FIBRE TO FABRIC

IMPORTANT TERMS

Fleece                         The thick coat of hair on the body of wool-yielding animals.  

Filaments                     A thread like structure secreted by silkworms.

Cocoon                        The covering of silk fibres by which a caterpillar wraps itself.

Pashmina                    The fur obtained from the Kashmiri goat is known as Pashmina.

Moriculture                   The cultivation of mulberry plants is known as Moriculture.

Sericulture                   Rearing of silkworms for the production of silk is known as sericulture.

Reeling                        The process of taking out threads from the cocoon to be used as silk.

Selective Breeding        The process of breeding of selective parents for obtaining special     characteristics in the offspring.

Rearing                        Raising and breeding of domestic sheep for the purpose of milk and wool production.

WOOL

Wool is obtained from the fleece of animals such as sheep, goat, camel and rabbit, so it is an animal fibre.

ANIMALS THAT PROVIDE WOOL

Goats  -  Angora goats are generally found in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They provide with fine quality of wool. Their fur provides a fibre called Mohair.

Kashmiri is a breed of goat found in the high plateaus of Asia. The fibre obtained from it is soft. It is woven into shawls known as Pashmina shawls.

Yak -   Yak gives us wool. It is mainly found in Ladakh in India.

Camel -  Wool is also obtained from camel. Some breeds of camel such as the Bactrian camel, Alpaca and Llama give wool.

Angora Rabbit  - The wool obtained from the Angora rabbit is known as Angora wool.

Sheep   The wool that is commonly available in market is obtained from sheep. The hairy skin of sheep has two types of fibre: the coarse beard hair and the soft under hair. The soft under hair provides the fibre for making wool. Several breeds of sheep are found in different parts of India. Some of the Indian breeds of sheep and examples of products made from wool are given below:-

Name of Breed

Products made from wool

State Where Found

Lohi

Carpets

Rajasthan, Punjab

Nali

Carpets

Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana

Bakharwal

Woollen Shawls

Jammu & Kashmir

Marwari

Carpets

Gujarat

Patanwadi

Hosiery Socks and stockings

Gujarat

Rampur Bushair

Brown Fleece

U.P., Himachal Pradesh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROCESSING FIBRES INTO WOOL

The processing of fibres into wool involves the following steps:-

Shearing

Shearing is the first step in the production of wool. The process of removing fleece or hair along with a thin layer of skin from the body of sheep is called shearing. It is done with the help of manual razor or special clippers.

Sheep are generally shorn during summer season because they do not need fleece in that season to keep themselves warm.

Scouring

The sheared skin from sheep is thoroughly washed to remove grease, dust and dirt which is known as scouring.

Sorting

After the process of scouring, the sheared hair of different textures is sorted on the basis of length and colour which is known as sorting. Wool is sorted on the basis of length, colour and texture.

Dyeing

The fibres are dyed in various colours as the natural colour of fleece is brown, white or black.

Weaving

The fibres are straightened and rolled into yarn. Then, the fibres are woven into woollen clothes.

 

SILK

Silk is an animal fibre as it is obtained from the cocoon of the silkworm.

There are different varieties of silk moth, which produce silk of different quality and texture.

The most common silk moth is the mulberry silk moth. The silk fibre obtained from it is the highest quality of silk.

Tassar is a kind of silk fibre obtained from moths that are yellowish-brown in colour. It is also referred to as wild silk.

Mooga is a variety of silk obtained from a silk moth which is usually found in Assam.

Kosa is a kind of silk produced from an Indian silkworm. It is a variety of Tussar silk.

 

LIFE CYCLE OF A SILK MOTH

A female silk moth lays about 300-400 eggs at a time. Once the eggs hatch, the caterpillars or silkworms emerge. It is known as the larvae stage.

When the silkworm is about 35 days old, it weaves a net to hold itself. It secretes a fibre and completely covers itself with this fibre. This covering is known as cocoon. The caterpillar changes into a pupa inside the cocoon.

Adult moth is the final stage in the life cycle of a silkworm.

PROCESS OF SERICULTURE

Rearing of silkworms for the production of silk is known as sericulture.

The healthiest moths are selected for breeding and laying the eggs. The eggs are warmed at a temperature that is suitable for hatching.

After hatching, the larvae are fed with chopped mulberry leaves for 20-35 days. They increase in size and are ready to spin the cocoons. The spinning takes about 3-7 days.

Then, the cocoons are put in hot water to kill the worms inside them and also to loosen the filaments.

The filaments are taken out from the cocoons by the process of reeling. The filaments from other cocoons are joined and twisted together to make a thread that is wound on a reel. The threads are woven into silk clothes by weavers.

INTERESTING FACTS

 

  • The fleece of sheep has been used to make human clothing since the Stone Age.
  • Every single cocoon woven by the Kosa silkworms creates 1-2 grams of raw silk yarn which is equal to about 300 yards of silk thread.
  • The Chinese people have been performing the practice of breeding silkworms for more than 5,000 years.
  • It takes around 30,000 silkworms to produce 12 pounds of raw silk.
  • There are approximately 1 billion sheep worldwide and about 900 different breeds.
  • A silk rope is stronger than an equally thick metal wire.
  • A silk worm eats 40000 times its own weight's worth of mulberry tree leaves between its birth and its pupating.
  • China has the largest number of sheep in the world.