I Am A Boss

I'm not normally one to crow over my own achievements (what with being a self-effacing Asian-American and all...oh but wait, I put my life up on teh interwebs, so maybe not), but this is too awesome not to share. Besides, where else would I find people who would be equally excited about being an official fiber geek, if not in the sewing blogosphere?

To use a Barney Stinson-ism: WHAT UP.  I have no shame in being the Hermione Granger of my textiles class. Allow me a moment to bask in the glory of having the high score on our first midterm. Gosh, I love being a student again and getting praised for reaching concrete, quantifiable milestones. I have to admit to being slightly peeved at myself for missing those two points, though, because then I would've had a perfect score...what can I say, I'm a classic overachiever.

[Also, for those of you who wanted to know what textbook we're using, it's up there at the top: Textiles by Sara J. Kadolph, and my prof prefers the 10th edition since the information is arranged better, and the charts aren't white text on a red background (who thought that would be a good idea?!??!). ]

Oh wait, you're here to learn more about fibers with the help of cats, and not to see some smug celebration of meaningless academic achievement that has no bearing on the truly important things in life, like world peace and neutering/spaying your pets? Well, never let it be said that I wasn't an acquiescent blogger; I present qualities of man-made fabrics, as helpfully illustrated by more cats:

Lyocell, rayon, and bamboo are pretty much the exceptions to every statement about synthetics, since they are regenerated cellulosics. This means that they start out as actual cellulose (from spruce, hemlock, or bamboo pulp), and by the time they are extruded and dried, they once again have the structure of the cellulose polymer, so they still breathe like cotton and linen. However, the chemicals used to dissolve the cellulose to make the liquid solution result in a weaker fiber than natural cellulosics. 

Classic synthetic polymers like polyester and nylon lack the bulky functional groups of natural polymers, meaning that the fibers are very smooth and can pack together tightly, and it also leaves no options for hydrogen bonding with water. The former quality means that you can get very tightly woven cloth that is water-resistant and shiny, and the latter quality means that it has poor absorbency and is harder to dye. You know how oil and water don't mix? We call oils hydrophobic molecules, and guess what -- hydrophobic molecules love each other, which is why when you get an oil stain on a poly or nylon garment, you can pretty much assume it will never wash out. Similarly, if you wash a cotton garment with an oil stain with a non-stained poly garment, the oil may wash out of the cotton and then glom onto the poly.

Also, I never used to pre-wash/pre-shrink my synthetic yardage since I knew it was supposed to be dimensionally stable, but our prof pointed out that even though the fiber itself resists shrinkage, the way it is woven into fabric may still be dimensionally unstable, so it's best to pre-wash even the synthetic fabrics. 

Anyway, I promise I've done some real sewing, too, and not just studying and doodling in my notes. Stay tuned for one of my favorite (non-geeky) sheet dresses yet!

This is Walnut sitting on the dishwasher, staying tuned for those shrimp tails that he can see being peeled.
Look at all that gloriously non-synthetic fluff! Sometimes he doesn't even look real.