Friday, September 9, 2011

Geeking out about Fibers

I am such a nerd.

I don't mean computer/sci-fiction nerd (although I'm that too). I mean a fabric/costume/fiber nerd.

For instance. Some people might think that a class called 'Textiles' would be boring beyond belief.

But me? I sit there soaking in happily everything about fibers and filaments and natural vs. manufactured and am overjoyed when we actually get to touch fibers and fabrics.

On Wednesday we learned all about cotton. We got to see pictures of it through the beginning of the process, including some from a cotton factory in Ecuador. We learned all about it's attributes, what it is good for, etc. We also discussed different kinds of cotton and what they are each good for. I asked why Egyptian Cotton was called Egyptian -- was it really from Egypt? I wondered. My Professor wasn't sure enough to answer then, but today she came back with a whole website on the subject. Sure enough, Egyptian Cotton is grown in Egypt and something about being grown by the Nile makes the fibers especially long and fine.

Today was flax and a brief discussion of other plant fibers. Did you know you can get fibers from the leaves of pineapple and banana trees? Or that hemp is in the same family as marijuana?

2 comments:

Melanie said...

Thought this might be of interest to you. It's the patent drawing for the sewing machine.
http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=910#2011

Andy Hauge said...

*chuckle* Well...I knew that hemp was in the same family as marijuana...

(There's a health cereal at our grocery store that contains hemp, and the box is decorated with what appears to be marijuana leaves...)

But that's interesting, about Egyptian Cotton.