Urtica dioica, the stinging nettle, was and is used in many cultures as a fibre plant. Harvested in late September and the stalks are dried and then processed like flax. In the Himalayas and Japan another part of the nettle family is used for fibre production, Dendrocnide excelsa. This is the Giant nettle (still stinging) growing up to 7 m. Several Japanese fibre artists use nettle yarn for weaving. Recently, with the growing interest in "green" fibre production (cotton farming being one of the foremost pesticide emitters in the world) and as fair trade projects, Nepal revived its nettle spinning industry and there are several sites where you can purchase nettle cloth in ranges from very coarse to fine quality, it is usally sold as 'Allo' cloth. As linen and hemp, nettle cloth needs a rather long time to loose its stiffness, which on the other hand makes it perfect for wall hangings or table cloth or, of course, warp yarn. If the Jamestown tribe page http://jamestowntribe.or! g/coastsalishweaving.htmis is to be believed, the Coastal Salish used nettle yarn as warp for some of their blankets/carpets. In the middle ages, nettle cloth was widely used in middle Europe parallel to hemp and flax.
I tried processing my nettles last year but someone in my family thought it aesthetically challenging (the 'what will the neighbours say' challenging) and cut the nettles of. I hope, I made my point clear to them this year and will get enough to process them. ;o) best wishes Ulrike, spinner, dyer, weaver from Germany >O.K, I love nettle soup, am aware of the medicinal properties of nettles, and >I feed them dried to the "ferd", but spinning? How do you do that? And what do >you get when you do, and what do you use if for? Which makes me wonder about >basket weaving etc. as well.... and....??? >Margot Grim >Grim's Faerytale Farm >Woodinville, WA To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
