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Bamboo (Top)
$3.75 – $28.94
100% Viscose of Bamboo.
Very clean combed top, pearly-white in colour. Staple length is 3.5 to 4 inches.
PRODUCT of CHINA
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Bamboo Top – Topaz
100% Viscose/Rayon of Bamboo.
Beautiful and shiny amber gold, richer than the photo portrays.
PRODUCT of CHINA
Flax Top – Long Staple
100% Flax
Natural coloured (not bleached) flax top with a nice, long staple length around 10 to 12 inches, Not the same as flax strick, but a close second. True flax strick (bundles of long, loose flax fibre) is not easy to find.
PRODUCT of BELGIUM
Corn Fibre (Top)
100% Corn Fibre. Also known as Ingeo.
Extremely clean combed top. Pristine, true white in colour. Staple length is 4 to 5 inches.
One of the "new" man-made fibres, and apparently it stands up pretty well to any "green" claims about its manufacture. As a spinning or knitting fibre, it is soft and lustrous, breathes and absorbs moisture well, has good drape and warmth and is easy to care for. Corn is machine washable but should be air or tumble dried only. Do not iron!
Considered a plant or cellulose fibre but neither acid nor fibre reactive dyes will work on corn fibre. Natural dyers could try using techniques used on cotton, such as alum-tannin premordanting, or Aluminum acetate. We do not know yet how corn behaves in an indigo bath.
That being said, when blended with protein fibres, acid dyes will leave the corn alone during dyeing, which makes for some wonderful streaky or heathered effects, depending on how well the fibres are blended.
Hemp – Natural Brown (Top)
100% Hemp.
This is beautiful stuff, the finest hemp we have ever seen and a local lady with a lot of experience spinning hemp tried it and agrees!
Very clean combed top, in a natural tan colour. Staple length is 6 to 7 inches. Hemp is a bast (stem) fibre from a very tall plant, essentially a strain of marijuana developed for fibre instead of other uses. Spun in a manner much like flax, the two also share the attribute of being harsh at first and just getting better and better over time with wear and laundering. It can be spun all by itself or blended with wool and other fibres. This has a light characteristic hemp scent but it's not overwhelming and should not be offensive to the nose during spinning.
Since this is a plant or cellulose fibre dyers must use fibre reactive dyes. Natural dyers must resort to techniques used on cotton, such as alum-tannin premordanting, or Aluminum acetate. Hemp also works well in an indigo vat.
PRODUCT of CHINA