I have been spinning yarn and weaving for over 20 years now, and one of the things that I have really enjoyed over those years has been learning about different types of natural fibers and what they are good for.

This week I thought we could do something a little different than usual and talk about a variety of fibers and their characteristics and how to make best use of those characteristics. Everything we talk about will be true for both fiber that you spin or felt with and yarn that you knit, crochet, or weave with.

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Sheep’s Wool

Let’s start with the most common natural fiber. As you probably know, the focus of Purple Lamb is on very soft fibers, so I typically just use merino, Polwarth, and occasionally Blue-Faced Leicester or BFL. However, there are hundreds of different breeds of sheep with different strengths and weaknesses.

The most common way of determining how soft a sheep’s wool is is the micron count. This is a measurement of how thick one strand of the sheep’s wool is. For comparison’s sake, the average human hair is around 70 microns thick. One millimeter is the same as 1000 microns, so it’s a pretty tiny measurement.

For sheep, the range goes from 14 microns for the finest merino all the way up to 45 for Leicester Longwool. The numbers go a lot higher if you include the outer coat of some breeds that have a softer undercoat and a coarser outer coat. Here’s a great list of 100 sheep breeds used for handspinning from Family Farm Livestock.

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My favorites are merino with a micron count between 14 and 24 and Polwarth with a micron count between about 21 and 24. Anything below 30 is considered by most to be soft enough to wear next to your skin, but if you have sensitive skin, you might be happier with a micron count below about 25, especially for something you’ll be wearing around your neck.

The merino breed was originally developed in Spain. You’ll find merino in lots of different countries now all around the world as their wool is the softest there is. The only downside of merino is that it has a fairly short staple length of between 2 and 5 inches, which makes it a little challenging for newer spinners.

My other favorite is Polwarth, which is a much newer breed that was produced in 1880 in Australia. They crossbred merino sheep with Lincoln sheep and then again with merino sheep to get a breed that was 75% merino and 25% Lincoln. Polwarth is very soft as well, but it has a longer staple length, making it easier to spin. The average staple length is longer with averages between 4 and 5 inches. Also, the ewes are excellent mothers and often have twins.

So what is staple length, you may ask? While the micron count tells how thick an individual strand of wool is, the staple length tells you how long it is. The longer the staple length, the easier to is to spin. Also to some degree, longer staple length means stronger yarn.

Given that these two are some of the softest wool breeds, why would you use anything else? Well, when it comes to something you’ll be wearing next to your skin, you might want to stick with merino and Polwarth and some of the other fibers we’ll talk about in a minute. However, there is definitely a place for every breed of sheep out there.

Remember that sweater that made you think you didn’t like wool? It was probably made of a coarser wool with a higher micron count. Lots of people think of wool as scratchy and uncomfortable, but I would contend that’s just because they have never gotten to use merino or Polwarth.

On the other hand, if you are making a rug or a coat, you will probably want to use a much sturdier wool. For these purposes, it’s more important for the wool to be strong and sturdy than it is for it to be soft, right? That’s where Jacob or Cotwold or Lincoln or Navajo-Churro breeds come in. These have a nice long staple length and a higher micron count. For a woven rug, there’s an additional factor to take into account. Rugs are typically woven under high tension, so the warp (the up and down part in weaving) needs to be strong enough to handle that tension and the abrasion that happens under high tension as well.

But sheep’s wool is just one of many different kinds of natural fibers. Let’s talk about some of the other types.

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Camelid Fibers

Camelid fibers are animals related to camels. That includes camels themselves as well as llamas, alpacas, and vicuna. The outer coat of a camel is certainly not soft, but like some sheep breeds, the undercoat is extremely soft and lovely, especially the undercoat of baby camels. Also, all the camelid animals produce fiber with a hollow core, making it incredibly warm.

Llama fiber varies a lot in terms of softness. One of the big issues with llama fiber is the amount of guard hairs. Guard hairs are thicker and less soft fibers that grow alongside the softer fibers, so if the particular llama has a lot of guard hairs or if the guard hairs have not been removed when the fleece is processed, it’s less soft.

Vicuna have some of the finest fiber in the world and a price tag to match. That is partly because vicuna only produce about a pound of fiber per year whereas a merino sheep produces between 7 and 40 pounds per year!

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My personal favorite camelid fiber is the alpaca. Besides the fact that the animals are adorable and look like teddy bears with long necks, the fiber is dreamy. There are two types of alpaca–suri and huacaya. Suri has long locks with wonderful drape and a silky texture. Huacaya on the other hand is more woolly. Here’s a video from the Butterfield Alpaca Ranch explaining and showing the differences between Suri and Huacaya.

Royal alpaca is incredibly soft with a micron count below 18. Baby alpaca is the next grade with micron counts between 18 and 21, so still very soft. Something I did not know until I was researching for this article today is that the term baby alpaca has nothing to do with the age of the animal and really only refers to the softness of the fiber. Here’s the article talking about that from Victoria Merchant Knits.

