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 5 — x making a home on their skin The hair that is cut off is called ﬂeece The ﬂeece is covered with a natural body oil called lanolin which keeps water from wetting the hair Sheep can graze comfortably in the rain because the lanolin coating on their hair keeps their skin dry In the past ﬁshermen’s sweaters were made from unwashed wool and were never laun dered The natural lanolin coating on the yarn made the sweaters waterproof and kept men dry during storms at sea Some said it helped the sweater ﬂoat like a life preserver if the man fell overboard Wool is washed today and the lanolin that is removed is used in making hand cream soap hair condition ers and many other items Check the labels on your products and you’ll probably see that you’ve been using sheep’s lanolin a by-product from the wool industry Wool hairs have tiny scales on their sides that open up like little umbrellas They also help keep the sheep dry during rainstorms When wool ﬁber gets wet the ﬁbers swell and the ends of the scales push out and open up If the wet ﬁbers are pressed and rubbed together the open scales get tangled and the ﬁbers stick together The matted material is then called felt If you use hot water and add soap the scales open up and slide together They link together and when you add pressure or rub the ﬁbers they lock together and won’t come apart Plant ﬁbers don’t have scales so they don’t mat to make felt Synthetic felt which is sold in craft stores is made by pressing and heating petroleum based ﬁber such as polyester Synthetic felt won’t unravel but it also won’t shrink or mold into shape like wool felt MOHAIR Mohair comes from mohair goats also called Angora goats They are a special breed of goat that are nearly completely covered in long curly hair that brushes the ground They originated in Turkey Today most mohair goats are raised in South Africa and Texas Mohair is shiny soft and warmer and stronger than wool CASHMERE Cashmere comes from cashmere goats A cashmere hair is very ﬁne only one-third as thick as a human hair It is very soft Cashmere goats aren’t sheared their hair is combed off the animal by hand Some hairs are short and some are long and combing it off helps separate the hairs Cashmere goats originated in the Himalaya mountains of today’s northern India

Knit, Hook, and Spin: A Kid's Activity Guide to Fiber Arts and Crafts — page 6 — xi Today most cashmere goats are raised in Mongolia and China ANGORA Angora is the very delicate and soft ﬁber that is combed off special rabbits Angora ﬁber is eight times warmer than wool It can keep you warm even when it’s wet An Angora rabbit produces about eight ounces of ﬁber a year That much ﬁber weighs about the same as two cubes of butter It is very light and ﬂuffy however so that small amount is enough to make a woman’s sweater SILK Silk farming started about 4,600 years ago in China It was a very secret and proﬁtable industry for China for centuries Silk is made from ﬁbroin which is made of digested leaves that the silkworm eats then spits out Farmed silkworms eat only mulberry tree leaves They make silk ﬁber that is pure white called Bombyx silk Wild silkworms eat cherry leaves oak leaves or mulberry leaves and their silk is darker from ivory to light brown It’s called Tussah silk Silkworms are caterpillars that eat leaves con stantly for 30 days growing 10,000 times their hatchling size Then the caterpillar ﬁnally stops eating and begins spinning its cocoon It spits out the ﬁbroin as it rotates its body about 200,000 times ending up wrapped in 800 yards of ﬁbroin thread The completed cocoon is about the size of a peanut shell Silk farmers gather the cocoons and boil them to prevent the moth from developing inside Then the silk ﬁber is pulled out of the cocoon in a long continu ous thread and wound on a bobbin Silk is one of the strongest ﬁbers on the planet Yes you could say that silk one of the ﬁnest ﬁbers is made of worm spit Check the website www wormspit com for more information about silkworms For thousands of years the Chinese government wouldn’t sell silkworms or eggs to outsiders only cloth or yarn Eventually some silkworm eggs and mul berry tree seeds were smuggled to India hidden in a Chinese princess’s headdress Two centuries later Persian missionaries smuggled silkworm eggs hidden in walking canes from China to the Roman Empire Eventually everyone ﬁgured out how silk was made But it’s so much work and the silkworms can only be fed mulberry leaves so it didn’t take hold in very many new areas There are wild silk moths in some forested areas such as the Paciﬁc Northwest in the United States but no industry has developed there

Knit, Hook, and Spin: A Kid's Activity Guide to Fiber Arts and Crafts — page 7 — xii Man-Made Fibers RAYON Rayon was the ﬁrst ﬁber created in a laboratory It is made from cellulose which is found in wood pulp made from ground-up trees It is dissolved with chemicals then squirted through a spinneret It comes out as a thread or ﬁlament Rayon threads are spun or woven to make clothing as well as used to reinforce the rubber in automobile tires Today most rayon ﬁber is made in large factories in India SYNTHETIC FIBERS Synthetic ﬁbers include acrylic polyester and nylon They are made from small molecules of chemicals found in petroleum petrochemicals They are made by a process called melt-spinning The liquid pet rochemical mix is heated then pushed through a spinneret’s tiny holes It comes out in strings of hot plastic syrup It hardens as it cools These plastic threads can then be knitted or woven to create fabric or carpet Today most synthetic ﬁber is manufactured in Southeast Asia and China There are many new ﬁbers being created now in fact they are being invented at an astonishing rate Some are made of recycled materials such as plas tic bottles blue jeans or old pieces of clothing Some are made from natural materials such as tofu liquid banana plants milk sugar cane stalks and seaweed Others are synthetics that glow in the dark or even emit music Expect more new ﬁbers in the future Maybe you will invent a new ﬁber or create one from something ordinary

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