indiayarncircle

PART 2 – PLANT FIBRES / YARNS

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 indiayarncircle

Hey everybody!! Hope you enjoyed reading about animal fibre based yarns! Time to deep dive into yarns we get from plant source.

Plants – food for mind soul and body!!

When we look at plants , what do we think?? It’s beautiful, it’s gives us food, it gives us our precious oxygen, right?? Plants do that and much more!! They are a wholesome entity! They not only give us a visual treat, they provide for us in more ways than one.

No today’s post isn’t a botany class but what do we crafters get from plants.. yes , yarn what else…

What??? yarn ??? We hear you!!!

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Natural fibers are breathable and act like a thermostat. They absorb moisture keeping us cool or insulate us when the mercury drops.

They can be produced organically and sustainably and give an all round feeling of well being from the producer to the wearer.

Though we say natural fibres, these have to go through a chemical process to get cleaned and dyed to get to the point where it’s usable by crafters.

Cotton, linen, bamboo, hemp, jute, banana fibre are the yarns that are produced from plants.

COTTON

Cotton is best thing you can have as a fibre source especially in the tropics. Their ability to wick moisture makes them the perfect choice for the very hot season we experience in most parts of India. We all love our cotton wearables right? From sarees to suits to dhotis it’s the first thing we reach for. Cotton yarn was not so readily available until recently!!

Until recently if we walked into a store and asked for cotton we would get the 20gm ball of cotton thread used for fine crochet work!! The thickest thread possible was anchor knitting cotton!

Since then we have a variety of 4 ply cotton yarn available to us- Laura knitting cotton, Anchor knitting cotton, unbranded cotton from Samrat stores in Pune, Raja market in Bangalore, White Rose knitting cotton from north India.

LINEN

Apart from cotton , we also have linen that is available in India for us to knit and crochet. Linen is a very sustainable fibre. The product made using linen is durable and becomes softer with every wash.

HEMP FIBRES

Hemp is one of the oldest plant to be used for it’s fibres dating as early as 4500 BC!!

Hemp is very popular in jewelry making.

BAMBOO FIBRES

Bamboo and banana fibre are usually blended with cotton and silk to make it more easy to use. 100% bamboo is also available but they are loosely plied and holds better for weaving.

JUTE

Jute is the second most important fibre next to cotton. It’s inexpensive to produce. It is blended with other fibres to make twine and rope. They are also used to make inexpensive cloth that is used for making sacks. The finer threads can also be separated to give imitation silk.

Jute is strong, durable, color and light fast fibre. It’s gaining popularity as the choice of fabric for home furnishings.

It seems only natural to want to go the eco friendly route and work with cotton and other plant based fibres more but the key factor to consider will be the cost.

Stay tuned for other alternatives to plant based fibres that are economical and more readily available and are much much easy to care for. Do drop in your comments and or questions and don’t forget to watch our YouTube channel for video on the different types of cotton available in India.

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Yarn Types

PART 1 – ANIMAL FIBRES / YARNS

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 indiayarncircle

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.

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!

All images are copyright of IndiaYarnCircle, unless otherwise mentioned. You can read our disclaimer policy here.

Yarn Types

KNOW YOUR YARNS – SERIES

July 7, 2020July 10, 2020 indiayarncircle

Hello awesome makers!!! Hope you see subscribed to our blog and enjoying reading the same!

We started off India Yarn Circle community on Instagram with “Yarn” as the theme for the month. We would love to elaborate more on that as we had many queries from rookie makers asking us about these magical things we call yarn!!

Were you as astonished as us to learn that the word “yarn” does not mean “wool”?

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Why the surprise, you ask?? Well the place where we come from , the place where we picked up our craft forms uses the word ” wool” to loosely define any yarn that we knitters and crocheters use.

So we ask the basic question –

Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, or ropemaking. Any form of long thread used for any kind of craft is largely qualified as yarn.

Imagine our wonder when we learnt that there are different categories of yarn!

