Animals, from the majestic beings that roam the wild to the domesticated ones, they have always captivated us.
For us crafters, they go one level higher and give us their protective covering to make beautiful things.
Let’s talk about the yarn that we get from animals today, shall we?
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Natural fibers are breathable and act like a thermostat. They absorb moisture keeping us cool during summer or insulate us when the mercury drops.
Natural fibres are sourced from animals or plants. We get wool and silk from animals and cotton, linen, bamboo, hemp, jute, banana fibre from plants.
Different breeds of sheep give us different wool , the softest being merino. They are elastic and give us warmth in the cold climes.
Wool is also obtained from llamas, alpacas, goats and camel.
We don’t have llamas and alpacas here in India, but we do have merino sheep and fine breed of Himalayan goats that give is beautiful wool. Cashmere is got from sheep in Kashmir region. The reason why cashmere is so expensive is because it’s the hair that is got from under the top layer and needs a lot of processing to get it in workable form for crafters.
Have you ever washed woollen in the washing machine and seen that it’s become a size small??
Taking care of woollen is cumbersome as the articles made of wool need to be hand washed in cold water and laid flat to dry. If we machine wash and dry the wool we will see a shrink in size of the article. This is due to the process called felting where the fibres fuse together.
Do we have a recourse?? Of course!!
Wool is blended with nylon to give it more strength and durability especially when it’s used for making socks. These will be marked as Supperwash which means it will not felt while washing.
However there is a special craft for felting where the finished product is felted on purpose to achieve that look.
Next up is SILK!!!
Who doesn’t love silk? The sheen, the lustre and the soft feel next to the skin!! Silk makes you feel like a million bucks!!!
It is the most luxurious fibre!. It’s obtained from silk worms. When the silk produced without harming the silkworms it’s called ahimsa silk. It is also blended with wool to give wool a nice lustre.
Remnants of silk after they are used in saree weaving are also spun together to give us recycled silk and depending on whether it’s hand spun or machine spun gives a very rustic looking fibre or a silky smooth finish.
Both wool and silk can also be hand spun using a drop spindle or a charkha. The fibre used for spinning is called sliver.Ā
Some fun facts about these natural fibres:
World’s oldest woollen clothing was found in Denmark and dated 1500 BC.
Silk was first harvested by the Chinese as early as 2700 BC.
And humans first domesticated sheep 10,000 years ago!!
Tell us your favourite project using animal fibres. What you liked about it and what you didn’t like!
India Yarn Circle 
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