Banana Fibre - useful or not for spinning?

Banana stem can be used for paper making and chopped into mortar or cob.    As it has very long fibres, could it be used for yarn and for spinning?
I suspect that if it can be spun, it would make beautiful stiff fabric to dye and paint for blinds or room dividers , similar to the Japanese dividers.

i do not know about the spin ability but you would want to use varieties like musa textilis or musa basjoo

I saw this video via a Facebook ad the other day:

The fibres definately look pretty good, although here they're mainly using them for rugs.
I then got distracted and found a lovely one of traditional Japanese process:

which looks like they ret the stems before extracting the fibre and make quite fine cloth.
There's also a few videos about using the fibres for sanitory pads.

I use the peels as a sedative tea, so only the stems go to waste, at our house, because I haven't been able to find a use for them, other than compost, or fertilizer. This is an idea I hadn't thought of, but I'll be picking up more, in a day or two, so I'll play with them, and see what works - and doesn't!

Back in 2013 or so, I picked up a skein of banana fiber yarn that was dyed in blues and greens, was shiny and soft, and was more of a slightly structured roving than anything. I still have it somewhere - I made it into a crocheted scarf, using a larger hook (maybe and H (5 mm) hook and simple pattern.

I learned very quickly that the yarn/roving was heavy and, while beautiful, wasn't very strong. It would break under it's own weight and had to be handled very carefully. The crocheted scarf ending up too heavy to wear, even with just one skein and the lacy pattern involved. I frogged it, then tried a couple of other ideas. It's back to being a PIB until I can figure out what and how to make something with it. I'm thinking about couching it onto a fabric as decoration, or otherwise using it as a bit of "fancy pretty" on something able to back it and keep the stress off of it. It would make a nice edging for a jacket or top or couched onto a simple, not too full skirt.

If you were to be looking for something to do with the fiber, spinning seems doable, but a tighter spin, with less "artistic spinning" would probably be better. It is a heavy fiber, based on my very limited experience, and might be recalcitrant to cooperating.

I would love to play with banana fibre.  I see it popping up all over the place.
Someone keeps promising to bring me some back from the Philippines, but it never happens.  

r ranson wrote:I would love to play with banana fibre.  I see it popping up all over the place.
Someone keeps promising to bring me some back from the Philippines, but it never happens.  

I found it stateside. It was probably much more expensive than buying it at the source.

This is very similar to what I have : https://www.darngoodyarn.com/products/banana-fiber-yarn

I probably would choose to buy yarn through a different site, but there are companies that will export and/or ship.
https://www.exporthub.com/banana-fibre-yarn-manufacturers/

This site walks you through processing your own fiber, and dying it.
https://www.allfiberarts.com/2017/spin-flora-banana-fibre.htm

Basically, it's out there, if you want to play with it. I wasn't impressed with the yarn I had/have, but there's been a decent amount of time from my experiment to now. We all know how quickly things can change, so they probably have much better yarn now.
Good luck!