Making Fibres Yarn Weaving Knitting And Dyeing

---
name: making-fibres-yarn-weaving-knitting-and-dyeing
description: "Use when the material is the question: fibre properties and how natural, regenerated and synthetic fibres behave, yarn and spinning, weave structures and what each does, knit structures and why knits stretch, nonwovens and felt, dyeing and finishing including dye classes and colourfastness, and the fabric properties — drape, hand, weight, shrinkage — that decide what can be made from it. Includes the router for the whole making and care reference."
---

# Fabric, Clothing and Furniture: Fibres, Yarn and Spinning, Weaving, Knitting, Nonwovens, Dyeing and Finishing, and Fabric Properties

> **Part 1 of 5** of the *Making Fabric, Clothing and Furniture — and Caring for Them* reference (plugin `making-fabric-clothing-furniture-laundering`), covering §0–§7. Sibling skills: `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` (§8–§15), `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` (§16–§21), `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending` (§22–§26), `making-reference` (§27–§32). Section numbers are shared across the set; a reference written as §N → `skill` points into that sibling skill.
>
> **Currency:** The crafts are centuries old and stable. Two areas moved. See §27 → `making-reference` for microfibre shedding and filter regulation, and PFAS restrictions in textiles and furniture.

> **⚠️ Four crafts unified by one principle: the MATERIAL'S behaviour determines
> everything downstream.** ⚠️ **Fibre decides yarn, which decides fabric, which decides
> what garment is possible and how it must be washed.** **Wood species and grain decide
> joinery, which decides what will survive a winter of dry indoor air.** **⚠️ Almost every
> failure in this document is someone fighting the material instead of designing with it.**
>
> **Complements a cooking/cleaning/waste reference (surfactant chemistry and disinfection
> in general), and a materials or thermo reference for the underlying physics.**
>
> **⚠️ GOTCHA** boxes mark the received wisdom that's wrong, and the mistakes that destroy
> the work irreversibly.
>
> **The three ideas that organize this document:**
> 1. **⚠️ GRAIN is the master concept in both textiles and wood** (§8 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction`, §16 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery`). **Fabric
>    behaves differently along the warp, the weft and the bias; wood moves across the
>    grain and not along it. Both wreck the work when ignored.**
> 2. **⚠️ Wood MOVES, seasonally and forever** (§16 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery`). **Every joinery decision in §17 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` is
>    downstream of that one fact, and cross-grain construction is the single most common
>    reason furniture self-destructs.**
> 3. **⚠️ Laundering has four interchangeable levers** (§22 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending`). **Temperature, chemistry,
>    mechanical action and time trade off against each other — which is why cold washing
>    works if you adjust the others, and fails if you don't.**

---

## §0. Routing

| You want... | Go to |
|---|---|
| **⚠️ Fibres** | **§1** |
| Yarn and spinning | §2 |
| Weaving | §3 |
| Knitting | §4 |
| Nonwovens and felt | §5 |
| Dyeing and finishing | §6 |
| **⚠️ Fabric properties and grain** | **§7–§8 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction`** |
| Pattern drafting and ease | §9 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| Cutting and layout | §10 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| **Seams and stitches** | **§11 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction`** |
| Construction order | §12 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| Fitting | §13 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| Machines, needles, thread | §14 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| Hand sewing | §15 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction` |
| **⚠️ Wood movement** | **§16 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery`** |
| **Joinery** | **§17 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery`** |
| Adhesives and fasteners | §18 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` |
| Wood finishing | §19 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` |
| Upholstery | §20 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` |
| Seating and frames | §21 → `making-woodworking-joinery-finishing-and-upholstery` |
| **⚠️ Laundering mechanics** | **§22 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending`** |
| Fibre-specific care | §23 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending` |
| **Stain removal** | **§24 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending`** |
| Drying, ironing, storage | §25 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending` |
| Mending and pests | §26 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending` |
| **What's live** | **§27 → `making-reference`** |
| Misconceptions, numbers | §28–§29 → `making-reference` |
| Books, quick ref, method | §30–§32 → `making-reference` |

