Learn to Knit from a Master!

Man’s attempt to create artificial silk resulted in rayon in 1924.  Cellulosic plant material is processed in a chemical bath into a liquit, extruded and hardened into fibers.  It is then cut, carded, combed and spun.

Today’s Rayon knitting yarn is mostly made from wood pulp.  The fiber is soft, takes dye wonderfully, and has a lustrous silk-like shine and drape.  The fibers are smooth and firm, but do not have much elasticity.

Modal is a brand name of rayon made from Beech trees.  Lyocell (trademark name Tencel) is another brand of rayon.

Acetate started out as an ircraft varnish in WWI, and as a naterial for motion-picture film.  Acetate comes from regenerated cotton or tree pulp, but is different than rayon in that it begins and ends as cellulose acetate, and is not processed further.

These fibers are now found blended with natural fibers to add their strength, shine and drape.  Yarns made of these blends have the best of all fibers.  Many cottons are blended with Tencel or Modal to lighten them so a sweater is not so heavy.

Blends, blends, blends!!

Cotton isn’t the only cellulose fiber we use.  Consider linen.  Linen comes from the flax plant.  The stems are seeded, soaked for weeks, dried, beaten, and then combed to reveal a strong, lustrous fiber.

Linen is a hard fiber, but softens with use and washing.  It is strong, takes up dyes wonderfully, resists fading, and lasts forever!  Items knit with linen yarn don’t wrinkle like items woven from linen.

It wicks away moisture like cotton.  Linen has no elasticity, but boasts beautiful drape and strength.

Hemp is another cellulose fiber we use in knitting.   The current plants used for fiber have had all the ‘medicinal’ qualities bread out.

Hemp has the same qualities as linen.  Most people think of rope when they hear hemp.

Blends of other fibers with linen or hemp added get the benefit of the strength of this fiber.  These are great fibers for knitting shopping bags!

From the animal kingdom, we now move to the plant kingdom.  Cellulose is the king here.

Cellulose is the structural part of the cell walls of green plants.  Cotton fibers are 95% cellulose, making them thick and srong, even stronger than wool.  The fibers absorb more than 20% of their weight in water, and release it through evaporation, wicking the moisture away from you.

When the cotton fibers are picked, they dry, collapse, and twist around themselves, like a vanilla bean twists.  The fibers are then carded, and sometimes combed, before they’re spun into yarn.

Cotton fibers are heavy and dense, and make for heavy garments that can droop out of shape.  They also have little elasticity, so they don’t rebound like wool.

Mercerized cotton has undergone a chemical process that strengthens the fiber, makes it shiny and more receptive to dye.

Blends of cotton with wool, silk, or manmade viscose “rayons’ can lighten the fiber.  These blends knit up into garments not so heavy and prone to drooping.  A little wool will add elasticity as well.

Can you believe a little worm (more like a caterpillar, actually) is responsible for one of the most gorgerous fibers out there?  Silkworms make a cocoon after they’ve eaten all they can, and as they’re ready to turn into a moth.  This cocoon is our silk fiber.  Amazing.

Making a fiber  and then fabric from the silkworm cocoon started, it is believed, in China about 2600 BC. 

As the silkworm begins to prepare its cocoon, it secretes fibroin and rotates as it goes, creating a continuous fiber of about 800 yards.  The finished cocoon is about the size of a peanut shell.

The cocoons are gathered, and then stifled (exposed to heat to kill the worm), then soaked to soften the fiber, and unreeled, or unwound, into one long thread.

The most common silkworm is the Bombys Mori, which feeds only on Mulberry leaves.  The fiber from their cocoons is Bombyx silk, and is a brilliant white as Mulberry leaves have no tannins which could color the silk.

Silk is not a true fiber, in that it isn’t ‘grown.’  It is a protein fluid created by the silkworm, and looks a lot like a long glass rod under the microscope.

There are three types of silk.  Reeled silk is the finest.  It’s make of continuous silk threads twisted together, but is reserved mostly for industrial uses.    Spun silk is the most common type in hand knitting yarns.  The thread is cut, carded, and then spun.  Noil silk is made of shorter fibers that are left over after the combing and carding.  They tend to be irregular, adding texture to the fiber.

Silk is warm, absorbs moisture and releases heat like wool, and is one of the strongest fibers around. Silk takes up dye readily, producing a lustrous, intense color.  But, silk has little elasticity and can stretch, and won’t hold its shape well, so would not hold the elasticity in a ribbing.  It’s slippery to work with, too.  Consider 100% silk for an amazingly fluid and shimmery shawl.

Again, blends are your friends.  Add wool and you get the elasticity and memory, plus a gorgeous drape and shine.  What about alpaca and silk?