your percentage of wool. Typical percentages of nylon in a wool blend might be 10, 15, or 20 percent. Occasionally you'll see something with up to 40 percent (though that almost wouldn't be like wool anymore).
Nylon is also a very flexible fiber, so is the best where drape effect is desired, like for thin wool fabric.
Acrylic is not a particularly strong fiber, but it is substantially stronger (mechanically) than wool. You can find 40, 50, or even up to 90 acrylic blends. Usually the main reason acrylic is used is because it is cheaper. It also makes the blend easier to wash, as it holds up better through a wash.
Acrylic is close to being as warm as wool (though not quite) but it breathes far worse than wool. You don't want to be wearing acrylic if there's a high chance you might overheat.
Good quality acrylic can feel almost as soft as cashmere. However, cheaper quality acrylic can feel somewhat coarse and rigid.
It can be a good choice for people who cannot stand the itchy/prickly feel of wool.
Then there are cotton blends. Typically these will be about half wool and half cotton, but some varieties will be more like 90 percent cotton. Cotton is also a moderately strong fiber, so can help give strength to the wool, so that the piece of clothing lasts longer. Of coarse, cotton is much less warm than wool. So this could be good for situations where a 100% wool piece of clothing might be a little too warm. (An alternative is thinner wool, but that might not be as desirable for durability and aesthetic reasons)
Cotton breathes nearly as good as wool. It is just much less insulating.
(A downside, if cotton gets wet, it loses much of its insulating and breathability properties. This could happen from rain, or if you sweat excessively under the clothes, typically for some athletic activity)
Acrylic, at least the type of fiber used as a replacement for wool, is actually a little weaker in strength than cotton. But high percentages of cotton can make the fabric more prone to wrinkling.
So which of these is the most optimal?
I would say that for an expensive item, nylon would theoretically be the most optimal, because it maximizes the amount of wool, while still improving durability of the fabric.
Acrylic can be good if you want to substitute some of the synthetic fiber for the wool. This might be the case to reduce cost, or to reduce itchiness of the wool fabric.
Cotton can be good in situations where breathability is still important, but again you want to substitute another material for some of the wool. Especially appropriate for situations where you do not want or need to be kept as warm.
Both nylon and acrylic have a low softening and melting point, so may not be the best if there's a danger of getting too close to a fire or oven. They say cotton and wool are safer in fires (less likely to cause harmful skin burns since they don't melt).
I think normally, you will more often see nylon used in conjunction with blends of Merino and other higher end wools, whereas acrylic will more often be used with ordinary cheaper wool, but this is not always the case.
Sometimes they want to create a warm sweater with a very smooth feel, to try to replicate the feel of some very expensive exotic wool like mohair or angora. But to reduce costs, they only use 10% or 15% of the expensive fiber. To retain the smooth feel, the rest is going to have to be made out of acrylic, since you can't put too much regular wool in there without it canceling out the smooth feel of the very expensive fiber. They might add some merino wool in there, but even then you can't use too much, and sometimes they will also add some cotton and/or viscose in there. (viscose being smoother than cotton, but cotton being stronger, and good cotton still feeling smoother than merino wool)
On the other hand, nylon is sometimes used with cheap wool in cases where both durability and breathability are important, such as athletic situations, for snow clothing for teenagers and young adults.
One irony or paradox is that the more expensive the piece of clothing is, the more important the durability of those clothes are, since it is kind of an investment. However, synthetic fibers are perceived to be lower quality, so often if the consumer is paying extra money for something like Merino wool, they are going to insist it be 100% of the expensive animal fiber they are paying for. Why pay so much money for something that is part synthetic, is what they will often think.
But 15% nylon in the blend can allow wool material to last three times as long, it will help make it more resistant to ordinary abrasion, avoid holes forming, which is often a problem with clothing made out of wool.
And in the defense of nylon, nylon is a very smooth synthetic fiber, almost sort of silk-like. In terms of how synthetic and oily it feels, I would say it's sort of half way between cotton and polyester. And also about half way between those two in terms of breathability as well. Nylon is a fairly expensive synthetic fiber though, from what I'm looking up right now the commodity material cost is nearly 3 times the cost of ordinary wool, on a weight basis. (Although of course the material cost would only be a fraction of the cost to create the clothing and retail)
For anyone super hung up about the issue of breathability, I can tell you that a nylon-wool blend would end up being more breathable than a cotton wool-blend, for a given durability level, simply because a larger percentage of wool could be used, and wool does have a substantial edge in breathability over cotton, although the two are not too dissimilar.
There are blends of wool with different materials. Some of you might be wondering which is "the best", and how they compare.
Is it better to get a wool blend with acrylic, nylon, or cotton?
