Twisting a cord for basketry

Finger twisting strap-like leaves - first harvest, dry,  separate if necessary into thinner strips (aka 'stripping") store if required. Then before use, lightly spray, roll in an old towel to keep damp while using.  
The image below is using Watsonia leaves  -  looks a bit like a miniature gladiolus, tall leaves, orange flowers, seeds readily, can become a pest!
Start off-centre of selected number of leaves/strips,  twist sufficient times to make a length that will fold back on itself and allow to ply.  Hold the plied section to prevent unraveling.   Follow diagram. adding more leaves to the supply as the end gets closer to the twisted section - tips first.
Three or four twists to the top bundle, then bring that one over the lower bundle.  and so on.  
Use as a weft in a conventional or sewn over style of construction.

Hi Jill. Do you know there's a BB (in the SKIP program) for making such a cord (twine)?
https://permies.com/wiki/105498/pep-textiles/twine-PEP-BB-textile-sand

No Inge, Thanks for the link - now I've had a look, I think I might give it a miss - insufficient materials growing here to complete the task.  Our nettles are a different species, and besides I've been steadily removing them from the veggie garden.   I do grow New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) but I haven't yet mastered the art of efficient release of the fibre from the leaves.  The Maori women make it look so easy.  I resorted to scraping off the outside green, and it took ages.  

Jill Dyer wrote:No Inge, Thanks for the link - now I've had a look, I think I might give it a miss - insufficient materials growing here to complete the task.  Our nettles are a different species, and besides I've been steadily removing them from the veggie garden.   I do grow New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) but I haven't yet mastered the art of efficient release of the fibre from the leaves.  The Maori women make it look so easy.  I resorted to scraping off the outside green, and it took ages.  

Hi Jill. For the BB it doesn't matter what plant fiber you use. But I understand, if you weed your veggie garden, you remove the (stinging) nettles. I have a special bed in the middle of my garden for growing the nettles (and other fiber plants) on purpose.
I know the New Zealand Flax, because I follow someone on Instagram who grows it and uses it for weaving in traditional Maori style. To me it looks like it isn't really suited for making cordage, more for weaving the flat strips just as they grow (into mats, baskets, a.a.). But anyway I can tell you: processing plant materials for fibers, cordage, etc. always takes a lot of time!

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:To me it looks like it isn't really suited for making cordage, more for weaving the flat strips just as they grow (into mats, baskets, a.a.). But anyway I can tell you: processing plant materials for fibers, cordage, etc. always takes a lot of time!

One of NZ's earliest industries was the export of ropes made from NZ flax🥰

There are lots of online videos demonstrating the technique of how to prepare the fibres.

Essentially, you split the leaves into narrow lengthwise strips, discarding the centre spine, make a shallow cut through the bottom (dull side) of the leaf, bend and strip the outer layer down to the fibres with a mussel shell or sharp stone.

Some people use a fine toothed comb (like a lice comb).

I'm lazy and just plait fine strips to use as garden ties and as they weather, the outer leaf layer naturally rots away to the underlying fibres. I'l take some photos later and post them.

I found this video, but she only splits the leaves of the NZ Flax in smaller strips. That's the same I do with brambles (long vines of blackberry), using the outer layer and splitting it in strips. But it is different from getting fine fibers out of (European) flax or stinging nettles.

Here's a video with how to strip the leaves for cordage

   https://youtu.be/vsL8SV-cVL8?si=BWd1kBipV82WgxWJ&t=385    

Unfortunately, the video can't be embedded, you need to open the link in YouTube

The Templeton Mill is about two hours drive away from where we live and is still operational but only as a tourist attraction

Hello Inge and Megan - I started my quest for N.Z. flax fibre when I wanted a substitute for the PNG Tu-lip (= two leaf in local dialect) bast used by the women - and found a video showing a Maori woman using a mussel shell to remove all the green outside of a leaf.  She made it look easy!  Substitute the back of my butter knife; that didn't make any impression and any other tool I tried was too sharp and tended to go right through.  I ended up using the side of a teaspoon to remove the green by scraping.   I'll post an image shortly showing the fibres hanging out of the end of a leaf where the feral deer have had a chew on it.  Also the fibres I obtained that weren't used.    They are very like European flax fibre.
It's interesting to note that early rope/string/cordage/yarn appears to have been spun in the opposite fashion to how we make yarn today on our spindles and wheels.  
Originally  S-spun and Z-plied.  Now we usually  Z-spin (clockwise) and S-ply (anticlockwise)  I've noted that the S/Z combination doesn't loosen when looped.

