Ryan M Miller

Ra Kenworth wrote:I buy an all natural jute and similar cord at a Canadian store like Harbour Freight because it is the cheapest place to buy 100' or longer.

I have been doing this for years because whether it is jute that tied up tomatos  designated for composting in a bucket, or something stronger to hold up prickly canes that will be burned, it is much less trouble as well as less landfill of plastic if the cordage I buy is biodegradable.

I also buy bamboo all natural q tips which get used a lot in animal husbandry, so I dont have to go out of my way to the garbage bin.

For my nettle retting projects, I've started using jute twine to bundle the plant stalks together before retting. It lasts surprisingly long in the retting tank before the twine starts to get to degraded. I'm considering learning how to net my own trellis material out of jute twine and handspun yucca thread as well.

Jay Angler wrote:Although I do occasionally use twine, I mostly use bamboo stakes from my own plants. They'll frequently last 4-5 years in my climate.

One of my neighbors is growing Japanese fishing pole bamboo. I just found out a few years ago. Hopefully I can start using it when I can garden again.

I've been dealing with lifelong IBS symptoms as well. I wasn't given the diagnosis until some time early last year. The GAPs diet and FODMAP concepts have confused me when I was introduced to them last year since the resulting diet doesn't look like any traditional diet from any part of the world that I've seen. I'm hesitant in removing nuts and legumes from my diet, even though they seem to be one of the main causes of my lower GI discomfort,  since they're so widely eaten throughout the world and only a few diets don't have them as a staple (Mongolia and the arctic circle being two such exceptions that I'm aware of). Even some east Asian diets incorporate cruciferous vegetables as a major food staple, another source of digestive discomfort for me. I've already removed gluten and dairy from my diet so I don't know what's left to remove and still allow me a balanced diet.

I definitely hope there are more members of the Permies forum willing to dye with false indigo in the future. I'm curious how an iron or alum mordant would affect the color of the dye. Another option would be to dye with the plant in a brass or copper kettle. This plant is abundant in local prairie reserves in my area and it's widely sold at nurseries so I might try to experiment with the plant myself if I get the opportunity next year.

May Lotito wrote:I learn about processing yucca fiber by watching videos from India or Bangladesh about jute fibers. How different are the bast fibers from dicot stalks and yucca or sisal fibers from the leaves of monocots? The yucca fibers are long and strong, taking plant based dyes very well. I am not sure if we need to start a yucca-a-long thread or not.

I'm not so sure about the structure of yucca fibers, but the Adam's Needle yucca leaves that I processed earlier this year have some pretty coarse fiber that feels almost like horse main and tail hair in its raw state. Yucca fiber will be more likely to require an alkaline treatment before using it to make clothing compared with nettle fiber. My wood nettle fiber, compared with the yucca fiber, has a texture closer to hemp fiber; especially the tow fiber.

As of yesterday, I have finished retting, braking, scutching and hackling the nettle fiber. The total fiber yield was 7.9 ounces. Of that, 1.2 ounces was long line fiber; 2.2 ounces was long tow fiber; 2.1 ounces was medium length tow prepared into combed top; and the remaining 2.4 ounces was short tow fiber still yet to be drum carded. The yield of long line and long tow for this wood nettle was significantly smaller by percentage than the yield of long fiber from my adam's needle yucca leaves earlier this year (43% long tow and long line fiber from the nettle as opposed to 67% long line and long tow fiber from the yucca). I'm wondering if this is due to the nettle fibers being weaker than the yucca fibers, the stem nodes creating weak points in the nettle fiber, or just due to me under-retting the fibers.

I may try collecting the nettle after the first frost the next time I find a patch of nettle. I just remember reading that the best time to harvest fiber was right after the flowers fall off the plant and the seed pods begin to form. I will set aside some of the fiber from this year to compare with future harvests picked after the first frost.

I have finished harvesting and drying my wood nettle stalks before preparing to ret them in a tank of water. The large bundle of stalks at the bottom of the photographs has about 268 plant stems. Given how nettles spread, I'm wondering if I harvested from as few as twelve plants. I seem to have been lucky to catch this plant right before the stage when it should be harvested since the period in which it flowers seems very short. As with any wild plant, make sure you don't overharvest a plant. There should be some foraging guidelines available on other parts of the Permies forum.

I will check out the washing soda method since I currently have ready access to baking soda that I can turn into washing soda. Chances are that this method should be cheaper and safer for me than using wood ash lye.

I haven't found any sizeable patch of stinging nettle this year, but I have found a large patch of a related plant called wood nettle (Laportea canadensis) that can be used like stinging nettle. I'm in the process of collecting the plant stalks right now before I ret and scutch them. I plan on sharing some photographs as I continue processing the fibers from the plant stalks.