Urban Knitters carries a great selection of natural fiber yarns. Fibers are the raw materials from which yarns are made. Fibers are classified as natural consisting of fibers of animal (protein) origin, vegetable (cellulose) origin, and manufactured fibers consisting of cellulose based fibers, and synthetics. There are only a few synthetics useable for hand knitting yarns.

Wool, the hair fiber from sheep is by far the most popular of the hair fibers. The softest come from breeds such as Merino. Each variety of sheep produces wool fiber with different properties. However, all wool varieties have special properties in common. Wool is elastic and resilient, as it springs back into shape making it a pleasure to knit with. It is also unique because wool is comfortable to wear in both warm and cold climates. The surface of a wool hair fiber is covered with scales that vary in size and determine the fineness and coarseness of wool. Fine, soft wool has as many as 2000 scales per inch, whereas coarse, rough wool has as few as 700 scales per inch. These scales are responsible for that “itchy” feel some people complain of, particularly with coarse wool. In addition, exposing wool to heat, moisture, and friction cause the scales to interlock resulting in felted wool or shrinkage. Superwash is a finishing process that alters the scale structure so that wool can be machine washed, and often makes the wool yarn feel softer.

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