Fiber Fool

Okay, so there are several pictures to this post, but I suspect only the spinners among you will find it to be eye candy, LOL! You’ve been warned!

Above you see a small sample of 4 different fibers along with an example of staple length. In all cases the staple length was around 4 inches. This is a great medium length that makes the fibers relatively easy to spin (keep your hands a bit further apart than the staple length when drafting for easier and smoother spinning) or easy to blend with many wools. The fibers are all in top or sliver form, meaning that the fibers have been combed and are all aligned and ready for worsted-type spinning where you do not let any twist into the drafting zone. I’ve included from left to right real tussah silk sliver, soy silk, silk latte, and natural bamboo.

I suspect this is not the highest quality Tussah silk as there appear to be noils and it is still quite gummy. The feeling of it kind of gives me the shivers like touching unfinished leather or fingernails on a chalkboard. It feels somewhat similar to combed cotton. I don’t recall the silk sliver we spun in my Intermediate spinning class to have had those properties, but that will soon be two years ago so… In sliver form the silk does not show much luster, but it has definite crimp and softness as well as light cream cast to it.

Next up is some soy silk that Rebekah kindly sent me. We had a discussion about it back in April and I had mentioned that I’d only seen it at one shop and it was very expensive (~$23 for 4 oz) so she kindly offered to send me some, then she refused reimbursement! It is very smooth and silky feeling and has a nice rich almost dulce de leche creamy color to it. It is an extruded fiber made from the by product of making tofu. As mentioned earlier, the staple length of all of these fibers is about 4 inches. There is an obvious wave to the fiber, but on closer inspection there is a bit of smaller crimp as well. It isn’t really well defined or of great definition though. You can tell just by handling it that it will lend a lot of luster and nice drape to a fiber blend.

Next up is silk latte, a fiber made from milk. I know it is an extruded fiber like the soy silk, but I have not run into any info on whether it uses waste from some other milk-made products. At first glance this fiber appears to have no crimp, but there is some slightly defined small crimp. In the form of top, the feel is much like that of the soy silk and I suspect the results of spinning or blending it would be comparable.

Last we have bamboo, which differs from the previous two fibers because it is made from plant/wood fiber in a fashion similar to rayon, tencel, and ramie. This is the whitest of the fibers and I believe there is now a white version available. This fiber also appears to have the most defined and smallest crimp of the three fibers. Like the others the staple length is about 4 inches and it is extremely soft, shiny and full of drape. I did pick up another ounce of this in carbon, a nice rich charcoal gray color.

I hope to play with small bits of these fibers on their own tonight as part of my Friday Night Spinning. I’m also itching to set up a DIY Hackle and try blending each with some wool to see how it goes (see the Spring 2007 Spin Off for more on using hackles to blend, it’ll make you want one). I’d just hand card it, but I really prefer tops for their smooth yarn when spun worsted as it allows the stitch patterning I enjoy to stand out the best. Plus, I think the properties of these fibers would be best served in a sliver/top rather than rolags or batts.