Does Your Santa Need A Beard?

The Christmas craft season is underway and with it the hunt for pure white fiber. It comes in handy for all sorts of projects from Santa's beard to snow dusted pine branches. Many customers ask me for white wool, but the truth is, unless bleached, wool in it's natural state is more of an ecru. If you want seriously white fiber, Snow Mountain is a nice product for crafting.

Snow Mountain is a nylon that is prepared into a top like wool. It's soft and has a nice staple length of approximately 4 inches. It's easy to spin and though it will not wet felt, it needle felts with ease. The fibers can also be teased apart to create a snow covered landscape. It's a very handy craft fiber to have around and right now I have it listed in 1oz, 2oz and 3oz sizes.

If you like the idea of Snow Mountain, but you also like a little sparkle, there's a new fiber on the block. It's called StarBright. StarBright is a high luster tri-lobal nylon product that has more luster than Snow Mountain. StarBright is a 3 Denier nylon. If we transfer Deniers to Microns, that would make StarBright a 19 micron nylon, so it's a very soft fiber. The staple length is approximately 3 inches. It's a nice way to add a subtle sparkle to your crafts.

If you feel that there is no such thing as too much sparkle, then Firestar is the fiber for you. Firestar is also a nylon and when it comes to sparkle, it's one of the best! It has about a 4" staple length and it too will needle felt just like StarBright and Snow Mountain.

If you're reading this and thinking to yourself that all this is well and good, but you really just prefer natural wool. I hear you and I'd like to recommend Falkland top. It's natural color is quite light and it has a very long staple length. It averages around 5" so you could give Santa a nice long beard. Sometimes using natural wool gives your crafts a more homey or vintage feel. Whatever fiber you choose, have a wonderful, crafty time!