The Fiberary

And I successfully found one entire stalk I think! There were several groupings of other nettle-like-ish plants as well so I grabbed one of those too, because why not.

Once I got home I stripped off the leaves, smushed them with the closest thing I could find (my wife’s unusable blacksmithing hammer–unusable because the handle is also metal), and then stripped out the pith for both (the nettle was far easier to deal with), and then I started scraping.

Scraping nettles (or anything bast fiber-y) seems to be more art than science. I scraped quite a bit and ended up shortening my fibers a lot more than I hoped or intended, but it was still way longer than the usual staple length of wool I work with when spinning. I also couldn’t quite get all the green bits off. I suppose if I find more nettles I’ll get more practice.

Finally I took the little bundles of fibers I had and twisted them each into a tiny tiny piece of cordage, which is the only thing I bothered to take a picture of.

All in all, after a day of doing little tasks (some chores, some fun things), it was a nice way to get some exercise and have a brief fiber-y adventure. I don’t think the plant that wasn’t nettles quite works as well for something spinnable, but it was nifty to try anyway!