Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the most expensive type of wool?
The vicuña (Vicugna vicugna) or vicuna[2] (both /vɪˈkuːnjə/, very rarely spelled vicugna, which is actually the name of its genus)[3][4] is one of the two wild South American camelids which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes, the other being the guanaco. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas, which are raised for their coats. Vicuñas produce small amounts of extremely fine wool, which is very expensive because the animal can only be shorn every three years, and has to be caught from the wild. When knitted together, the product of the vicuña's wool is very soft and warm. The Inca valued vicuñas highly for their wool, and it was against the law for anyone but royalty to wear vicuña garments; today the vicuña is the national animal of Peru and appears in the Peruvian coat of arms.
Lightweight white, solid-color or printed plain weave, satin weave, or flannel cotton or cotton/polyester blends are the most common types of sheeting, although linen and silk may also be used, including in combination. Goose or duck down and other feathers are frequently used as a warm and lightweight filling in duvets, comforters and quilts. But such fill can protrude in part even from tightly-woven fabric, and be an irritant for many people, particularly those with allergies. Natural and synthetic down alternatives are marketed. Cotton, wool or polyester batting is commonly used as fill in quilts and down alternative comforters. These are less expensive and more easily laundered than natural down or feathers. Synthetic fibers are best in the form of thermofused (where fibers cross) batting. Thick-woven or knitted wool, cotton, acrylic or other microfiber synthetics, or blends of these, are typically used for blankets.
Wool on wool (wool pile on wool warp and weft): This is the most traditional type of Anatolian rug. Wool on wool carpet weaving dates back further and utilizes more traditional design motifs than its counterparts. Because wool cannot be spun extra finely, the knot count is often not as high as seen in a "wool on cotton" or "silk on silk" rug. Wool on wool carpets are more frequently attributed to tribal or nomadic production.
A Poncho chilote is type of woolen poncho originating from southern Chile and usually associated with Chiloé Archipelago. The Poncho chilote is of simple design, most often it features stripes of white (uncoloured), grey and brown colours. The wool used is of medium to coarse yarn of raw wool. In early colonial and pre-Hispanic times the wool of chilihueques was used instead to that of sheep. While more heavy than ponchos used in central Chile and the Pampas the Poncho chilote is warmer and maintain its warmth even if it gets wet. 
Kaowool is a type of high-temperature mineral wool made from the mineral kaolin. It was one of the first types of high-temperature mineral wool invented and has been used into the 21st century. It can withstand temperatures close to .
Sheep wool is the most frequently used pile material in a Turkish rug because it is soft, durable, easy to work with and not too expensive. It is less susceptible to dirt than cotton, does not react electrostatically, and insulates against both heat and cold. This combination of characteristics is not found in other natural fibers. Wool comes from the coats of sheep. Natural wool comes in colors of white, brown, fawn, yellow and gray, which are sometimes used directly without going through a dyeing process. Sheep wool also takes dyes well. Traditionally, wool used for Turkish carpets is spun by hand. Before the yarn can be used for weaving, several strands have to be twisted together for additional strength.
Fibrous materials are made by tiny diameter fibers which evenly distribute the airspace. The commonly used materials are silica, glass, rock wool, and slag wool. Glass fiber and mineral wool are two insulation materials that are most widely used in this type.
High-temperature mineral wool is a type of mineral wool created for use as high-temperature insulation and generally defined as being resistant to temperatures above 1,000 °C. This type of insulation is usually used in industrial furnaces and foundries. Because high-temperature mineral wool is costly to produce and has limited availability, it is almost exclusively used in high-temperature industrial applications and processes.
The creation of Harris Tweed begins with fleeces of pure virgin wools which are sheared from Cheviot and Scottish Blackface sheep. Although most of the wool is grown principally on the Scottish and UK mainland, in the early summer the island communities still join together to round up and shear the local sheep to add to the mix. The two types of wool are blended together to gain the advantages of their unique qualities and characteristics
The station has consistently produced quality wool attracting high prices, at a wool sale in Perth in 1927 a small star lot of super combing sold from the station was sold for 28½d per pound, the most expensive at the sale.
