Corn Fiber is an interesting fiber. I thought” OK, it’s a vegetable fiber. I have direct dyes it will dye beautifully. ” Well here is what happened when I tried. As you can see the fiber took no color at all there are a few silk pieces that clung to it as it was in the […]
Animal Rescue
Corn is a interesting plant with many uses. Corn fiber or Corn silk as it is sometimes called is actually the starch of the plant and not the silk we remove for eating. Corn fiber is produced by breaking down the starches into sugars. The carbon and other elements in these natural sugars are then used to […]
So what comes to mind when you think of silk? Usually it’s something luxurious, smooth, rich and self-indulgent. Silk is all of those things. It’s also crazy strong and dye-able. Here is what I did with my samples: I dyed both types of silk , I used both acid dyes and direct dyes in the same […]
The first thing I always tell people about silk is that it is wormspit(usually while they are petting it). I just can’t help myself. There are more than 500 species of wild silkworms in the world although only a few are used to produce cloth. The first worm I will be talking about is the […]
Alpaca dyes pretty well. Here are some examples of wool, white suri and white huacaya washed and then dyed. I used the same dyepot for all 3 fibers. Top Left suffolk wool washed, top right huacaya fiber washed, left bottom suri fiber washed. Top Row:1st picture is from left to right wool, huacaya, and […]
Alpaca fiber comes in 2 varieties suri and huacaya. Huacaya reminds me of a lanolin-free, super-soft sheep fleece. Suri reminds me of supersoft mohair or just washed soft silky hair. Washed Suri Fiber Alpaca is very soft and silky it has no lanolin but can be very dusty as alpacas like to take dust baths. […]
Mohair really does take dye very well. Here are a few examples of wool dyed and mohair dyed in the same dye bath. Mohair in the left , Wool on the right. I’ve also found it blends really well with other fibers. Spinning 100% mohair is fun depending preparation can have different results. Mohair top […]
Mohair is fabric or yarn made from the hair or wool(sometimes as it’s called) of the Angora goat. Mohair has scales like wool but they are not fully developed so they don’t felt exactly like wool does. I’ve notice that the stitches in the wool mohair blend are still perceptible. The stitches in the 100% wool blend have disappeared. There can be a […]
Cashmere dyes beautfully. It is a matt coloring as there seems little shine on cashmere. It’s so incredibley soft that I don’t think it matters. Here is what it did when I carded it. I admit I’m pretty new at carding cashmere. I’m doing more research to see if I can card it with other […]
I’ve posted about fiber goat care. So you have fiber how do you process it and what do you do with it? Cashmere goats produce a double fleece that consists of a fine, soft undercoat and much coarser outer coating of hair called guard hair. For the fine under-down to be processed further, it must be de-haired. […]