Nylon is the strongest fiber of the three. This means that when the blend has nylon, less nylon can be used, and that maximizes your percentage of wool. Typical percentages of nylon in a wool blend might be 10, 15, or 20 percent. Occasionally you'll see something with up to 40 percent (though that almost wouldn't be like wool anymore).
Nylon is also a very flexible fiber, so is the best where drape effect is desired, like for thin wool fabric.
Acrylic is not a particularly strong fiber, but it is substantially stronger (mechanically) than wool. You can find 40, 50, or even up to 90 acrylic blends. Usually the main reason acrylic is used is because it is cheaper. It also makes the blend easier to wash, as it holds up better through a wash.
Acrylic is close to being as warm as wool (though not quite) but it breathes far worse than wool. You don't want to be wearing acrylic if there's a high chance you might overheat.
Good quality acrylic can feel almost as soft as cashmere. However, cheaper quality acrylic can feel somewhat coarse and rigid.
It can be a good choice for people who cannot stand the itchy/prickly feel of wool.
Then there are cotton blends. Typically these will be about half wool and half cotton, but some varieties will be more like 90 percent cotton. Cotton is also a moderately strong fiber, so can help give strength to the wool, so that the piece of clothing lasts longer. Of coarse, cotton is much less warm than wool. So this could be good for situations where a 100% wool piece of clothing might be a little too warm. (An alternative is thinner wool, but that might not be as desirable for durability and aesthetic reasons)
Cotton breathes nearly as good as wool. It is just much less insulating.
(A downside, if cotton gets wet, it loses much of its insulating and breathability properties. This could happen from rain, or if you sweat excessively under the clothes, typically for some athletic activity)
Acrylic, at least the type of fiber used as a replacement for wool, is actually a little weaker in strength than cotton. But high percentages of cotton can make the fabric more prone to wrinkling.
So which of these is the most optimal?
I would say that for an expensive item, nylon would theoretically be the most optimal, because it maximizes the amount of wool, while still improving durability of the fabric.
Acrylic can be good if you want to substitute some of the synthetic fiber for the wool. This might be the case to reduce cost, or to reduce itchiness of the wool fabric.
Cotton can be good in situations where breathability is still important, but again you want to substitute another material for some of the wool. Especially appropriate for situations where you do not want or need to be kept as warm.
Both nylon and acrylic have a low softening and melting point, so may not be the best if there's a danger of getting too close to a fire or oven. They say cotton and wool are safer in fires (less likely to cause harmful skin burns since they don't melt).
I think normally, you will more often see nylon used in conjunction with blends of Merino and other higher end wools, whereas acrylic will more often be used with ordinary cheaper wool, but this is not always the case.
Sometimes they want to create a warm sweater with a very smooth feel, to try to replicate the feel of some very expensive exotic wool like mohair or angora. But to reduce costs, they only use 10% or 15% of the expensive fiber. To retain the smooth feel, the rest is going to have to be made out of acrylic, since you can't put too much regular wool in there without it canceling out the smooth feel of the very expensive fiber. They might add some merino wool in there, but even then you can't use too much, and sometimes they will also add some cotton and/or viscose in there. (viscose being smoother than cotton, but cotton being stronger, and good cotton still feeling smoother than merino wool)
On the other hand, nylon is sometimes used with cheap wool in cases where both durability and breathability are important, such as athletic situations, for snow clothing for teenagers and young adults.
One irony or paradox is that the more expensive the piece of clothing is, the more important the durability of those clothes are, since it is kind of an investment. However, synthetic fibers are perceived to be lower quality, so often if the consumer is paying extra money for something like Merino wool, they are going to insist it be 100% of the expensive animal fiber they are paying for. Why pay so much money for something that is part synthetic, is what they will often think.
But 15% nylon in the blend can allow wool material to last three times as long, it will help make it more resistant to ordinary abrasion, avoid holes forming, which is often a problem with clothing made out of wool.
And in the defense of nylon, nylon is a very smooth synthetic fiber, almost sort of silk-like. In terms of how synthetic and oily it feels, I would say it's sort of half way between cotton and polyester. And also about half way between those two in terms of breathability as well. Nylon is a fairly expensive synthetic fiber though, from what I'm looking up right now the commodity material cost is nearly 3 times the cost of ordinary wool, on a weight basis. (Although of course the material cost would only be a fraction of the cost to create the clothing and retail)
For anyone super hung up about the issue of breathability, I can tell you that a nylon-wool blend would end up being more breathable than a cotton wool-blend, for a given durability level, simply because a larger percentage of wool could be used, and wool does have a substantial edge in breathability over cotton, although the two are not too dissimilar.