Yarn can be classified broadly as

Animal based

Plant based

Synthetic or Man-made

Within each category they can be further sorted by yarn weights such as

COBWEB WEIGHT

FINGERING WEIGHT

DK WEIGHT

ARAN WEIGHT

LACE WEIGHT

SPORT WEIGHT

WORSTED WEIGHT

BULKY WEIGHT

And then there is TEXTURE!! Oh my God, textures!!

Yarns that are velvety, yarns that have feather like features, boucle yarns (yarns with loops), yarns with tiny pompons at regular intervals, yarns with strand of lurex to give it the glitter and sparkle that makes our eyes go wide!! And not to mention yarn made from tshirt!!!!

Yarns come in varied thicknesses, textures and not to mention colours. A large pallete for us to work with, for our yarn crafts!!

Is your head reeling under all these buzz words?? Fear not for we will be back to take you though this yarn maze and we will emerge on the other side, hopefully with a better understanding of the yarns we use.

Watch this space for more information about the yarns.

All images are copyright of IndiaYarnCircle, unless otherwise mentioned. You can read our disclaimer policy here.

IYC

ABOUT US – IndiaYarnCircle.

July 3, 2020July 10, 2020 indiayarncircle

India Yarn Circle is a voluntary group of makers, who have come together to create a community of people for yarn crafts. Our vision is to build a community of makers who interact, share, learn and evolve. Our ambition is to keep the craft alive, encourage people to take up all yarn crafts with ease.

Our Mission

Nuture Passion for all Yarn Crafts and Crafters !

Objective of India Yarn Circle

India Yarn Circle, has a vision to bring all makers from different facets of life closer building a strong community which laughs, cries, parties and cheers for each other. A place where makers support one another, interact, share experiences , learn and evolve. Creating this open bond and passion for yarn crafts is what builds valuable relationship and gives us a deeper sense of belonging.

Join the tribe

Create, Share , Connect and Love

#makingyarnconnections

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The IYC Team

We are a team of 12, with experience in various yarn crafts and varied skills. We are a power packed team with different professional backgrounds, however the passion for yarn crafts bind us together. You can check out their instagram profiles in the links below.

Meera Radhakrishnan

Meera an entrepreneur and passionate Crocheter, loves crafting with yarn.

Instagram Handle – @crochettalesbymeera

Sindhu R Udupa

Sindhu is a mathematics professor in love with crochet and everything related to yarn.

Instagram Handle – @cosine_crochet

Noumin.A.A

Noumin is an architect by profession, crocheter out of passion and a forever admirer of other yarn crafts.

Instagram Handle – @naore_the_blot

Vimala Vignesh

Vimala is a Crochet designer who loves to do all types of yarn crafts, teach and support all yarn crafters.

Instagram Handle – @vimalavignesh

Raveena Baskaran

Raveena is a surface pattern and jacquard designer, who loves to crochet and create art from yarns.

Instagram Handle – @yarntoart

Hema Udayakumar

HEMA is an avid crocheter who loves to explore the art to its fullest. She is also a fervent artist who experiments different yarn crafts.

Instagram Handle – @yarnfables

Meenaskshi Tiwari

As an engineer, full time crocheter and a macramé artist, Meenakshi loves all types of yarn crafts with equal passion.

Instagram Handle – @crochetmantra

Pooja Shah

Pooja is a dentist by professional, uses her free time to crochet, knit and pursue different yarn crafts .

Instagram Handle – @poojascrochet

Rosy Bakshi

Rosy, an airline company employee is enamored by all yarn crafts, but more so by crochet through which she creates magic with yarn.

Instagram Handle – @mnhcrochetcreation

Priyanka A

An entrepreneur who is an excellent crocheter and whose love for yarncrafts knows no bounds.

Instagram Handle – @craftsandcroffee17

Chandana Kiran

Chandana is a Senior management Professional, and an avid crocheter with keen interest in all forms of yarn crafts.

Instagram Handle – @naughty_knotz

Divya Bhat Baravani

Divya, an architect by profession, showcases her love for yarn crafts by designing and creating projects in crochet, while exploring other crafts like knitting, macrame and string art.

Instagram Handle – @stringtierey

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May 4, 2020July 7, 2020 indiayarncircle

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