Knit, Hook, and Spin: A Kid's Activity Guide to Fiber Arts and Crafts

Knit, Hook, and Spin: A Kid's Activity Guide to Fiber Arts and Crafts — page 3 — viii small animals for food They made mats that they used as rooﬁng on their homes and for sleeping pads Listed here are the plants most commonly used in ﬁber and fabric today COTTON Cotton is a ﬂuffy ﬁber that comes from the boll or ﬂower of the cotton plant It was grown in Egypt Asia and South America for 6,000 years It was grown by Native Americans in North America and became a valuable farming product in the southern United States about 200 years ago Northern Europe ans relied on sheep’s wool because cotton plants didn’t grow well in their cold climate People there called cot ton tree wool because the ﬂuffy puffs of ﬁber looked like pieces of sheep’s wool stuck on a branch FLAX LINEN The ﬁbers of the ﬂax plant are used to make a fab ric called linen It is a lot of work to get ﬂax ready to spin The full-grown plant is pulled from the earth with the roots hanging Then a rough comb is pulled through the stem to remove the seeds The stem part is soaked in water for a few weeks until it begins to rot Then it is dried in the sun Next the ﬂax stems are beaten against a board and combed with metal combs Finally the strands can be separated from each other and spun into linen thread ready for knit ting or weaving Flax plants grow best in colder wetter climates such as northern Europe and Canada places where cotton doesn’t grow well HEMP Hemp plants have been grown for their ﬁber for about 10,000 years Hemp plants are processed like ﬂax It is a rough but strong ﬁber that was used for fabric and ship sails in the past but is mostly used to make cord rope and sacks today Synthetic ﬁbers have replaced most hemp use around the world JUTE Jute plants grow in wet warm areas with warm rains Most jute is grown in India and Bangladesh Jute plants don’t need fertilizer or insect spray and jute ﬁber is completely biodegradable Jute is used to make twine rope and sacks Jute sacks were very commonly used in the past for holding wheat beans and other farm products Today those sacks are made of plastic Jute strings are used as a backing for making carpeting but plastic is replacing it for that purpose too

Knit, Hook, and Spin: A Kid's Activity Guide to Fiber Arts and Crafts — page 4 — ix SOYBEANS Soybeans are pressed and treated to make a yarn that is soft like silk Soybean plants are ﬁeld crops grown in many parts of the world today BAMBOO Bamboo yarn is made from the cellulose ﬁber in the bamboo stalk Bamboo grows in wet tropical climates CORN Starches in corn are turned into sugars fermented and then separated into a paste that is pushed out a machine with tiny holes called a spinneret mak ing delicate strands Corn yarn feels a lot like cotton yarn but it melts very easily if it is ironed It hasn’t become popular yet Animal Fibers No one really knows when people began to use ani mal hair to make string rope and fabric People used animal hides and skins for most of their cloth ing and bedding for a long time Because hair rots away easily very little has been found in archaeo logical remains Below are some of the most common ﬁbers made from animal hair In addition to the ani mals and insects mentioned below hair from alpacas camels llamas possums and yaks can be used to make ﬁber WOOL Wool made from the hair from sheep was probably the ﬁrst ﬁber people used because they could eas ily gather it where it snagged on branches or fell on the ground That’s because sheep used to shed their hair every spring so for thousands of years people just walked around and gathered up wool where they could ﬁnd it Wool gathering was done by children as they watched over the grazing ﬂocks They would sometimes spin the wool into yarn right in the pas ture using a hand spindle Over the centuries metal working was developed and shears were invented That meant farmers began to select sheep that didn’t drop their hair and raised them instead of those that shed That’s because it was easier to gather all the wool at one time when the shearing was done Today sheep are shorn twice a year in spring and fall It doesn’t hurt them in fact having the large mass of thick hair taken off means they can run and move better It’s like getting a haircut over their whole body Shearing also keeps ﬂeas and lice from

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