Drifting through my fiber stash, rapt with discovery of blending different fibers, like seaweed and flax, silk and nettle, exploring new combinations of fiber together, learning, proving, questioning, documenting, sensing, interpreting… improving. I mean, what else is there to do?

Pairing ancient fibers of silk and nettles: As for the silk fiber, I am now interested in a thing which is called “peace silk” which harvests the silk cocoons only after the moth has emerged, safely and happily flying off on its rightful life adventure, and therefore a thing which I will continue to spin — however, I had accumulated a bit of conventional silk roving back when I was setting up my fiber studio in 2020, stashing a crazy amount of intriguing fibers to spin, what I was thinking at that time I forget, but I am finally getting around to opening the stash with curiosity.

Giant Himalayan Stinging Nettle is similar to flax and hemp, considered a “bast” fiber, and the use of which most certainly is ancient. It is readily available in long fiber top, but what I had apparently done is purchase an amount of shredded chopped up nettle fiber, that I can liken to flax tow… or pillow stuffing. The fiber I have is unruly and I had no idea how to spin, but I figured I should find out. After a little research I discovered this is called “cottonized”, perhaps so that it blends better with other short fibers, as the premium nettles top is extremely long. I should have bought the top, but at the time, I didn’t know there was Giant Himalayan Stinging Nettle top, had only yet seen this cottonized version.

This blend is another odd couple for certain, combining a very rough and tough nettle plant fiber which is short and seemingly shredded and twiggy, with a beautiful slick long graceful green mulberry silk. I had just watched a Longthread Media instruction video Spinning Exotic Fiber Blends and so I thought I would try what the lesson suggested, cutting the longer fiber (silk) to the same length as the shorter fiber (in this case, the cottonized nettle) to bring more uniformity into different staple length, but let me say, it wasn’t until the spinning singles started to break a lot, and I decided that was probably not such a great idea. Also I tried a thing which is called “wet spinning” where I simply dip my fingers in water, which made the stiff nettle fibers relax and spin better, with far less breakage. The effect of the cottonized nettle looks silk noil, very rustic and beautiful, but is a bit scratchy, with stiff fibers sticking out, so I don’t think I will explore this cottonized nettle further. Figuring out each fiber blend’s characteristics is quite an adventure, oh, and next time I won’t cut the silk.

As I am finding myself with an apparent surplus of carded rolags to spin on my array of Turkish spindles, and so I have gotten into the habit of spinning while watching the 6 o’clock news, a thing which I am humorously referring to now, as Whorl’d News.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Silk: Mulberry silk roving from Paradise Fibers, Malabo Green, approx 50%
• Nettles: Cottonized nettle fiber I don’t have any idea where I picked it up, but it is undyed, and I used approx 50%