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As I mentioned above, all the camelid fibers have a hollow core, making them highly insulative and about 7 times warmer than sheep wool! Like everything else, that has advantages and disadvantages depending on where you are and what your goals are. Because of that and because I live in Texas and not Alaska, I tend to like to use baby alpaca and baby camel down blended with other fibers.

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Angora from Angora Rabbits

Another fiber with a hollow core is angora from angora rabbits. There are quite a few different angora rabbit breeds, but the four that are recognized by the National Angora Rabbit Breeders’ Association are French, English, Giant, and Satin. The different breeds produce different amounts of wool each year, and like llamas most have guard hair, which can change the softness of the wool quite a bit. The exception to the rule about guard hair is the English Angora, which has no guard hair and a furry face. It doesn’t produce a lot, but it sure is cute!

The other main breed of angora rabbits is German, which produces the most wool in a year. If you ever bought an angora sweater commercially, chances are it came from a German angora. While most of the other breeds are plucked or brushed as they naturally shed, German angoras have been bred not to shed. Instead they are shorn like sheep and many other fiber animals. Also, German angoras only come in white while the other breeds come in a variety of colors including grey, brown, reddish brown, and white.

Years ago, we had French angora rabbits. Here is Lily, who was such a great mother and such a beautiful color too:

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Here is Odysseus who was so sweet and chill:

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Here is Penelope enjoying some supervised outdoor time:

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Just like alpaca, the hollow core makes angora very, very warm, and it has a characteristic halo that is really delightful. Because of that, I prefer to use just 10% to 20% when I use it. A little goes a long way, which is good because they require a lot of care, and so the fiber tends to be on the expensive end. It’s a little tricky to spin on its own until you get used to it but easier to spin blended with other fibers.

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Mohair from Angora Goats

The next fiber I want to talk about is mohair. Angora goats produce beautiful curly lustrous locks called mohair. Their wool is very strong and very shiny. Like alpaca and really all fiber animals to some degree, the wool from the baby goats is the softest. In the case of mohair, though, the difference between baby and adult fiber is more marked than most. While the mohair from kid goats ranges from 24 microns to about 28 microns, the mohair from adult angora goats is in the range of 35 to 39.

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I use kid mohair locks in some of my art batts and love the delightful texture they give. However, I personally don’t like the feel of mohair for next-to-skin projects, and I know that a lot of people find it itchy, which is why I carry Suri Lace Alpaca instead of the brushed kid mohair that has been so popular for the last few years.

As I said before, every fiber has its place, and adult mohair is no exception. Many of the finest oriental rugs are made using mohair fiber because of its extraordinary strength and luster.

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Cashmere

The other goat fiber is cashmere, which comes from the undercoat of cashmere goats. It is very soft at 14 to 19 microns. It is also extremely warm like alpaca and angora, making it great for blending with other fibers.

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Silk

Silk is the epitome of softness. It is also extraordinarily strong with a very very long staple length. In fact, depending on how it is produced, one strand of silk is unwound from an entire cocoon. There are several different types of silk. Probably the one you think of when you think of silk is called mulberry or bombyx silk. This comes from silk worms that only eat mulberry leaves. It is bright white, strong, and, well, really silky. The micron count is a very low 10 to 14! I use mulberry silk in some of my yarn bases and my art batts.

Tussah silk, on the other hand, comes from silk worms that are wild. That just means they eat whatever they eat, and the fiber is a light brown or honey color. Sometimes it comes bleached. It is not as soft as mulberry silk, but it’s still soft and silky. The micron count of tussah silk is considerably higher at 20 to 24.

Muga silk is something very special. It comes from silk worms from the Assam region of India, and the fiber is a beautiful gold color naturally. It has a micron count of about 12 to 14, and the color gets more intense over time. Until fairly recently, it was worn only by the nobility. I use muga silk in my art batts.

The last type of silk I want to mention is called Eri silk or peace silk. It also comes from the Assam region of India, but it is produced without killing the silk worms. They allow the worms to leave the cocoon as moths before using the silk. The upside is that the moth gets to live. The downside is that that leaves a big hole in the cocoon, so the silk is no longer one long strand but broken into pieces. It’s a beautiful yellow color naturally.

For spinning, you can get silk fiber as top, as bricks, and as silk hankies. For my art batts, I prefer getting it as top so I can blend it in with other fibers most easily. Brick is similar to top, but it’s a lot thicker. For using it alone, silk hankies are a great option because they can be used in so many different creative ways–spinning from the hankies or even knitting directly from them. Each silk hanky is one cocoon, and an average cocoon has about 400 yards of silk thread!

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Cellulose Fibers

Cellulose fibers include all the fibers that come from plants and not animals. This includes linen, cotton, and bamboo. There are even fibers that come from banana plants and mint plants and seaweed, but I’m just going to talk about the more common ones here.

