Pages

Friday, July 30, 2010

Things you Never Needed to Know

Qiviut is a word from the Inuit language meaning underwool of the Oomingmak. It is 8 times warmer than wool. Qiviut doesn't shrink or felt but dyes. It doesn't have a natural elasticity like wool.
Elasticity comes from a fiber that has a natural crimp (the individual hairs have an even wave, appearing as if they just had a perm). The more crimp per inch, the more elastic the yarn.

Alpaca also doesn't have the elasticity of wool. To get a more elastic yarn mix alpaca with 20 to 50 percent wool. On the other hand, alpaca is 5 times warmer than sheep's wool. Alpaca comes naturally off the cute little friendly alpaca in 22 colors that can be mixed and dyed. Taking raw alpaca fiber to processed, you retain 85-95% of the fleece compared to 50-75% of wool fiber.

Camelids and oxen (alpaca and qiviut) contain no lanolin so that doesn't have to be removed during processing.

Camels have a super soft coat producing super soft yarn. And they molt their entire undercoat every spring so you don't even have to shear them. Wonder where I can get camels???
Goats - cashmere is very hard on the earth, mohair isn't.

Camelids (alpaca) yarn doesn't pill.

As for dogs and cats: it is not the length of fiber that determines how well it will spin into yarn, but the diameter of the individual hairs. The finer the fiber, the softer the yarn. Dog and cat yarn will felt.

The word yarn showed up meaning “spun fiber” back in Old English before the arrival of the Norman invaders a thousand years ago. This means it was from a Germanic root.

The moths that eat your wool items will also eat your silk ones.

1 comment:

Teresa said...

You sent me a link, is that where we are getting our alpaca processed? And do you want to add what I have here to the mix? If not maybe I could send it to you and we could have it processed also?