Do you have that too? You’re standing in a yarn shop or browsing a website choosing yarn for your first or next tufting project and you’re thinking: which one should I use? All those different balls of yarn, all those colors, all those different materials… It’s like a candy store and you want to try them all, but… is that even possible?
On my website mattimat.com I already wrote about it: the endless options you have in wool choice if you want to start tufting. I often get the question which wool is best to use for tufting and apparently opinions differ on that. What are some of the options?
100% natural wool
Real, pure wool comes directly from animal fur and is a top performer when it comes to soundproofing. Each type of natural wool has unique properties, but they have one thing in common: top quality! You can just feel that it is real and that also makes it very beautiful in a tufted wall hanging or rug. A rug made of natural wool also absorbs sound waves very well and provides a pleasant warm atmosphere. Often a little more than acrylic wool, although it has many properties that 100% natural wool also has.
Did you know that wool doesn't just come from sheep? Alpacas, llamas, goats and even camels also provide wool that is perfect for tufting. Check out the three-piece tapestry Lifestreams, in which New Zealand sheep wool and alpaca wool come together for a unique effect.
Acrylic wool: affordable and nice to start with
Acrylic wool is the budget-friendly option if you really like natural wool, but it is too expensive for your wallet. Acrylic wool is really a great choice, especially if you are just starting out with tufting. It is lightweight and soft in structure, which makes it nice to work with. When you use stiffer types of wool, the supply of wool to your tufting gun is also a bit stiffer. Your wool will 'swing' a bit more due to the weight and stiffness, which causes loops and knots in your wool more quickly. Acrylic is, like some other types of wool (such as soft, thin strands of wool from Merino or Alpaca) also available in many more colors than natural wool types. That is also very nice and handy! During the tufting workshops we use Tufting Yarn for tufting. That is made of acrylic wool. You can then choose from more than 50 colors, for example. Do you want to follow a Tufting workshop ? Click here to view the locations and dates!
Vegan and Plant-Based Wool
Want to go completely animal-free? Yes, there are plenty of vegan options! Think cotton, linen, bamboo, eucalyptus and hemp. Even soybeans and coconut fibres can be processed into tufted rugs. Because vegan yarns are often thinner than wool and do not have such a nice fluffy density as wool types such as acrylic or sheep, you do need a bit more of it to get a full and fluffy effect. I actually really like the combination of different types of wool. I also regularly use cotton and bamboo in my wall hangings with the tufting gun. Works great!
Can you tuft with any type of wool?
The answer is 'no' unfortunately. Wool that is spun very loosely is difficult to tuft. Why? Because the tufting machine shoots the wool from your feed into your tufting cloth at a high speed, loosely spun wool can bunch up before it has been tufted through your machine. This results in a large accumulation of wool and eventually a large knot that will no longer pass through your machine. So it does not so much depend on the type of wool, but more on the structure of the wool.
1, 2, or 3 strands of wool?
You want to give your tufted rug a nice, fine, soft density. You don't want to be able to see through it because you used too little wool, for example, but you also don't want your rug to be very thick and stiff because you used way too much wool. This partly depends on how fast you tuft and what speed your tufting machine is on, but it also depends on how much yarn you use.
You see many tufters working with 2 strands of wool at the same time. This is done most often, because the thickness of the yarn is too thin to shoot through your cloth as 1 thread with the tufting gun. Do you have yarn with a thickness of 3 to 4 or 5? Then use 2 strands at the same time. Do you have yarn with a thickness of 2 or thinner? Then you can easily put 3 or 4 of them at the same time in your machine. That ensures a nice density. If you have wool that is so thick that only 1 thread can go through the tufting gun, then you use one. That is fine. Practice a bit with the machine, then you will also know whether the density is sufficient. Then you adjust the height of the speed of your tufting gun and the speed at which you tuft yourself, in order to create the perfect lines.
Conclusion
Yes, there is a type of wool that is the best to start tufting with. Acrylic wool and soft types of yarn such as Merino and Alpaca that are not too thick. Why? These materials have a smooth feed and are light in weight, which makes them very easy going through your machine. That works well! But, in the end, you can really use a lot of types of wool. In my tufting life, I have only come across 1 type of wool that I have tried to tuft with and that did not work. It depends on your own preferences and what you want to make. Furthermore, I always think like this: have you not tried it yet? Then just try it! If it works, then it works. If it does not work? Then take it out again and use another type of wool. It is that easy. Do you have a question about a type of wool or would you like advice? I am happy to help you.