Making thread is not simple

4 Responses to Making thread is not simple

1. Nikola says:

   October 5, 2015 at 11:15 pm

   It’s been great reading through your previous posts on spinning! The links look really helpful, too.

   So glad I found your blog 🙂

   Oh, and I see now which museum you study at…I wasn’t paying attention before. I’m like a horse with blinders on when I’m searching for specific info 😉

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2. Nikola says:

   September 25, 2015 at 6:51 pm

   Hello!
   I just stumbled upon your post in my quest to find information on the production of Vicuna wool. I’m working on an assignment for a fashion design course and am having trouble coming up with pictures and info on the more intricate sciences of this particular fiber.

   Your article was really interesting! I know you were focusing on Alpaca, but if you know anything more about Vicuna wool fibers and have the time, I would LOVE to here it! 🙂

   Do you know if the basic structure of of all wool fibers is the same (besides microns and length) ? For some reason I can’t seem to find anything out about the diameter of a Vicuna fiber (what shape it is, etc).

   Anyway, I completely understand if you don’t have any further information, but thank you for an enlightening and enjoyable read! 🙂

   Nikola

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   • sburian says:

     September 27, 2015 at 3:43 am

     Hi Nikola,
     Thanks for your interest in my site! I do have some information that I think could be useful for you as I recently did a fiber analysis project involving vicuna and alpaca. I will look up more specific details and get back to you but basically different types of animal fibers have different scale patterns on the surface. They also have different central cores or medulas. I did some SEM imagery of sheep, alpaca, and vicuna and I might be able to send those images to you, I will ask the museum. Vicuna is an incredibly short fiber, almost like cotton. I wouldn’t try to spin it with a top whorl like alpaca, I would use a bottom whorl cotton spindle. It is very light weight and the micron count tends to be 15 or less, I think my sample was 15. It is sometimes possible to buy small amounts of the fiber on Ebay (I got one gram for 7.00) if you are really curious.

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     • Nikola says:

       September 28, 2015 at 4:39 pm

       Thank you SO much! Any tips are really exciting to me at this point, and pictures would be fabulous (if you can possibly get them)!!

       I really appreciate the information you’ve sent me, and I look forward to any more you may have!

       I found a seller on Etsy who has Vicuna wool, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to purchase the small amount of wool I need for experimentation. I think I’ll try Ebay 🙂

       Thank you again for your time!

       Sincerely, Nikola

       P.S. Which museum do you work for?

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