Jill Dyer wrote:...
It's interesting to note that early rope/string/cordage/yarn appears to have been spun in the opposite fashion to how we make yarn today on our spindles and wheels.  
Originally  S-spun and Z-plied.  Now we usually  Z-spin (clockwise) and S-ply (anticlockwise)  I've noted that the S/Z combination doesn't loosen when looped.

My own experience, and what I found in recent information makes clear why this is. The earliest rope/string/cordage was not spun with a spindle, but turned with the fingers (like you wrote before). If you do this with your right hand, you will start turning a strand backwards (S-twist) and then 'ply' it over the other strand forwards (Z-ply). Only someone who's left-handed will do it the other way round.

Scientists who do research in Switzerland, Austria and Italy (the circum-Alpine lakes) come to the conclusion that in many of the old remains of plant-fiber textiles found there (preserved in the wetlands) the threads were not spun, but twisted by hand!

I wanted to give a link to the article in which I found the information. In my chaos bookmarks of different articles on textiles I did not yet find it. But I did find this one, it is on the same topic, but the research is done in the UK:
webpage

Excellent link - thanks Inge.  I read "somewhere" that the very fine Egyptian linens were done this way too - I'm guessing pectin and moisture held the small bundles together at the splice.  On an aside, I asked whether the Egyptian flax was the same plant as the European variety, since they grew in such different conditions - to which the answer was No - but no further distinguishing of species was offered.  No more info. found as yet.

If you search "Eugenio Monesma Youtube" you will find a kazillion videos he has made of people preserving the old skills and crafts, mostly in and around Spain. Lots of stuff on fibes and weaving materials- even making traditional bee hives from fibre. The commentary is in Spanish but the subtitles can be a hoot and are entertaining in their own right
 https://www.youtube.com/@eugeniomonesma-documentales/videos

Jill Dyer wrote:Excellent link - thanks Inge.  I read "somewhere" that the very fine Egyptian linens were done this way too - I'm guessing pectin and moisture held the small bundles together at the splice.  On an aside, I asked whether the Egyptian flax was the same plant as the European variety, since they grew in such different conditions - to which the answer was No - but no further distinguishing of species was offered.  No more info. found as yet.

All information I can find tells that it is the same species of flax, Linum Usitatissimum. But there are many varieties within that species. Different varieties can require different climates and soils. But there are also varieties for producing more seeds (linseed, for oil) and varieties for producing (finer or coarser) fibers.

New research is still done on the 'splicing' technique of making thread. New information is appearing (while I am always late to read it, because I am not a scientist).

Megan Palmer wrote:Here's a video with how to strip the leaves for cordage

Hi Megan, thanks for sharing! I watched the video several times and still can't figure out how it is done. It looks as if the New Zealand flax leaf is like a Aloe Vera and the top layer is peeled off cleanly. However, I tried with my local yucca (Yucca arkansana), the laminar tissues need to be scaped out since they are between the parallel veins. I haven't seen a new Zealand flax in person so maybe the leaf structure is somewhat different and thus easier for fiber use?

r ranson has a thread here, all about New Zealand Flax.

May Lotito wrote:
It looks as if the New Zealand flax leaf is like a Aloe Vera and the top layer is peeled off cleanly. However, I tried with my local yucca (Yucca arkansana), the laminar tissues need to be scaped out since they are between the parallel veins. I haven't seen a new Zealand flax in person so maybe the leaf structure is somewhat different and thus easier for fiber use?

Hello May.  I am not familiar with yucca arkansana however NZ flax leaves are very strong and the leaves are joined at the base.

When they are stripped for fibre, they are scraped from the underside of the leaf.

I usually just tear them into thin strips and use them as ties around the garden instead of string. If I need them to last a bit longer, I plait the strips.

I will try to remember to take some photos of a freshly cut leaf and post to this thread.

They set lots of seeds so happy to collect and send some to you to try to grow. The botanical name of NZ flax is phormium tenax.

I collect the seeds to feed to our chickens.

Here are some very weathered strips that were tied around the handle to our chicken coop door that have naturally broken down into fibres

Megan, thanks for offering! I see there are listings online so I can buy within US without giving you the hassle with the custom. My area gets as cold as -20 C in winter so the New Zealand flax may not survive in ground though. Beautiful leaves and flowers, strong fiber, pollinator magnet, it sure is a wonderful plant.