Hemp - Spinning and Weaving

I'm working on a Spinning Certificate.  The current fiber I'm learning to work with is hemp.  I'm discovering much about this "forbidden" fiber.  Firstly here's a post about a 200 year old nightgown made from hemp.

Here's the beginning of this interesting post.  Photos and closeups are on the linked page.

"My fiancee deals in antiques & I help him on the side. I went to an estate sale & purchased a bunch of handspun cloth nightgowns from the 1820s/30s era. The woman at the sale was telling me about the process of how the woman made the cloth from hemp & showing me the beautiful tiny details of their work.


There was not a hole in ANY of the fifteen I purchased. They were thick & sturdy. I brought them home & gently washed them with some oxyclean & put a little fabric softner in with them. They came out white & beautiful.

I was awe-struck. I have always known, intectually, that hemp was suppossed to make great clothing & it has a million & one other uses as well. But, it wasn’t until I put my hands on these nearly 200 YEAR OLD pieces of fabric that I realized why industry would want to fight this plant. It lasts, if not forever, then for a couple of life-times or more. How on earth would they be able to generate profit. . . . "  [misspellings are from original post]


Read the entire post at Found Handspun Antique Hemp Nightgowns – I now know why Pot is illegal
Janice

Planting Future Cotton for Spinning!

Jillan (from Ravelry) sent me four colors of cotton seeds recently. Surprisingly I planted six of each color and have these adorable little plants. Now I need to figure out where to plant them so they will grow! grow!! grow!!!!