yes, hydra they were!
but wool, like many things, has changed.
wool garments were valued for their durability, and coarser wools were more durable, and the same goes for spinning, harder (tighter) spun, (worsted vs mule) are more durable too. wools produced from coarse fiber, hard spun, were (are!) itchier.
softer wools,(like merino) looser spun (in the US these were called 'Germantown' (from Germantown PA, where there were many mills that spun wool in this style) always existed, but they are less durable.
(germantown wools were often specified for baby's stuff, they were softer, (less itch) but less durable (but then babies aren't climbing trees, or working in a feild, or doing other activies that wear out clothing!)
nowdays, while most fibers (wools, and other natural or synthetic fibers) are still spun worsted, but the actual fibers are finer, and softer (and less durable!).
but since few who wear them are fisherman, or feild hands, or doing any sort of hard work, it doesn't much matter!
Knitters can still find 'hard wearing wools', but in general the market is saturated with soft wools. even sock yarn is made from merino, (and not always spun super tight!)
as little as 50 years ago,it was cheaper to knit a sweater than to buy one, but nowdays the wool (or other natural fiber) needed to knit a sweater cost about 5 times more than the average purchase price of a sweater, (and about twice as much as the purchase price of a hand knit wool sweater, produced commercially.)
so hand knitting is an expensive way to produce garments!
(knitters buy yarn at retail, manufactorers buy yarn at wholesale, knitters (in US and other industrial area) have higher wage expectations, so even machine made knit good are expensive, (third world contries comp 'hand knitters' pennies per hour, so a hand knit sweater from china cost less to produce than the same amount of wool costs (at retail) )
there are interesting words about knitting(and google knitting, and you'll find more than 50% of the time, the word is not used in a 'fiber' context, but 'bones knitting' or communities "knitting" (coming together) or in some other way!
(google "of troy" + knitting and my blog comes up on the first page of results!)
OP