The domestic sheep is a multi-purpose animal, and the more than 200 breeds now in existence were created to serve these diverse purposes. Some sources give a count of a thousand or more breeds, but these numbers cannot be verified, according to some sources. However, several hundred breeds of sheep have been identified by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), with the estimated number varying somewhat from time to time: e.g. 863 breeds as of 1993, 1314 breeds as of 1995 and 1229 breeds as of 2006. (These numbers exclude extinct breeds, which are also tallied by the FAO.) For the purpose of such tallies, the FAO definition of a breed is "either a subspecific group of domestic livestock with definable and identifiable external characteristics that enable it to be separated by visual appraisal from other similarly defined groups within the same species or a group for which geographical and/or cultural separation from phenotypically similar groups has led to acceptance of its separate identity." Almost all sheep are classified as being best suited to furnishing a certain product: wool, meat, milk, hides, or a combination in a dual-purpose breed. Other features used when classifying sheep include face color (generally white or black), tail length, presence or lack of horns, and the topography for which the breed has been developed. This last point is especially stressed in the UK, where breeds are described as either upland (hill or mountain) or lowland breeds. A sheep may also be of a fat-tailed type, which is a dual-purpose sheep common in Africa and Asia with larger deposits of fat within and around its tail.
Breeds are often categorized by the type of their wool. Fine wool breeds are those that have wool of great crimp and density, which are preferred for textiles. Most of these were derived from Merino sheep, and the breed continues to dominate the world sheep industry. Downs breeds have wool between the extremes, and are typically fast-growing meat and ram breeds with dark faces. Some major medium wool breeds, such as the Corriedale, are dual-purpose crosses of long and fine-wooled breeds and were created for high-production commercial flocks. Long wool breeds are the largest of sheep, with long wool and a slow rate of growth. Long wool sheep are most valued for crossbreeding to improve the attributes of other sheep types. For example: the American Columbia breed was developed by crossing Lincoln rams (a long wool breed) with fine-wooled Rambouillet ewes.
Boiled wool is a type of felted wool, and is similar to non-woven wool felt. These processes date at least as far back as the Middle Ages. The word "felt" itself comes from West Germanic "feltaz". Boiled/felted wool is characteristic of the traditional textiles of South America and Tyrolean Austria. It is produced industrially around the world.
The Salish Wool Dog or Comox dog is an extinct breed of white, long-haired, Spitz-type dog that was developed and bred by the native peoples of what is now Washington State and British Columbia.
What makes wool a unique product is that it is essentially flame resistant. The combination of sulfur and nitrogen provides a blend of materials that provide a flame-resistant product. The reason wool is used for many types of heat protection is that it has a low ignition temperature. This is defined as the temperature in which an item will produce a flame. Wool can be heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit before the igniting of this fabric. Even when the fabric comes in contact with flames it does not disseminate the flame. This provides an even greater protective quality with the wool's low ignition temperature and the inability for flames to spread throughout the fiber. When wool is heated to a certain degree, it begins to "char" on the outside. This can provide a protective outer layer on the outside fabric. When the char on the outside of the fabric is consistent with the original properties of the wool, it can produce a safer version of the product. When the heat is directly applied to the fabric, the "char" forms a semi-liquid state which can be wiped off the fabric providing no evidence of the heat contact.
William Greville (died 1 October 1401) ("alias" Grevel, Graville, Grevill, etc.), of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire and a Citizen of the City of London, was a prominent wool-merchant and is the ancestor of the present Greville Earls of Warwick. The Latin inscription on his ledger stone in Chipping Campden Church, which he rebuilt at his own expense, describes him as "flos mercatorum lanar(iorum) tocius (totius) Angli(a)e", "the flower of the wool-merchants of all England". This language is reminiscent of that used to describe certain prominent knights such as Edward, the Black Prince (d.1376) who was described by Froissart (d. circa 1405) as "la fleur de toutte chevalerie dou monde" ("the flower of all chivalry of the world") and was likely intended to suggest a degree of equivalence between mercantile and martial activities". He was amongst the richest and most influential wool merchants of his era and was the leading purchaser of wool from the Cotswold Hills.
Many types of blanket material, such as wool, are used because they are thicker and have more substantial fabric to them, but cotton can also be used for light blankets. Wool blankets are warmer and also relatively slow to burn compared to cotton. The most common types of blankets are woven acrylic, knitted polyester, mink, cotton, fleece and wool. Blankets also come with exotic crafting and exotic material such as crocheted afghan or a silk covering. The term blanket is often interchanged with comforter, quilt, and duvet, as they all have similar uses.
