Out Of My Mind

Day 171: I must be out of my mind! Not only is this thread finer than anything I have ever spun before, it is also the slipperiest. It is bamboo, which is to say it's rayon under a more romantic name, and I've used this same fiber to blend with wool before, but had never spun it by itself. Bronka just finished up two ounces of luscious, creamy Corriedale wool spun at a lace weight, and as I was scouting the cedar chest for a new spinning project, the bamboo caught my eye. "Well, let's try it," I said, fully expecting it to be so slick that I couldn't control the feed. But it surprised me, and so did Bronka. I was able to set the tension such that sufficient twist came into the fibers without pulling too much from my fingers, and an extra-fine, shiny thread began winding onto the bobbin. Here, I show it bent back on itself to demonstrate how it will look when it's make into two-ply. It's going to take a long time for me to spin even a one-ounce skein, but I am loving the feel and the way it works up.

What's That Fiber?

Day 154: Today, we're going to play a little game called "What's That Fiber?" I was curious as to whether my fingers could distinguish the bamboo/rayon in a mixed roving, so I put some samples under the microscope. There are two cellulose fibers here (as in "plant-based") and wool from two different breeds of sheep (Coopworth and Merino). Cellulose fibers are made by pulping plant material and treating it with chemicals to break it down into a solution which can be extruded, and therefore they tend to be smooth. On the other hand, wool is a protein-based fiber with a rough cortex (outer layer). As opposed to other sources such as rabbit or camel, sheep's wool varies in diameter from breed to breed. Merino is classified as a fine wool, rated at 15-25 microns; Coopworth comes in at 30-39. By comparison, an average human hair measures 70 microns. Cotton fibers average from 11-22 microns, rayon for fabric production falls between 8-25. Given this information, you should be able to identify the bamboo, cotton, Merino and Coopworth fibers shown above. In the top and bottom rows, magnifications are 40x, 200x and 800x. The second row shows a "mixed" fiber at 40x and 200x, with the two fibers isolated in the third row at 800x. Are you ready? Go! (Answers below.)

(Top row: cotton; Second row, mixed; Third row, bamboo and Merino; Bottom row, Coopworth)