Alex Delashmit

Hi Ryan Great post. I've managed to figure out how to turn yucca fibers into soft fibers for yarn production. I learned this from an old online 1960s study on the Wetherill Mesa and fibers they found on the site. I talked about it in this thread months ago with pictures of the fibers.

This works best with younger leaves for softer fibers but can be done with older leaves but might require a bit more work. The fibers can get very soft. Sun drying bleaching the fibers also makes them turn out very beautifully white. https://permies.com/t/58819/works-making-yarn-plants

Very fine yucca fibers the bigger bundle is semi soft good enough for textiles the middle one is the softest. And makes very excellent long and strong thread. I processed them the same way like how the native people did it in the study I linked. I'm guessing adding juniper ashes to the boiling water helps remove the flesh off the leaves.

I've made nettle fiber very soft by boiling it and chewing the fibers for a long time. Washing it and letting it dry in the sun. It's white like cotton.

Be careful people with certain plants. Today I had a really weird reaction to the sap of a yucca plant I found growing elsewhere. My hands were super itching and burning. It stopped after I rinsed it off with water. But never have much of a reaction with the one plant growing by my home. I've been using it for months. My theory is that I was becoming allergic which I'm ruling out otherwise I wouldn't be using it, or the plants growing conditions were different and my skin had a reaction of some sort. Sensed it? Not quite sure just really weird.

Here's the other half of yucca fiber processing I found in Google books.  Chewing them really softens them better than pounding which can damage the fibers more. https://books.google.com/books?id=7UtBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA78&dq=yucca+fiber+chewed&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjpqf2vr96NAxUzvokEHem0EQQQ6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=yucca%20fiber%20chewed&f=false

Chenopodium plants native to the Midwest can be used as soap. Especially chenopodium album it's not native. But there are native strains that can be used as soap. By crushing the roots real well and mixing them with water. Also wild amaranth roots can be used as well. It's nice as the pigment in the roots gives the root soap a natural color.

If you Google aloe fiber it looks very, very similar to the yucca fiber. I processed.

Here's the old 1960s study experiment on Yucca fiber. That inspired me to work on it. And how the natives processed the fiber in a few ways. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25146665

I learned that amaranth root can be used like lambs quarters root for soap. Both grow together abundantly in my yard. But the saponin content might be lower in amaranth. Not completely sure. I've tested some right now with a few small plants that I harvested. It's like a pink reddish soap with the red root amaranth. I'll have to get more another time to see.

Here's someone on Instagram. Who has the seeds for C. nuttalliae called Chía Roja "Red Chia" Chenopodium berlandieri subspecies nuttalliae cultivar A relative of huauzontle. Mostly grown for seeds another is grown for leaves. The seeds of this cultivar contain less saponins and is declining in being grow unfortunately. He bought them somewhere in Mexico. Explained in his post.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWEFjkevF9D/?img_index=4