viscose
Viscose rayon - the oldest man made fiber - versatile fiber yarn
testament to my appalling willpower; i'm working on another seraphina. i love working with the caribea handspun but it's never going to be a snuggly next to skin thing, more outerwear and the sproing means it doesn't have great drape. but since my spot in the front room happens to be the coldest in the house, next to where arctic winds apparently blow through the window (we're getting some replaced w/double glazed but don't have funds to do the ones that aren't literally falling into the street) i thought i could do with one for cwtshing into of an evening.
i wasn't actually looking for anything specific but the silkiest deep pink jumper in the world refused to let me leave the shop without it. my brain said no as it had a fairly high proportion of synthetics, but my hand said yesyesyes and i couldn't resist.
now i was under the impression that viscose was a synthetic on a par with poly and acrylic, but something in the back of my mind said it might be the same as rayon, a cellulose fibre that gets great press in the sewing communities i frequent. and so it turns out. the jumper is a blend of mostly cotton/viscose/poly with touches of cashmere and angora. it is impossibly silky smooth with fantastic drape and machine washable. i was looking up the fibre as a possible for spinning and it's available in the states but couldn't find much info on how difficult it is to work, needs to be blended though.
the seraphina's coming on slowly because the yarn's lace weight again, but i reckon i'm about half way through size-wise and it looks like i'm about half way through the yarn too which is handy. it's great because the deep collar and cuffs were done in the same yarn but triple plied, so i have more of the same gorgeous stuff but in a more workable weight that might stretch to a pair of gloves (oooh maybe to the fingerless gloves/mittens i've been coveting).