M is for
Merino - one of the softer, finer wools. Easy to spin, friendly to the skin, lustrous and easy to dye. Wool yarn is innately elastic, so your merino sweater will bounce back and keep its shape.
Mohair - produced by the Angora goat. (Angora yarn comes from dear fuzzy bunnies) Again, it takes dye well. Since it's such a long fiber, it can be spun quite fine, but since it has little crimp, the ends will work free and create a halo. My middle brother(quite the dandy) had a peach-colored mohair sweater when he was in high school. I used to sneak into his room and pet it.
Milk fiber - also known as Quiana - produced by complicated chemical processes from milk that is not acceptable as food. The protein is pulled out, stabilized, colored, and spun to produce a slippery, shiny, drapey yarn.
Protein fibers such as wool, mohair, silk and quiana are fire-retardant. Where your synthetic fibers like polyester will melt at relatively low temperatures and catch fire with just a spark, protein fibers do not burn until fire is appled directly to them, and will, given half a chance, self-extinguish. Furthermore, they insulate against high temperatures.
Yes, I'm doing the speech again. When flying, it is important to wear protein fibers. The most dangerous part of a crash is the subsequent fire. If your polyester pants melt onto your legs and catch fire, your survival chances are slim. If you are wearing silk pants, they will insulate your skin from the heat and protect you from the flames. I have a pair of navy silk pants just for traveling. In the winter, wool is good, but make sure you don't have acetate or polyester linings. Plant fibers are an adequate second best since they need a lot of oxygen to ignite, burn fast and leave cool ash. Synthetic fibers become flaming molten plastic stuck to your skin.
Thus endeth the lesson. Sorry for everyone who has heard this eleven times before but it is one of the few things I know to be true.
M is for the mother instinct inside me. And if it's not one thing, it's your mother.
For fun today, I am going to teach 2nd graders how to knit.
Mohair - produced by the Angora goat. (Angora yarn comes from dear fuzzy bunnies) Again, it takes dye well. Since it's such a long fiber, it can be spun quite fine, but since it has little crimp, the ends will work free and create a halo. My middle brother(quite the dandy) had a peach-colored mohair sweater when he was in high school. I used to sneak into his room and pet it.
Milk fiber - also known as Quiana - produced by complicated chemical processes from milk that is not acceptable as food. The protein is pulled out, stabilized, colored, and spun to produce a slippery, shiny, drapey yarn.
Protein fibers such as wool, mohair, silk and quiana are fire-retardant. Where your synthetic fibers like polyester will melt at relatively low temperatures and catch fire with just a spark, protein fibers do not burn until fire is appled directly to them, and will, given half a chance, self-extinguish. Furthermore, they insulate against high temperatures.
Yes, I'm doing the speech again. When flying, it is important to wear protein fibers. The most dangerous part of a crash is the subsequent fire. If your polyester pants melt onto your legs and catch fire, your survival chances are slim. If you are wearing silk pants, they will insulate your skin from the heat and protect you from the flames. I have a pair of navy silk pants just for traveling. In the winter, wool is good, but make sure you don't have acetate or polyester linings. Plant fibers are an adequate second best since they need a lot of oxygen to ignite, burn fast and leave cool ash. Synthetic fibers become flaming molten plastic stuck to your skin.
Thus endeth the lesson. Sorry for everyone who has heard this eleven times before but it is one of the few things I know to be true.
M is for the mother instinct inside me. And if it's not one thing, it's your mother.
For fun today, I am going to teach 2nd graders how to knit.
posted by roxie @ 7:02 AM
9 Comments:
At 7:22 AM ,
Dave Daniels said...
Mmmmmm. Merino. My FAVORITE to spin.
At 8:04 AM ,
Amy Lane said...
Can M be for Masochist? because I have a second grader-- I can't imagine teaching a herd of them to knit!
At 9:39 AM ,
Alice Lynn said...
Roxie, what an amazing blog. I never dreamed a yarn could be made from milk! And clothes that melt into your skin if your plane explodes or whatever! Thanks for the tips and all the other good stuff.
At 10:43 AM ,
tlbw said...
And then there is the poet Marianne Moore, and Musk Oxen (about whom she wrote a charminng poem), the source of quiviut. Now there's a luxury fiber! I fly only in quiviut....which is to say I hope never to fly again. There must still be a way to cross the Atlantic on a boat.
At 3:58 PM ,
Lisa Nowak said...
You should write a book on knitting. Not a fiction book, but none fiction. You could put enough humor in that people would rush to buy it.
At 6:28 PM ,
Heide said...
I'd never thought much about the fiber content of my clothing during flight before now. Maybe I'll just drive naked. Hope the knitting lesson went well.
At 8:46 PM ,
Rose L said...
Nice to know if ya ever plan to spontaneously combust! LOL
At 10:23 PM ,
JulieLoves2Knit said...
2nd graders? You are brave. Have fun!
At 1:59 PM ,
Donna Lee said...
I'd love to teach little kids to knit. They have such wonderful confidence in their ability to learn anything! I'll be teaching adults to knit/spin later this week. they're not as easy as kids....
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