Hi Clay There's nothing written in stone to say that you can't mix fibre types, it's just something that I've "always understood" that traditionally protein fibres go with protein fibres (silk, wool, etc) and cellulose fibres go with cellulose fibres (cotton, linen). Cotton and linen are stronger when wet, silk isn't, but silk is more elastic than cotton or linen. Silk is more affected by sunlight than cotton or linen, but less affected by weak acids. Silk has more resistance to micro organisms but more susceptible to insect damage.
Many knitting and weaving yarns are blends of all sorts of natural and synthetic fibres, mixed with the aim of getting the desired properties of two or more different types of fibre, and for modern lace/textile work you can mix anything you want to, but just be aware that the aftercare/laundering might be a bit more difficult. Brenda > Could you tell me more about what concerns you about combining silk and > cotton? I may need to rethink this.... Brenda in Allhallows www.brendapaternoster.co.uk - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]. Photo site: http://community.webshots.com/user/arachne2003/albums/most-recent