---

# PART I — FIBRE AND FABRIC

## §1. ⚠️ Fibres

**⚠️ Everything else follows from this table. Learn it and most care and construction
questions answer themselves.**
```
⚠️ CELLULOSIC (plant)
  COTTON   absorbent, comfortable, strong WET (⚠️ unusual — most fibres
     weaken wet), wrinkles, shrinks, no elastic recovery
  LINEN (flax)  ⚠️ very strong, highly absorbent, excellent conductor of
     heat (why it feels cool), creases badly, low elasticity, gets
     softer with washing
  RAYON/VISCOSE  ⚠️ regenerated cellulose — behaves like a weak cotton and
     is MUCH WEAKER WET. ⚠️ The single most common laundering disaster
  LYOCELL/TENCEL  regenerated, stronger wet, closed-loop solvent process

⚠️ PROTEIN (animal)
  WOOL   ⚠️ insulates when wet, resists wrinkles, flame-resistant,
     naturally elastic. ⚠️ FELTS irreversibly with heat + moisture +
     agitation (the scales interlock). Damaged by alkali (§23)
  SILK   strong, lustrous, ⚠️ weakened by sunlight and by alkali;
     water-spots on some weaves
  CASHMERE/ALPACA/MOHAIR  finer, warmer, weaker, more prone to pilling

⚠️ SYNTHETIC
  POLYESTER  ⚠️ strong, hydrophobic, holds a crease, resists wrinkles,
     ⚠️ HOLDS OILY SOIL AND ODOUR because it's oleophilic — that's why
     activewear smells even after washing
  NYLON/POLYAMIDE  ⚠️ the most abrasion-resistant common fibre; elastic
  ACRYLIC  wool-like, ⚠️ pills badly, sheds heavily (§27.1)
  ELASTANE/SPANDEX/LYCRA  ⚠️ degraded by heat, chlorine and oils. It is
     what dies first in a garment blend
  OLEFIN/POLYPROPYLENE  ⚠️ essentially unwettable — solution-dyed only
```
> **⚠️ GOTCHA — the wet-strength inversion is the most useful single fact here.**
> ⚠️ **Cotton and linen get STRONGER when wet; rayon/viscose gets dramatically WEAKER; wool
> loses strength and becomes vulnerable to felting.** **⚠️ This is why you can scrub a
> cotton shirt and why wringing a wet rayon garment destroys it — the fibre is at its most
> fragile exactly when you're handling it hardest.**

**⚠️ Blends inherit the WORST care requirement of their components**, ⚠️ **not an average.**
**A cotton/elastane blend must be washed for the elastane.**

---

## §2. Yarn and Spinning

**⚠️ Staple (short fibres spun together) vs FILAMENT (continuous).** ⚠️ **Silk and all
synthetics are natively filament; everything else is staple, and synthetics are often cut
into staple deliberately to mimic natural hand.**
**⚠️ TWIST is the variable that does the work**: ⚠️ **more twist gives strength and a
harder, cooler hand; less twist gives softness and loft.** **Crepe yarns are extremely
high-twist, which is what produces their texture.**
**Ply** (⚠️ **plied yarns are rounder, stronger and more balanced than singles — and
singles skew, which matters in knitting**), **and yarn COUNT systems** (⚠️ **confusingly
inverted: in cotton count and worsted count HIGHER = FINER, while in denier and tex
HIGHER = HEAVIER**).
**⚠️ Worsted vs woollen preparation**: ⚠️ **worsted combs fibres parallel for a smooth,
strong, dense yarn; woollen leaves them jumbled for a lofty, insulating, weaker yarn.**
**Same fleece, entirely different fabric.**

---

## §3. Weaving

```
WARP  ⚠️ lengthwise, under tension on the loom — stronger, more stable
WEFT (filling)  crosswise
⚠️ SELVEDGE  the self-finished lengthwise edges

BASIC WEAVES
⚠️ PLAIN    over-one-under-one. Most interlacings → firmest, most stable,
   least drape. Poplin, muslin, chiffon, canvas
⚠️ TWILL    diagonal float line. Fewer interlacings → more drape, better
   abrasion resistance, hides soil. ⚠️ Denim, gabardine, chino
⚠️ SATIN    long floats → maximum lustre and drape, ⚠️ poor abrasion
   resistance and snags easily. The floats ARE the weakness
DERIVATIVES  basketweave, rib, herringbone, jacquard (⚠️ patterned by
   individual warp control — the loom that inspired punched cards)
PILE  velvet, corduroy, terry — ⚠️ pile has DIRECTION (nap), which must
   run consistently through a garment or panels will read as different colours
```
**⚠️ The structural point**: ⚠️ **fewer interlacings per unit area = more drape, more
lustre, less stability, less abrasion resistance.** **That single tradeoff explains the
entire weave family.**

