# Fiber Score thrift store like spun glass! Wow look!!!



## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

I needed some new dog brushes to card out the last of the icelandic wool as it has tiny vm I am having some trouble getting out...of course the dollar store here was out of them. My last pair I kind of wore out on the Suffolk wool but I have been spinning from washed fleece that I pull apart with my fingers and hand picked the other fibers until now. I thought, why not check the thrift store? I did and found none and then was inclined to check the other one by my Sister in laws....ok so I had to just look at the yarns...I promised myself to be frugal as I had bought beautiful angora from Feedbunns.. There with the yarns was a little bag of Roving!!! But I had never seen this kind before and they seldom ever have roving of any kind to begin with. At first I thought it was manmade but then saw the little twigs in there...just a few but realized it had to be natural fiber. So I put my finger into the top of the bag and drew out a little fiber......oh dear..it looked like spun glass but felt like angora...I bought it as it was a mere $1.99 and then looked it up online to find out the following..I thought it might be Satin Angora which was bred into existence to a long hair pedigree from the short hair kind in 1987 in Canada. That is what I read online anyhow.... Does anyone have experience with this or have spun any? I unbagged it and weighed it out as 2 ounces..they had packed it into this bag. It is rolled up pretty tight in the pictures still. It does look like spun glass! It was right beside a stuffed animal sew it yourself kit, they must have thought it was stuffing. I took these pictures before I undid it and it got much bigger in volume! It was folded like it had been rolled off a carding machine in two rolls. The picture kind of shows that. I compared it to the Angora Roving I have and they feel the same...just one is shiny and it has longer fibers.  It doesn't look real unless you see it up close and the hairs on it... AS I have been spinning it, it stretches differently then the angora....wondering if it is silk. I will do the burn test and post the result.  These pics are taken with a flash on my camera. If the flash is not on, the fiber glistens and does not sparkle.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

Spinning it looks like this:


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## Marchwind (May 10, 2002)

That looks like Firestar or Angelina which is a man made fiber and is generally blended to add sparkle to fibers.


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## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

It looks like mohair to me.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

At first I thought it was manmade but it has a scent to it, soft fuzzy inner hairs and VM in it I have picked out as I spun it. When I draft it has the same type of little hairs as the Angora I have. There is also a little bit of black hair mixed in with it. I took the pics with my camera on flash. I will do a fire test today and find out.  It is oh so soft just like the angora and I realize the flash does accent the shine. I still have a mohair lock to compare to and the strands do look very similar. I also wondered about silk but a burn test should tell me. It is spinning up differently then the angora though, I am getting a yarn that is like a size 10 crochet thread thickness. I will post pics later with the fire test results.

It burned slowly and then turned grey to ash no dripping, smelled like burnt hair. I will post a pic without the flash. I think it is probably silk as the fiber is longer and spins differently then the angora I have. It does look like the Tussah Silk roving I saw on Etsy.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

Here is the roving without the flash of the camera, no sparkle only shimmer.  I have an overhead light on above it. With regular lighting the fiber has a pearl look to it.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

Here's the largest skein (350 feet) of this below close up to see the sheen, I am all done spinning it. I did three skeins of different sizes, the footage I got out of it total was 500 feet. I did hold it up against my size 10 crochet thread and they are the same size. I will have to pick a very special project for it. The spinning on this went very fast.


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## IowaLez (Mar 6, 2006)

Tussah is golden tan. Bombyx silk is white. But it also likes like angelina to me, or firestar. The last fibers I was spinning up was a silk/alpaca/firestar blend, and yours seem too shiny for silk. Actually, it looks almost exactly like tencel, a wood based fiber. Tencel has that same bright glow to it, and does spin up like yours looks in the skein photo. So I'm wondering it is a tencel/firestar blend.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

IowaLez said:


> Tussah is golden tan. Bombyx silk is white. But it also likes like angelina to me, or firestar. The last fibers I was spinning up was a silk/alpaca/firestar blend, and yours seem too shiny for silk. Actually, it looks almost exactly like tencel, a wood based fiber. Tencel has that same bright glow to it, and does spin up like yours looks in the skein photo. So I'm wondering it is a tencel/firestar blend.


I keep wondering about what it is also. If you see it in roving form without the flash, it has hairs with a very downy silky feel. Firestar would not turn to ash like this does with the burn test so I feel I have eliminated that possibility and it has sparkle in natural lighting which this doesn't. Spinning it was very easy and it twists smooth and evenly with a continuous spin. I had not a single problem spinning it with my spindle. I am going to take it into a yarn store where the owner is very experienced and show her the pinch I saved of the roving and the yarn itself. My first pictures were taken with a flash but the second pictures show the pearl like sheen in natural lighting. On the color, I found a picture of bleached white Tussah silk online which looks just like my yarn but it wouldn't let me copy it. I have a 100% silk skirt I compared my yarn to which has the same sheen. It is beautiful though! So whatever it is, I am very happy with my yarn. I will now go read up on Tencel as that sounds intriguing! Thank you for mentioning it as I am not familiar with it. Isn't fiber fun?


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## KansasFarmgirl (Jan 1, 2008)

It's BEAUTIFUL, whatever it is!  

I thought if it smells like burning hair, it has to be animal fiber? 

I got some unlabeled, soft, pretty yarn I am wondering what it is also. I did the burn test and it didn't smell like hair, but it didn't smell like plastic either. So I'm stumped.


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

KansasFarmgirl said:


> It's BEAUTIFUL, whatever it is!
> 
> I thought if it smells like burning hair, it has to be animal fiber?
> 
> I got some unlabeled, soft, pretty yarn I am wondering what it is also. I did the burn test and it didn't smell like hair, but it didn't smell like plastic either. So I'm stumped.


Like it was posted above, yours is possibly a blend of fiber, just like mine could be? Mine does smell like hair when burned. That doesn't guarantee it isn't a blend but I love it so who cares? I will hand wash what I make with it anyhow...so silky soft and the pearled shimmer.... I am so glad you like it too! Right now I am spinning up more of the Icelandic which had tiny VM in it...it does come out when spinning to a degree...


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