Wind retting

Wind retting is my name for a technique of retting I learned last year. It involves hanging fibers in an exposed place (such as a clothesline or the limb of a tree) until they have become retted. Traditional dew and water retting have had varying results for me, as oftentimes the line between under retted and over retted is very very thin (I have wasted lots of fiber), but wind retting seems to be a gentle and easy method that is well suited especially to milkweed; but it should also work with other fibers.

Milkweed is a difficult fiber to work with at times. With traditional retting, they break down very quickly while the thick, waxy bark often remains in place; whereas scraping can be labor-intensive. However, last year, having peeled some milkweed bark, I hung it over the limb of a birch tree in the open air. After a while I came back; the outer bark had broken down, and the bark strips had turned milkweed’s characteristic snowy white color. They can then be rubbed to release the pure fiber. It is one of the most attractive plant fibers I know—shining in color and soft to the touch. It is possible to get milkweed of this quality during the winter, but many are overretted and weak, and they may ret unevenly. So wind retting seems to me the best option so far for getting clothing-quality fibers from the plant.

I wonder how it would work for other fibers—nettle, hemp, etc.

I also left some stalks out in a sunny, exposed area this summer for a month or so, and it worked in the same way, though it is less easy to peel off, and earwigs made a home in the stalks. The picture below is from these stalks.

This is interesting. I've spun garment-quality yarn from several wools, mohair, angora, and cat fur, but I haven't got the knack of working any vegetable fiber. I've been trying off and on to make cordage from blackberry canes every summer for three years and it's a miserable slog -- if I needed this to survive, I'd be dead. I have some nettle and lots of milkweed, so I ought to try this. Do you have recommendations for things to read or watch, or should I just search YouTube and find what I find?

Maieshe Ljin wrote:having peeled some milkweed bark

And can you explicate specifically that a little? Do you pull a milkweed plant and then strip the leaves and bash up the stem to separate the strands and is that what you hang or are there other steps?

Christopher Weeks wrote:This is interesting. I've spun garment-quality yarn from several wools, mohair, angora, and cat fur, but I haven't got the knack of working any vegetable fiber. I've been trying off and on to make cordage from blackberry canes every summer for three years and it's a miserable slog -- if I needed this to survive, I'd be dead. I have some nettle and lots of milkweed, so I ought to try this. Do you have recommendations for things to read or watch, or should I just search YouTube and find what I find?

Maieshe Ljin wrote:having peeled some milkweed bark

And can you explicate specifically that a little? Do you pull a milkweed plant and then strip the leaves and bash up the stem to separate the strands and is that what you hang or are there other steps?

I have never made cordage out of blackberry, but milkweed should be very easy. You should see Sally Pointer's youtube channel as I learned many wild fiber processing skills from her information.

When peeling the milkweed bark, I first strip off the leaves (they make a nutritious mulch that breaks down easily) and then crush or stomp on the stalks. Now follow one of the splits and open the stem up so that it lies somewhat flat. From the top, begin snapping off pieces of the wood material and rocking them back and forth while separating them from the bark, and keep doing that all down the stalk. Milkweed bark generally comes off very easily while they are still wet and alive. Then you are left with the strips of bark, which you may dry, usable for making cordage and basketry, or to be further processed in the manner I described, or pounded and scraped fresh to reveal the long fibers in a somewhat more labor intensive way.

I hope this has been helpful!