More information on protein fibers

Protein fibers dye easily with many household colors and a vinegar or citric acid mordant. Dyeing protein fibers is a great deal of fun, and easily done with food colors or unsweetened Kool-aid powder.

Sheep’s wool fibers have various amounts of crimp. This crimp is renewed whenever the wool gets wet, and gives sheep’s wool a good amount of elasticity. For this reason wool is frequently mixed with other fibers that don’t have this type of memory, including other wools like mohair, angora and alpaca, but especially with down and luxury fibers. Since mohair, angora, alpaca and all of the down fibers are also luxury fibers, this can make for more affordable fibers and yarns. While 100% alpaca or kid mohair yarns feel wonderful, they can present problems when used as the only component in sufficient yardage for an entire worsted-weight or bulky sweater. The sweater grows throughout the day’s wearing, and is really too warm to wear except outside on sub-zero days. Mix the luxury fiber with anywhere from 50 to 80% fine sheep’s wool and you have a fabric that is just as soft, much less heavy, and much more wearable than that same fiber alone. And it won’t break the budget!

Most ‘wool’ yarn that you purchase will be sheep’s wool, and most of that is merino with a Bradford count ranging between 62 and 64. Don’t be fooled into thinking that merino is merino is merino. There are at least four distinct grades of merino, and each feels very different.