Natural Fibers

Cotton

Cotton is a plant fiber. Is is made of cellulose, like wood and paper. The bolls just off the plant have short soft fibers. Since the fibers are relatively short, the fibers must be spun with a lot of twist.

Wool

Wool is an animal fiber, and is therefore composed of protein. It is sheared (clipped) from sheep. The sheep are not hurt or killed in the shearing process (in fact, domesticated breeds must be shorn or their wool will become too long, matted, dirty, and disease-prone).

Wool comes in quite a range of lengths and textures, including variations in grist (fineness/coarseness), crimp (frequency of waviness), length and color.

Silk

What is she going to do with those cocoons?

Silk also comes from an animal source and so is also a protein fiber. It comes from the cocoon of certain varieties of moth. The moth larvae (caterpillar/worm) spin the cocoon about themselves when it is time for their metamorphosis into the adult moth form. The long lustrous fibers of silk used in commercial preparations are obtained using a process that kills the moth, since if it were to emerge, the fibers would be damaged. If the moth emerges, the silk is still useable for a preparation like silk noil (a.k.a. "raw silk").

Resources for silk: Treenway

A new protein fiber is being manufactured as a by product of processing soybeans. It is called "Soy Silk". It is strong and lustrous like silk and has a similar "squeak" in the hand. Here are links to an article by a firm in China, and a source in the U.S for this fiber.

Linen

Linen is the name for the spun or woven form of flax, which is a fibrous portion of the stem of the flax plant. It is cellulose, like cotton, but since it is a "bast" fiber (meaning it comes from a stem), it is very strong, and tends to be stiffer than cotton, though it does soften beautifully with age.

Resources for bast fibers: Ohio Hempery