Acrylic yarns are often regarded with an upturned nose and considered “cheap” yarns by those who have experienced the wonderful world of wool, but there’s more to it. Du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc is an American company which first created acrylic fiber in the mid 40s and started commercial production in 1950. It
Metallic fibers are exactly what they sound like. They are fibers made from metals. They may be made entirely from metal, metal coated in plastic, or a core coated in metal. Historically, metals like gold or silver were hammered into very thin sheets, cut into strips and wrapped around a core of silk or cotton.
Today, let’s talk nylon! Nylon proves to be one of the most recognized man-made fibers for the hand-spinner, but how much do we really know about it? First produced in 1935, nylon wasn’t commercially available in the United States until 1939, where it was demonstrated at the World Fair and used for toothbrush bristles and
We’ll have a Spinzilla update next week, once I’ve had time to gather myself. For now, let’s look at another man-made fiber. Rubber was first made into fibers in 1850 by cutting sheets of rubber into thin slivers. Later, in 1930, U.S. Rubber Company (now UniRoyal, Inc.) developed a way to make rubber fiber via
When we think of glass, we don’t think of fiber. Yet, here we are! Now called fiberglass, a fiber most frequently seen in fiberglass insulation in building. Glass fibers were first produced in the United States in 1936. Silica sand, limestone, soda ash, borax, boric acid, feldspar, and fluorspar are combined and heated to form a molten
Originally classified as rayon, one of the earliest synthetic fibers , cellulose acetate fibers, are very similar to rayon fibers. However, because of the use of acetic acid in the process, acetate fibers can’t be laundered at as high of temperature as cellulose, as they melt at lower temperatures. Originally discovered in 1865, this fiber
One of the first synthetic fibers produced in the United States, rayon, may be one of my favorite synthetics! If you have spun anything blended with bamboo fiber, you’ve spun a rayon. Rayons (by their current definition) were first produced in 1894 by Charles Frederic Cross, Edward John Bevan and Clayton Beadle. They named their product
While reading back over old issues of Spin-Off, I found an article about synthetic fibers that fascinated me. It made me go out of my way to order a 1978 book titled Man-Made Fibers Fact Book. Before 1900, man-made synthetic fibers didn’t really exist. The article lists a number of synthetics with their first U.S.
