Figuring out fiber content in fabric and yarns

Whenever I try to diagnose the fibers in "mystery fabrics" or yarns with missing labels, I find the information online to be very hard to follow, so I came up with this flow chart to make it slightly simpler.  It's only accurate for fabrics and yarns that are primarily one fiber.  An awful lot of yarns are blends and those are harder to test.

Hope you can read this.  If it's too small, you might try holding the Control key and clicking the plus sign next to your backspace key.  The plus sign enlarges; the minus sign decreases.

Casablanca

Castle Gold

The two yarns shown here, by the way, are by Life's an Expedition yarns and are listed on Etsy.  But the chart above won't help you discern fiber content of Life's an Expedition yarns, because they are mostly blends.  Many of them have four or more different fibers in them.  Then again, most of my yarns already have fiber content listed on the label unless it's one of our big destash listings.

Have fun.
dj runnels

Visit Life's an Expedition on Etsy.

Here's what I've been working on today and as I tore up the silk fabric to make this, I suddenly remembered a concerned customer asking me, well...isn't this scarf going to shed?  Or leave lint?  Or (I can't believe she said this) fall apart?

Ah, no.  How do I know this?  Because   I wear black.  Nearly every day, I have on black/dark jeans or black capris--depending on the weather--so that's what I wear when I work on my scarves.   If they were going to create a lint storm, I'd have the evidence on my lap.

Fortunately, my customer was open-minded enough to just go ahead and wear the scarf she bought from me.   She was pleased that (1) it did indeed hold up and (2) it generates many compliments.


The reason I thought of this while working on this particular scarf is because I used a type of silk I have not used before and I cut it in a way I have not cut silk fabric before.  It did leave lint on my cutting board.  I had to shake the fabric out in my front yard before I could continue.  Then I made the scarf and it was fine.  Another thready crisis averted.

I guess the next time I get a concerned customer, I will direct her to this blog post.  But what about the people who drool over my scarves, eye the threadiness cautiously, then don't buy without asking me for reassurance? I suppose that sort of thing happens a lot to any seller.

< Silk Bamboo is the name of this scarf.  There's no bamboo in it.  That's just the name.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition on Etsy.