• Fibres: Long, fine, continuous threads or filaments are obtained from plants and animals.
Two types of fibers: (i) Animal fibres (ii) Plant fibres
• Animal fibres are obtained from two sources: Silk and Wool
• Silk comes from silkworms and wool is obtained from sheep, goat and yak. Hence silk and wool are animal fibres.
• The hairs of camel, llama and alpaca are also processed to yield wool.
• In India, mostly sheep are reared for getting wool.
• Sheep hair is sheared off from the body, scoured, sorted, dried, dyed, spun and woven to yield wool.
• Silkworms are caterpillars of silk moth.
• During their life cycle, the worms spin cocoons of silk fibres.
• Silk fibres are made of a protein.
• Silk fibres from cocoons are separated out and reeled into silk threads.
• Weavers weave silk threads into silk cloth.
• Wool: Sources of Wool: Wool is obtained from sheep, yak (Tibet and Ladakh), Angora goat,
goat, camels, llama and Alpaca (South America)
• Obtaining wool fibre: Shearing: Fleece of the sheep along with a thin layer of skin is removed from its body.
• Processing of Wool Fibre:
(i) Scouring: Sheared hair is cleaned and washed in tanks to remove grease, dust and dirt.
(ii) Soritng: Cleaned hair is sent to a factory where hair of different textures are separated.
(iii) Hair is sent into a ‘Carding’ machine where the loose wool fibres are combed into a sheet and then twisted into a rope or silver.
(iv) This silver is twisted and stretched into a yarn.
(v) The yarn is wound to form balls of wool.