Linen comes from the flax plant. It has been spun since ancient times and is traditionally spun using a distaff to hold the fiber that is going to be spun. Here is a blog post by Cindy Conner about the process of spinning flax into linen, and here is a video from the ever-delightful Jillian Eve on how to spin flax the old-fashioned way:

Linen has wonderful crispness, and it’s very breathable, making it great to wear in the summer. However, it also wrinkles like nothing else, and it’s not really that soft.

Another very common cellulose fiber is cotton. No one really needs an introduction to cotton. It’s very absorbent, which makes it great to wear in the summer and to use for things like towels and washcloths. It’s actually quite soft with a micron count between 11 and 22; however, it doesn’t feel as soft to knit or spin because it has no stretch to it. Cotton has a very short staple length of just 1/2 inch to 1 inch, making it tricky to spin. If you want to knit with cotton and you have been knitting with protein fibers, here’s a great video from Barbara Benson of Tumped Duck about knitting with cotton:

The other cellulose fiber I want to mention is viscose bamboo. It has a micron count between around 18 and 20, and it feels very silky. Like silk, it has a very long staple length. I use a lot of bamboo in my art batts.

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Memory versus Drape

One of the things that is important to think about for all fibers is the question of memory versus drape. Think of memory and drape as the opposite ends of a spectrum. Some fibers have one, some have the other, and some have less of one and more of the other. Memory or elasticity is the ability of a fiber to bounce back into shape, and sheep’s wool does this beautifully. Alpaca and mohair have some memory but not as much. Most of the other fibers we have talked about have very little memory, but they have great drape. Drape is the ability of a fiber to hang nicely under its own weight. Silk and bamboo have great drape but hardly any memory.

All of that means that if you are making socks, you want to use a fiber with great memory so your socks stay up and don’t sag. If you’re making a lacy shawl, you want to use a fiber with great drape so that the lace opens up nicely and hangs beautifully. Like everything related to fiber arts, there’s lots of in between. While you probably wouldn’t want to make a sweater out of pure silk or pure alpaca because it would tend to grow, you might want to make it using a blend of silk and wool or alpaca, silk, and wool. With that last blend, you’d have the warmth of alpaca, the strength and luster of silk, and the memory of wool. What could be better?

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Superwash versus Non-Superwash

While we’re on the topic of memory and drape, there’s one more factor to take into account when you are choosing fiber for a particular purpose, and that is the question of superwash wool versus non-superwash wool. To the best of my knowledge, only sheep’s wool is treated in a way that makes it superwash, so this question only refers to that and not to other fibers. Here too, there’s no single right answer. The answer as to whether to use superwash or non-superwash wool depends on what you’re making and for whom.

Non-superwash wool has tiny microscopic “velcro” on it, which makes it possible for it to felt or full. Fulling is a step on the way to felting that makes the fabric tighter and thicker, so weavers now and in the past would weave loose wool cloth and then full it to make it thicker and more solid.

Also, felters can use the nature of wool to create beautiful felt garments and art.

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On the other hand, if you have ever accidentally put a non-superwash wool sweater in the washer and dryer and turned it into a miniature of the original, you’ll know what the downside of non-superwash wool is.

That’s where superwash comes in. The superwash process removes the “velcro” from wool, making it so that it can’t felt and greatly lessening the chances of it shrinking.

Are there any downsides to superwash? Well, yes. The superwash process decreases the memory of wool to some degree. If you’re making a shawl, you probably won’t even notice. If you’re making socks, the decrease in memory may be worth it for the advantage of being able to wash your socks in the washing machine. If you’re making a sweater, though, you may find that it sags a little under its own weight in a way that wouldn’t happen with non-superwash wool.

So if you are making a sweater for yourself and you know that no one in your household is going to toss it in the washer and shrink it, you might decide to use a non-superwash wool for your sweater. On the other hand, if you are making a sweater for your grandson or your niece, you might go for superwash. It’s less likely to be an issue for a smaller garment than it is for a larger one in any case, so you don’t really have to worry about it when it comes to hats, cowls, and garments for young children.

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Summing Up

I hope you’ve learned something new about all the different natural fibers and their pros and cons. If I could leave you with one thought, it’s that there is no best fiber and that every natural fiber has its place and purpose. The best fiber depends on what you’re making and who you are making it for.

I would be happy to talk about other fibery topics, so if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

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Fresh from the Dye Pots

This week I have been dyeing up a number of dyed to order skeins from the new dyed to order section of my shop. While dyeing the special orders, I dyed more of the same colorway at the same time. This week I have Peacock Eyes on Stained Glass Sock here:

I also dyed a little more of Monet’s Water Lilies on Stained Glass Sock as well. Here it is with Lilac:

I dyed Epiphany as well on several yarn bases. Here it is on Sock Perfection:

I think that’s everything for this week. Have a wonderful week, and I’ll see you next Friday!