bamboo


Bamboo is incredibly soft, making it ideal for baby clothes, snuggly fleece bathrobes, and knits worn right next to the skin.

The finished fabric is silky and drapes beautifully.

It doesn’t stick to the skin in hot weather.

The fabric launders well in the washer and dryer.

It’s naturally more wrinkle-resistant than cotton or hemp, and also warmer.

Bamboo fibers do not need to be mercerized.

Bamboo is good for all seasons: it’s breathable in warm weather and keeps the wearer warm in cool weather.

For knitters, bamboo yarns are soft and luxurious to work with, and offer an affordable alternative to knitting with cashmere or other super-soft animal fibers. Summer knitting isn’t just the realm of cotton anymore.

Bamboo and sustainability

The bamboo plant (technically a grass) is an excellent example of sustainability – bamboo grows tall and fast, requiring little water and no pesticides. Anyone who has ever tried to get rid of bamboo from their yard knows how resilient it can be! The plant doesn’t deplete the soil where it is grown, and it even absorbs more carbon dioxide than a tree of similar size. Bamboo is a real alternative to wood, and many producers now use bamboo for flooring, furniture, dishware, and other products as well as textiles.

In order to make bamboo into yarn, the stalks are liquefied and then extruded by machine through spinnerets into threads, which are then spun into yarn. The process is similar to how rayon is made, so sometimes bamboo textiles are referred to as “bamboo rayon” or “bamboo viscose”. Other cellulosics (fibers derived from cellulose) such as lyocell (made from wood pulp) and modal (made from beechwood) are processed this way also.

Some people are concerned about the production of bamboo textiles because the process uses caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), which is dangerous in large quantities. Our fabric suppliers work closely with manufacturers to ensure that the fabrics are made with minimal environmental impact. They use advanced wastewater treatment systems and have strict controls on exhaust emissions.

It is possible to make bamboo fibers from the plant’s stalk, rather than from pulp (the way hemp and linen are made), but currently few manufacturers are doing this, and true bamboo linen (as it would be called) is rare. Many people agree that right now, bamboo viscose is clearly a more sustainable choice than conventional cotton; we hope that market demand will lead to further research on cost-effective ways to process bamboo without chemicals, to fully harness the promise of this fast-growing crop.

For further reading

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