Knit & Crochet Before the Yarn

Have you ever stopped to consider your yarn?  What is it?  How did it get into this usable form that we love?

Yarn, whether it's animal based, plant based, or petroleum based, is made of fiber that are spun. They are all treated roughly the same after a certain point.  

Animal based yarns are almost always made from the hair that is combed from, cut from or shed by the animal in question.  The only exception I can come up with is silk which is from silk worms.  The part used is the cocoon.  All animal fibers must be cleaned from veg matter.  Veg matter is bits of twigs, weeds, seeds and any other plant matter that becomes stuck in the hair as well as more unsavory items which we won't go into.  This last part is usually cut off in a process called skirting.

Plant based are actual parts of the plant.  I have not done much with plant fibers on the processing side.  I have done quite a bit with cotton on the knit, crochet, sewing and quilting sides. I'm working with linen and hemp.  I'd like to try other plant fibers but finding them locally is not so easy.  The plants are prepared according to their type which varies due to the part of the plant used.

The petroleum based yarns might have been originally mixed in test tubes but they are now mixed in vats.  These are designed to mimic various plant or animal yarn characteristics. The chemicals are mixed and fibers are created.

Now is the time when all varieties are treated the same, more or less.  The fibers or hairs are combed as needed to align them all nice and neat.  Now depending on the final yarn you are looking for, the fibers are separated into smaller and smaller sections (called pre-drafting, I think) and twist them.  This is spinning.  It can be done by drop spindle, foot powered spinning wheel or electric spinning wheel or in a commercial setting on huge machines that do multiple strands at a time.  The twisted fiber is wrapped on the shaft of the drop spindle or onto a bobbin on the spinning wheel.  This is called a singles.  Yes with an s.  Multiple singles are still called singles.  I don't know why.  I'm a beginner and have not asked all my questions yet to my teacher.  However, the twist creates friction on the fibers helping them to not just float apart.  To create even stronger yarn the singles can be combined with more singles and then they become plies.  Plies are twisted together in the opposite direction of the singles twist.  This makes the yarn stronger and helps prevent breaking.

So, in addition to purchasing new yarn or reclaiming yarn from finished garments that don't fit or flatter you, you can create your own from fibers from animals and plants.  The petroleum based fibers are not available to the home spinner, that I have found.  I don't know if we'd want to spin them if they were.  But I don't know that for sure.  All I can say is I wouldn't want to utilize them.