---

## §4. Knitting

**⚠️ Knits are LOOPS, not interlacings — which is why they stretch and wovens don't.**
```
⚠️ WEFT KNIT   one continuous yarn across. ⚠️ CAN RUN/LADDER when broken
   Jersey (⚠️ curls at the edges — a structural consequence of stitch
   asymmetry, not a defect), rib (stretches crosswise, doesn't curl),
   interlock (stable, both faces alike), purl
⚠️ WARP KNIT   many yarns lengthwise. ⚠️ Does NOT run. Tricot, raschel
GAUGE  needles per inch — finer gauge, finer fabric
```
**⚠️ Practical consequences**: ⚠️ **knits need stretch stitches or a serger (§11 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction`) because a
straight lockstitch will SNAP when the fabric stretches; they generally don't need much
ease (§9 → `making-garment-drafting-seams-and-construction`) since the fabric provides it; and they grow and recover rather than holding a
shape.**
**⚠️ Hand knitting and crochet** — ⚠️ **crochet uses substantially more yarn than knitting
for the same area and produces a denser, less elastic fabric.** **⚠️ Gauge swatching is not
optional: a half-stitch-per-inch error compounds across a garment into inches.**

---

## §5. Nonwovens and Felt

**⚠️ Fabric made without yarn.** **⚠️ True felt is WOOL matted by heat, moisture, agitation
and alkali — the scales interlock irreversibly, which is the same mechanism that ruins a
wool sweater in a hot wash** (§23 → `making-laundering-stain-removal-care-and-mending`).
**Needle-punched, spunbond, meltblown, and wet-laid nonwovens**; ⚠️ **interfacings (fusible
and sew-in) are the nonwoven a garment maker uses daily, and they're what makes collars,
cuffs and waistbands hold shape.**

---

## §6. Dyeing and Finishing

```
⚠️ DYE CLASSES ARE FIBRE-SPECIFIC — this is the fact home dyers miss
  REACTIVE   ⚠️ cellulose. Forms a covalent bond — excellent wash-fastness
  DIRECT     cellulose, simple, ⚠️ poor wash-fastness
  ACID       ⚠️ protein (wool, silk) AND nylon. Needs acid + heat
  DISPERSE   ⚠️ polyester ONLY, and needs ~130°C under pressure —
     which is why you CANNOT reliably dye polyester at home
  VAT        ⚠️ indigo. Insoluble; reduced to dye, oxidizes on the fibre —
     which is why denim fades the way it does (the dye sits on the
     surface of the yarn, and abrasion removes it)
STAGE  fibre → yarn → piece → garment dyeing (⚠️ later = cheaper and
   more responsive to fashion, but less even)
```
**⚠️ Fastness types are separate properties**: **wash, light, crock (rubbing), perspiration.**
⚠️ **A dye can be excellent at one and poor at another** — **and "crocking" is why new dark
denim transfers onto upholstery.**
**Finishes**: **mercerization (⚠️ caustic treatment of cotton that increases lustre,
strength and dye uptake), sanforization (pre-shrinking), calendering, brushing/napping,
resin finishes for wrinkle resistance (⚠️ which reduce strength and abrasion resistance),
and water/stain repellents** (§27.2 → `making-reference`).

---

## §7. Fabric Properties

**⚠️ HAND (how it feels), DRAPE (how it falls), GSM or oz/yd² (weight), opacity, thermal
behaviour, moisture management (⚠️ wicking vs absorbency are DIFFERENT — polyester wicks
without absorbing; cotton absorbs without wicking, which is why cotton stays wet).**
**⚠️ Pilling**: ⚠️ **caused by fibre ends migrating and tangling, and made permanent when
the fibre is too STRONG to break off** — **which is why polyester and acrylic pill visibly
and wool eventually sheds its pills.** **Strong fibres pill worse, counterintuitively.**