A fiber, as it pertains to textiles, is the smallest unit of a textile. Fibers are very thin, hair-like structures that are generally much longer than they are wide, and they are measured in microns. They can be natural, derived from plants and animals, or synthetic, which are man-made. Natural fibers include cotton, flax, jute, hemp, and sheep wool, while synthetic fibers include nylon, rayon, and polyester.
Fiber blends and combinations are fabrics in which two or more textile fibers are used. The fibers can be blended or combined in various yarn and fabric structures. Blended fabrics are woven or knitted from yarns which have been made by blending two or more fibers together before they are spun into yarn. Combination fabrics are those which contain two or more different types of fibers; the warp or filling yarns may be a blended fiber and the yarn in the other direction may be a single fiber. By making use of these two techniques, textile engineers can now build into fabrics desirable characteristics that cannot be achieved through the use of only one fiber.
When designing a high-quality fabric, the first and most important step is fiber selection. The differences in the fibers chemical composition, molecular and physical structure give a fiber its performance characteristics. There is no such thing as a perfect fiber, and every fiber has its pros and cons. The art of textile science is to blend fibers, yarns, and weaving or knitting techniques to create a fabric with the desired properties.
