The Bamboo Yarn Process

Bamboo is a renewal resource with many applications.

Bamboo is a fast-growing plant that provides a renewable wood resource with multiple uses. One of those uses is yarn manufacturing. Bamboo yarn is soft, lightweight and glides easily over needles. Crafters can purchase bamboo fiber to make their own yarn or find manufactured skeins at their local yarn shop.

Bamboo Pulp

A manufacturing process involving lye converts the bamboo leaves and the soft inside section of the stems into a liquid pulp. The pulp then undergoes a chemical process to neutralize the lye and turn the pulp into fiber strands for spinning.

Spinning

Bamboo fiber goes to a mill for spinning into yarn. Home spinners can purchase the raw fiber from fiber retailers to make their own yarn on a spinning wheel.

Blending

As with other yarns, bamboo can be combined with other fibers during the spinning process to form a yarn that is part bamboo and part something else, such as silk, nylon or wool. This process changes the texture of the bamboo yarn, making it smoother, thicker or sturdier, depending on the blended fiber.

Biodegradable

Because bamboo yarn is formed from natural bamboo fiber, it is a cellulose-based product that degrades naturally back into the environment.

Eco-Friendliness

While the bamboo plant is a renewable resource, the chemicals used to process the plant into yarn are not so earth friendly. Lye can be toxic to the environment if not used responsibly.

References

• Bamboo T-Shirt: About Bamboo
• The Vancouver Sun: Bamboo Fabric: How It's Made
• SWICOFIL AG Textile Services: Bamboo Yarn & Fibers (PDF)
• Eco Butterfly: FAQ

Resources

• Knittyspin: Spinning with Bamboo Fiber
• Oriri Draco Design: Spinning & Dyeing with Bamboo
• Organic Clothing: Bamboo - The Facts Behind the Fiber