The Irish have always been known for the wide range of clothing and accessories they make out of the excellent wool found in Ireland and beyond.  An Irish wool gift is such a cozy and warm gift to give to a friend or family member that they are hard to resist.

Find Irish Wool Gifts Here

Irish wool gifts can be scarves, socks, hats, shawls, throws, capes or sweaters.  The wool itself may come from a variety of sheep or areas, or it may be pure Merino wool or even lamb’s wool.  Not all of the wool necessarily comes from Ireland, but the weavers there are well known for their excellent skills.

Merino Wool

Merino sheep are prized for their wool.  They are a type of sheep that are easy and economical to raise, and they have what is considered the softest wool of any sheep. These sheep are breed mostly for their wool and its wool is a very finely crimped type.  Of course there are different types of Merino sheep, and they produce different types of wool.  Some have what is called ultra-fine wool, which may be later blended with silk and cashmere, or even possum fir.

Merino sheep were originally a product of Spain.  Merino sheep are the most prevalent sheep for wool in Australia, the United States, New Zealand, Argentina and South Africa.  Most of the world wide Merino wool used to make gifts such as Irish wool gifts comes from Australia.

Irish Wool

Wool production in Ireland is growing and there are several classifications of wool used for making Irish wool gifts.  There are the short wool breeds such as Suffolk and Down, the long wool breeds such as Galway and Border Leicester and the mountain breeds such as Wicklow Cheviot and Blackface Mountain.  Different breeds are suitable to different areas of Ireland, and many locals prefer one type over another for its hardiness in their area.

Wool is very important in Ireland as it has economic value to the country and it also helps produce products that keep the people themselves in warm clothing, being a relatively rainy and harsh country in many areas.  Sheep’s wool can absorb 33 percent of water and so it is great for keeping warm and dry.  In the 1600’s a type of cloth called frieze was made and used for clothing in Ireland, so wool has played a long role in the history of Irish wool products.

As popular as ever are several Irish gifts made from Irish wool.  Sweaters are probably thought of first, and perhaps scarves and hats second.  But you can find very warm socks, the common Irish hat we all know, babies clothing and several types of shawls fairly easily.  Visiting any Irish gift shop will reveal a variety of Irish wool gifts that will please any person on your list.  As well, you can find many wool products at Celtic festivals and even more online.  So the next time you are in the market for a gift consider an Irish wool gift even if the recipient of the gift isn’t even Irish.  The quality of Irish wool products is top notch and well worth the price as well as being a unique Irish gift.

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Would you like to browse more high quality unique Irish gifts? There are a lot more to be found in our Unique and Huge Irish store.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 21st, 2009 at 1:04 am and is filed under Irish gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.