I recently overheard this comment by someone who should have known better. At an open house a presenter said that they were not getting the new fiber animals with the 1 to 2 micron fiber. Yes, he did say 1 to 2 micron fiber. Wait for it….because the hair was too fine and brittle.
First off to put this all in perspective the average human hair is approximately 70 microns, plus or minus 20 microns.
I have never seen wool fibers smaller than 15 to 25 microns sell in a retail store, which is considered a finer and softer wool. In fiber a micron is used to measure the diameter of wool. Lambs and kids first cuts might be finer but the trade off is a shorter staple length and a slightly harder spin. The finished yarn will not be as durable either from my personal experience. So that is why if I get any first cuts I blend it with other fibers from the same breed.
A micron is a way to measure the size of a particle. A micron is 1 - 1,000,000 of a meter or 0.001 millimeter or 1 - 25,000 of an inch, or .0003937 inch. It is also said that the human eye can see objects that are approximately 0.1 millimeters in size.
So now that you have seen all the geeky math you know why it gave me a laugh when we left the area.
If you find an error in my math, please know that I relied on a search engine for the hardcore numbers. Math is also not my forte. Although I am getting better at math with the amount of knitting that I do.
Lastly if you are a presenter please know your subject matter a lot better than this. Also feel free to use note cards for the hard to remember things.
