Natural Fibers

Here's a quick tutorial on natural fibers:
Wool comes from a domesticated sheep. Wool accepts dye well, is flame-retardant by nature, remains warm even when wet, sheds water better than other yarns. Natural wool should be hand-washed. 'Superwash' wool has been treated to allow machine washing. Wool will usually resume its proper shape when washed correctly; if it is mistreated and washed in too-hot water, it will shrink or felt.

Mohair comes from an Angora goat. Mohair is durable, sheds dirt, dyes well and does not felt easily. Despite its hardiness, it is usually spun into knitting yarn used for fluffy garments and scarves. This knitting yarn is abraded, roughing its fibers to create that 'fuzzy' look.

Angora comes from rabbits. Fabric made from this yarn is inelastic, very fluffy, soft and warm.

Silk is the yarn produced by silk moths. Silk knitting yarn is made from damaged silk cocoons and broken fibers. 'Raw' silk still has the original moth secretions in it. 'Tussah,' silk obtained from wild moths is brown. The food fed to domesticated moths determines their silk's natural color; this can white, green or yellow. Silk retains heat, absorbs moisture, pills less than wool, is very strong and very stable when knit, neither shrinking or stretching.

Cashmere comes from the undercoat of a Cashmere goat. It is so expensive because only a few ounces are obtained from each goat per year. It is such a delicate yarn, more fragile than wool and more susceptible to abrasion, that it is usually blended with wool to make it more durable.

Camel comes from the two-humped or Bactrian camel. Camel hair cannot be bleached, so it is either used undyed or dyed a darker color. It is lightweight and fragile.

Vicuna comes from the vicuna, a South American relative of the camel. They are rounded up once a year and shorn like llamas or sheep; their hair is finer than any other animal yarn.

Alpaca is a smaller relative of the llama but its hair is more commercially valuable. Knitting yarn does not felt or pill easily. It comes in fifteen natural colors (as do the alpacas) and is denser than wool . The undercoat of a llama is very similar to alpaca hair.

Qiviut (kiv-ee-uht) the yarn itself is very hard to find. It comes from a musk ox and resembles pale gray cashmere but does not shrink.