Let’s talk about camel!
Note: I focus a lot on silk blends because I don’t like the texture of pure animal hair and wool yarns. I only use animal fibers when they’re blended with silk, which makes the resulting yarn shinier and smoother. Read on for a basic rundown on camel fiber, and why its ultimate form is a 50/50 camel-silk blend.
Camel fiber used for commercially available yarns is harvested from the two-humped Bactrian camel. They have a double coat with soft, fluffy down and coarse, stiffer guard hairs. Sound familiar? If you’re thinking that sounds a lot like yak, that’s because it is! Bactrian camels and the Asian yak are both found on the Mongolian steppes, so they have evolved very similar coats. Double coats are quite common in mammals of all kinds that live in cold areas, and the down undercoat of many (if not most) of these creatures can be spun into a soft, warm yarn.
As with most fibers acquired from a double-coated animal, the coarser guard hairs are used for more utilitarian purposes like rugs. Camel down is also a warmer and more breathable fiber than merino wool. Overall, very similar to yak. However, camels have a higher fiber yield, roughly 2.25kg per animal per year. Still not that much, which is why it’s a luxury fiber!
If you knit or crochet or spin, you probably have heard of alpaca, and I recently mentioned vicuña in my rant about fiber content. These South American beasties are camelids, cousins of the Bactrian and dromedary camels of Asia and Africa. They are famously know for producing very soft fibers, and they also have double coats! Camel is very similar, but has slightly less “crimp.” If you aren’t familiar with the term, it’s the natural waviness or curliness in the structure of the fiber. Fibers with a lot of crimp are easier to spin because they adhere to each other but the resulting yarn is also less shiny.
If you read my yak yarn post you might believe I’m a fan of undyed natural color fibers…and I kind of am. But the thing about self-colored yarns is that the colors tend to be sorta boring. Sheep’s wool usually just comes in a range of brownish greys and greyish browns. Alpaca and vicuña are a little more interesting with stronger orange tones. Add crimp on top of that and you end up with a bunch of mostly matte browns and greys. Camel is much the same, though the colors are more saturated and generally skew lighter, ranging from creamy white to rusty orange.
As you can see, 100% camel has a soft luster but not a true shine.
And this is where silk blends come into play:
The left image is combed baby camel down, ie the first harvest from a camel no more than 1 year old. The right is a 50/50 blend of baby camel and silk. When spun, the 100% camel has a matte, rustic finish, while the blend is sleek and elegant:
100% camel yarn by Badma Yarns on the left, a 50/50 camel/silk blend from Wool2Dye4 on the right.
I am biased as hell, but in my humble opinion, if you’re going to blend an exotic animal fiber to lower the price, the primary component of supplemental fibers should be undyed silk. Silk is generally hypoallergenic, unlike merino or cashmere. The fibers are very long and infamously strong. Because the natural color of silk is a creamy white, it softens the natural colors of animal fibers without obscuring them. And of course, it’s super fucking shiny. When a high percentage of silk is blended with an animal fiber, the resulting yarn usually ends up with a gorgeous satiny luster.
But silk isn’t cheap either. This means many blends will incorporate sheep’s wool, usually merino, which is considered a very soft wool. Unfortunately for those of us with sensitive skin or wool allergies, merino blends are a no-go. If you can tolerate sheep’s wool, lucky you!
If you are planning a big project and can afford a bulk purchase, Wool2Dye4’s camel-silk blend at wholesale price is actually relatively affordable ($19 for a 100gm skein, which is actually comparable to, if not cheaper than, a lot of hand-dyed yarns sold by indie dyers). But you have to buy a pack of 10 skeins. Great for crocheters! If you knit….find a friend (or several) who wants to split an order. Or plan a lot of projects.