Following the skirting of the fleece, it is folded, rolled and examined for its quality in a process known as wool classing, which is performed by a registered and qualified wool classer. Based on its type, the fleece is placed into the relevant wool bin ready to be pressed (mechanically compressed) when there is sufficient wool to make a wool bale.
Billiard cloth (sometimes erroneously called felt) is a specific type of cloth that covers the top of the table's "playing area". Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21–24-ounce billiard cloth (although some less expensive 19-ounce cloths are available) which is most often green in colour (representing the grass of the original lawn games that billiards evolved from), and consists of either a woven wool or wool-nylon blend called baize.
Carding of wool can either be done "in the grease" or not, depending on the type of machine and on the spinner's preference. "In the grease" means that the lanolin that naturally comes with the wool has not been washed out, leaving the wool with a slightly greasy feel. The large drum carders do not tend to get along well with lanolin, so most commercial worsted and woollen mills wash the wool before carding. Hand carders (and small drum carders too, though the directions may not recommend it) can be used to card lanolin rich wool.
Staple length generally determines the end use of wool, that is, whether it will be used in weaving or knitting. The longer wools, generally around 51 mm and longer and called combing types, are processed to worsted yarn. Short-stapled wools are more profitably used in the woollen section where high-grade material may be produced from superfine wool. 
Ancient Greek clothing was made with silk, linen and wool. However, linen was the most common fiber due to the hot climate. The production of fabric was a long and tedious process; making ready-made clothing was expensive. It was socially accepted that textile making was primarily women's responsibility, and the production of high quality textiles was regarded as an accomplishment for women of high status. The most expensive textile was finely woven linen and very soft wool. The linen was almost transparent, as the Greeks had no problem showing off their body. Less expensive and more commonly used was the linen cloth woven from the flax plant soaked in olive oil. Peasants wore coarse wool. Once made, the cloth was rarely cut. The seamless rectangles of fabric were draped on the body in various ways with little sewing involved. The fabric could be crinkled or pleated to give the garment more fullness, as the more fabric one wore, the wealthier they appeared. 
Another way of showing wealth was to dye their fabrics. People used to think the Greeks wore only white because the recovered statues from this time showed white drapery. However, they later discovered that the artwork had probably been painted and that the garments the Greeks wore were actually quite colorful. Wealthy aristocrats had purple clothes as purple dye was the most difficult to get. Yellow was a common dye for the average citizen, and warriors wore red- so as not to see blood when wounded. Peasants usually dyed their clothes greens, browns, and grays as it was cheaper but mostly stuck to whites and natural colors.
Wool has excellent durability, can be dyed easily and is fairly abundant. When blended with synthetic fibres such as nylon the durability of wool is increased. Blended wool yarns are extensively used in production of modern carpet, with the most common blend being 80% wool to 20% synthetic fibre, giving rise to the term "80/20". Wool is relatively expensive and consequently it only comprises a small portion of the market.
Wool refers to the hair of the domestic goat or sheep, which is distinguished from other types of animal hair in that the individual strands are coated with scales and tightly crimped, and the wool as a whole is coated with a wax mixture known as lanolin (sometimes called wool grease), which is waterproof and dirtproof. Woollen refers to a bulkier yarn produced from carded, non-parallel fibre, while worsted refers to a finer yarn spun from longer fibres which have been combed to be parallel. Wool is commonly used for warm clothing. Cashmere, the hair of the Indian cashmere goat, and mohair, the hair of the North African angora goat, are types of wool known for their softness.
Kullu shawls are mostly made of three types of wool: Merino wool, Angora wool and Local sheep wool. These different kinds of wools are sometimes used combined to make more varieties. Designs patterns are mostly geometric shapes with few exceptions where floral designs are used.
The Siberian sable coats are the most expensive fur clothing. They come in seven different shades depending on which region of Siberia the fur is taken from and what season the sables were hunted. The high head fur of the sable has the darkest color, a dark blue-ish black that is the most expensive type of sable fur. The normal head coloring has blackish brown to dark blue fur. Most sable fur is light chestnut blue at the roots and yellow sand at the ends. Barguzinskiy sable coats sell for around $80,000 (about 2,550,280 rubles).