History of Milk Cotton Yarn

A unique blend of milk fibre and cotton, milk cotton yarn is a soft, hypoallergenic and affordable yarn. Its core component, milk fibre was first produced in Italy in 1935 by Antonio Ferretti and sold under the product name: Lanital.

Milk fibre is made by removing most of the milk's cream and then washing the remnants with acid to extract the protein in the milk called casein. The casein is then hydrated and passed through spinnerets. The resulting fibre is placed into a bath to harden and is cut to the desired length afterwards.

Advantages of Milk Cotton

Milk cotton was invented to combat the cost of pure milk fibre with a blend of 20% milk fibre and 80% cotton, though some blends use other materials like rayon and acrylic. In recent years, milk cotton yarn has seen a resurgence in popularity due to its hypoallergenic properties and is unlikely to cause an allergic reaction to the wearer.

Milk cotton yarn is also comparatively more eco-friendly as opposed to other affordable yarn alternatives such as acrylic, which is notorious for its shedding of microplastics. It is also softer and easier to work with as compared to acrylic, due to it being less rough and fraying less. Want to try milk cotton yarn? Head over to our store and find a wide range of shades!