spinning plants

yarn

posted on by Lee Cattarin

6 small skeins of handspun yarn, each made from a different plant fiber. from top, we have flax (medium brown, rough); what is probably lotus (golden, shiny and soft); banana (white and semi shiny); hemp (light brown, rough); tencel (white and very shiny); ramie (a particularly small skein, white and semi shiny)

work in progress! To be updated as I continue spinning.

in picture, from top:

  1. flax
  2. (probably) lotus
  3. banana
  4. hemp
  5. tencel
  6. rose
  7. ramie

notes on handspinning various plant fibers. Fibers were purchased as a sample pack from Hearthside Fibers. Unfortunately, I spun the first sample - flax - in 2023, so don’t have thoughts on that left in my head. I also received a mystery sample along with the 12 named samples that may have been lotus - it’s the smallest skein in the image. The lotus was also spun in 2023.

  • overall, these are broadly more slippery than wool
  • most if not all of these benefitted from pre-drafting moreso than I usually do for wool

ease of spinning

  • easy: flax, hemp
  • middling: banana, tencel
  • hard: rose
  • worst: ramie

texture (of final yarn)

  • softest: rose
  • pleasant: banana, tencel
  • meh: ramie
  • itchy: hemp, flax

density/thickness

I am estimating this via yards per gram of fiber. Other than the flax and lotus (can’t promise anything there), I aimed for my average spin with all of these and spun them on the same tool (Wheeliam, an Ashford Kiwi 3). Per-fiber notes mention whether they spun thick or thin if notable.

fiber yards grams yds/g
banana 33 22 1.50
flax 33 27 1.22
hemp 41 26 1.58
lotus 16 12 1.33
rose 60 29 2.07
tencel 31 29 1.07
ramie 7.5 5 1.5

per-fiber breakdown

written up in order of spinning.

banana

  • felt a bit wear-y on the hands - that may have been the silk I spun earlier that day though
  • a bit hard to draft, quite liked to stick to itself and clump, but once moving was quite slippery

hemp

  • awful feeling. awful awful awful. hate.
  • easy to spin
  • quite grippy
  • easy joins
  • difficult to tell apart from stray plant matter

rose

  • incredibly soft; shiny and very pretty
  • quite difficult to spin
  • wanted to spin thin
  • joins were tough, it’s quite slippery
  • needed slow and careful drafting because of the above - I brought my wheel down to a lower ratio which is rare

tencel

  • also felt a bit wear-y like banana
  • spun a bit thick and liked to clump
  • not as bad as rose on the slippery front
  • very shiny, almost glittery in spots
  • dense and spun up fast

ramie

  • hated this
  • slippery af
  • constantly splitting all over the place so I couldn’t keep the fibers aligned in the slightest
  • stopped after 5g because it sucked and I didn’t care to finish it