Fabrics of Many Fibers, Common and Unusual Quiz

Answer: linen

The flax plant can produce many different things, sometimes from literally the same plant, sometimes from a different cultivar of the same species. It grows in USDA hardiness zones 5 to 8, more northerly than cotton, and produces seed for linseed oil and health foods, and fibers for linen and coarser tow. Once it's processed to a certain point, the soft linen fibers are separated out to be made into very fine, crisp, long-wearing napkins, bedsheets, shirts, or knobbier textured cloth.

It doesn't take natural dyes well, so was often left white.

The tow was traditionally woven into coarser sacks.

Answer: coconuts

You've probable seen or felt that hairy stuff on the outside of a coconut shell. That's coir, and after processing, it yields a short fiber that can also be made into biodegradable erosion control mats for seeding hillsides, brushes, or just used as fluff to stuff mattresses, besides being spun and woven into mats.

It's usually left a natural tan. Most of the world's supply is processed in India and the surrounding areas.

Answer: wool

Wool used to be common for year round wear, before polyester, acrylic, Goretex and other fibers took over. Many people think of wool as just that itchy bulky stuff, but it can also be made into fine, lightweight men's suits with a smooth finish, and into summer sheers or calico-like prints for dresses, back in the old days, but it's not cheap.

When used for knitted winter wear like socks, mittens or hats, it was prized for its ability to keep its insulating quality even when wet. There was a health fad for wearing Dr. Jaeger's red wool union suits starting in the 1880s.

They covered most of the body in wool and supposedly avoided chills. A 1912 ad read: "JAEGER is the name, not of a fabric nor of a colour, but of a system. To be clothed in JAEGER means health and protection from chill, not merely because JAEGER Pure Wool is warm, but because it is non-conducting and porous..." The fad eventually faded, and Goretex fabrics have replaced the idea for winter exercisers nowadays, but wool once served many purposes.

Answer: angora goat

Mohair comes from the angora goat. There's also an angora rabbit, which causes some confusion, but only the curly hair of the goat becomes mohair. The goats were tried in various areas in the 19th Century - Australia, South Africa, the U.S. - but there was little success in the U.S. except in Texas, which is still one of the top producers of mohair today, along with Turkey, Argentina and South Africa, and Australia and New Zealand also produce some.

The goats can be sheared twice a year, but require better nutritional care than sheep and their fleece is more difficult to spin. Mohair blended with wool is used as suiting, and pure mohair can be used for upholstery and other tougher jobs.

Answer: cotton

Cotton was king because it was the most profitable, easiest to grow, fiber plant on the rich soil of the American South. The invention and introduction of the cotton gin in the early 19th century meant fewer workers were needed to remove seed but more were needed to pick bolls, to stay even.

The solution was to keep just enough workers to take care of the cotton up to picking time, and make the pickers work extra hard. When the workers were enslaved and they were made to work by the threat of the whip, the results were disastrous. Only Native Americans have a claim of abuse on the same scale.

There was a war, which I won't go into, because it was more about a way of life by then, not just cotton. The boll weevil, cotton-picking machinery and polyester would have changed everything for better or worse by the 20th Century. All that occurred, in part, for a fiber that takes dye poorly, shows dirt, isn't very durable, but launders well and is like a runner-up to linen. People are strange.

Answer: silk worms

Bombyx mori is the moth whose caterpillar form produces a valuable coccoon of silk fibers, but a few other species of moths are also used. The Chinese domesticated silkworm moths circa 5,000 years ago, and have continuously improved them for silk production.

There was a craze for silk raising in the U.S. in the early 19th Century, but despite the hope that fortunes would be made, the profits never materialized, and China remained the center of silk cultivation. When the silkworm makes its coccoon, it is killed with heat so it doesn't damage the fiber, then the fiber is unrolled.

After it is processed, it can be woven on a loom like any fiber, though it tends to be strong for its size. It dyes with bright and permanent colors, and also insulates from the cold.

Answer: yucca

Ancient sandals from yucca plants, woven without looms, have been found by archaeologists, and the fibers may have been used for other things as well. The leaves were soaked and pounded, and when fully processed, woven into sandals that archaeologists feel represent art as much as utility. My hint of "yuck" was just a hint; I actually am amazed at what basket weavers or twiners could accomplish from native plants.

Answer: alpaca

Strictly speaking, alpaca cloth can be made only from fibers of the alpaca, but sometimes other fibers such as mohair or Icelandic sheep's wool are sometimes intermixed. Similar to wool without lanolin, alpaca fiber is shiny like mohair, but softer. It was traditionally used for men's summer suits and lining in the 19th century, but has faded as artificial fibers have lowered prices. Alpacas are clean animals that can live on less feed than others their size, and their fiber is considered a luxury item, but prices of animals have varied from speculatively high to practical.

Answer: hemp

Fiber hemp and medicinal hemp are two cultivars of the same species, Cannabis sativa, but fiber hemp contains a fraction of one percent of the chemical wanted by drug users compared to the medicinal cultivar. It was traditionally used as a heavier, stronger kind of linen, and was processed similarly, but was made illegal to grow by the same laws that banned the medicinal plant.

Hemp fabric can be purchased in the USA when made overseas, and is usually either pure or blended with cotton or silk. As in the past, it is similar to canvas or other practical linen products, not fine linen.

It usually comes in a natural light tan color.

Answer: stinging nettle

Stinging nettle contains fibers like linen, so once its stinging tips are taken off, it can be retted and then further processed like traditional linen or hemp. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much work on commercially breeding or processing nettles, so the fabric is still an expensive novelty, used by high-fashion designers or lovers of organic things where price isn't the main concern.