Recently, I have had the opportunity to work with a very interesting blend: quiviut down (musk ox), merino, silk, and baby alpaca. This wonderfully soft blend can be found at www.CottageCraftAngora.com. This blend is very soft, though I'm not sure I can drool over it yet. I am certain it is drool-worthy, but I'm not sure why it is drool-worthy.
So I begin my journey to discover, what's so awesome about fibers.
Question 1: What is fiber?
This is pulled directly from Wikipedia:
"Animal fibers are natural fibers that consist largely of particular proteins. Instances are silk, hair/fur (including wool) and feathers. The animal fibers used most commonly both in the manufacturing world as well as by the hand spinners are wool from domestic sheep and silk. Also very popular are alpaca fiber and mohair from Angora goats. Unusual fibers such as Angora wool from rabbits and Chiengora from dogs also exist, but are rarely used for mass production.
Not all animal fibers have the same properties, and even within a species the fiber is not consistent. Merino is a very soft, fine wool, while Cotswold is coarser, and yet both merino and Cotswold are types of sheep. This comparison can be continued on the microscopic level, comparing the diameter and structure of the fiber. With animal fibers, and natural fibers in general, the individual fibers look different, whereas all synthetic fibers look the same. This provides an easy way to differentiate between natural and synthetic fibers under a microscope."
What makes fibers course or soft, fluffly or silky, is determined by the thickness of individual fibers as well as by the structure of the fiber.
Kara Heinric writes "It turns out that it doesn't matter what a garment is made of, if the fabric contains over 5% of fiber with a diameter over 30 microns, it will prickle or itch. This research also established that once the average diameter of the fiber in a fabric or sweater exceeds 22 microns, the prickle factor begins to appear as well." (http://www.neaoba.org/)
In addition to the width of fibers, the structure is important to how a fiber feels.
This image shows wool and other fibers under a microscope.
As can be seen, the outside of the fiber is scaled. These scales are the reason that some fibers create felt when agitated. The scales catch on other fibers, hooking them into place.
To aid me in my experimentation, I have purchased 5 lbs of raw alpaca fleece from Wine Country Craftsman (http://winecountrycraftsman.com/). I expect it to arrive by Monday. :) Over the next few weeks I will catalog my progress with the alpaca fleece and include a lot of additional information about fibers and why they are awesome.
