Fiber 101

Let’s talk about the raw stuff of fabric, whether that fabric be woven, knitted, crocheted or felted. At public demonstrations I often comment that “everything starts with the yarn.” That’s absolutely true. And a good understanding of how a yarn is made, and from what, will let you know the best fiber to choose and how to care for the article made from the resulting yarn.

First, let’s define some terms:
Fiber is the raw stuff – straight from the animal or plant.
Yarn is the spun fiber; the difference is in the added twist from the spinning process. That twist gives the needed friction to extend short fibers into long yarn.
A textile is the finished fabric, either knitted or crocheted to shape or as knitted, crocheted or woven yardage to be cut and sewn.

Fibers fall into two main categories – natural and man-made. There are some exciting new fibers that are probably best categorized as recycled, and we’ll talk about those later. The vast majority of our clothing and household textiles are still made from either cotton, wool, linen or silk or some combination of these with a man-made fiber. Where do these natural fibers come from and why are they chosen for a particular fabric? We’ll explore the differences and choices.

Within the two main categories of natural and man-made fibers are sub-categories. Natural fibers have two sub-categories – protein fibers and cellulose fibers. Generally speaking, protein fibers come from animals and cellulose fibers from plants. Man-made fibers also have two main sub-categories – petroleum derivatives and recycled fibers.

We will talk about all of these fibers in the next blogs.