Fibre Prep February: SweetGeorgia Explores Ramie & Bast Fibres 

We love exploring spinning fibre and celebrate it each year with our Fibre Prep February Make-Along. This year, we highlighted bast fibres, inspired by lessons from the Spinning Bast Fibres: Tow Top & Bast Blends course at the School of SweetGeorgia.

Each member of the SweetGeorgia team chose a bast fibre (and some chose to sample them all), and prepared multiple wool and bast blends. In this Taking Back Friday video, Felicia shares her explorations with ramie while highlighting the work from the SweetGeorgia Team!

Getting to Know Ramie

Ramie is a bast fibre taken from the inner bark of a plant stalk, placing it alongside flax, hemp, and jute. It belongs to the nettle family and is sometimes called vegetable silk because of its natural shine.

Ramie is strong, absorbent, breathable, and quick drying. These qualities give it a cool, crisp feel, much like linen. It also grows quickly and can be harvested multiple times each year, which makes it an appealing fibre to explore from a sustainability perspective.

On its own, ramie has no elasticity. This can make it feel slippery while spinning. Blending it with wool softens those qualities and makes the fibre far more approachable.

Ramie being measured to be made into a wool bast blend
Felicia weighing out ramie from her SweetGeorgia Bast Fibres Kit for her wool/bast blend.

Exploring the Unknown

Many of us begin spinning with wool. Over time, we find fibres that feel comfortable in our hands, like Felicia’s favourite SweetGeorgia BFL+Silk. When something works well, it feels natural to stay there. At the same time, stepping just slightly outside that comfort zone can feel refreshing.

Fibre preparation is another place where many of us find a comfort spot and remain. This year, the entire team explored with hand cards, blending boards, and drum carders. Some of our team tried new tools, like Felicia with a Lock Pop, while others stayed with tools they knew. There is no right or wrong approach here.

Felicia's bast and wool blend
Felicia’s woll and ramie bast blend being spun on her Daedalus Starling e-Spinner.

Spinning Small: Sampling Ramie with Wool

Blending ramie with wool brings out the best of both fibres. Wool offers warmth, elasticity, and softness. Ramie adds strength, durability, and lustre.

Spinning small samples creates a sense of low commitment and quick accomplishment. A small sample allows us to observe how the fibre drafts, how it accepts twist, and how it changes after washing. That is part of the joy of sampling. Not every experiment needs to result in a finished masterpiece. Sometimes the goal is simply to understand the fibre better and carry that knowledge into the next project.

Handspun bast wool singles
Spinning progress….
handspun bast wool yarn
…. finished sample!

Learning Through Exploration

This exploration reminds us that learning happens through doing. Each experiment teaches something useful, even when the yarn does not turn out exactly as imagined. Across the SweetGeorgia team, everyone approached bast fibres differently. Seeing those differences reminds us that there is no single right way to work with fibre.

If ramie or other bast fibres spark your curiosity, consider this a gentle invitation to try. Although Fibre Prep February is coming to a close, there is no wrong time to explore something new. Start small. Adjust as you go. Notice what you enjoy. Every experiment adds to your understanding and keeps your spinning practice feeling fresh and exciting.

The SweetGeorgia team spinning bast blends
The SweetGeorgia team spinning their Fibre Prep February bast blends!

We are glad you are exploring alongside us. Please share what you are spinning with us in the SweetGeorgia Community.

The post Fibre Prep February: SweetGeorgia Explores Ramie & Bast Fibres  appeared first on SweetGeorgia Yarns.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Fundamental Weave Structures (And Why You Need To Know Them)

Image
Do you find yourself fondling fabrics? Touching textiles? Daydreaming of a home or wardrobe featuring your very own handwoven fabrics? How would you go about choosing fabric for your cushion, chair, or skirt, let alone design that fabric yourself? If  form follows function , then let’s start to read our fabrics and understand how different weave structures give us the characteristics we want. Warp and Weft, Under and Over We can define weave structures by the ways the threads pass over and under each other. The  warp  is what is on the loom under tension and runs vertically in the cloth. It is lowered and/or raised to form sheds. The  weft  is what we throw through the open shed and beat in pick-by-pick. The weft runs horizontally in the cloth. The warp runs vertically in the cloth; the weft runs horizontally. Each time the weft and the warp travel from back-to-front or front-to-back of the cloth, they interlace and form a binding point. These interlacemen...
Read more

Plying Tips for Handspun Yarn Success

Image
WHAT is Plying? Plying is when bobbins containing handspun singles are removed from the wheel, placed on a lazy kate, and then subjected to more twist.  To achieve a balanced yarn, more twist is added in the opposite direction of the first twist. This is not always the case, however. Some designer yarns add the second twist in the same direction as the first twist. This article is a review of some of the key aspects of plying handspun for balanced yarns using a spinning wheel. Transforming handspun singles into multi-ply yarn offers numerous benefits. WHY Ply? Many factors come into play when choosing whether or not to ply my singles. To give you some food for thought, here are just a few considerations I use in my own practice: Give a Yarn Strength The more plies, the stronger the yarn. Unless I want a dense fabric, I usually weave with singles or 2-ply yarns. Multi-ply yarns are good for strong rug warps or fabrics requiring densely packed weft yarns. One way I...
Read more

How To Knit a Tubular Cast On

Image
The tubular cast on is an invisible cast on that’s great for hems cuffs and ribbing edges, where you want to have a bit of elasticity. We have both video and written instructions available in this post. Let’s get started! Print How To Knit a Tubular Cast On Author Tabetha Hedrick Equipment 1 Scrap yarn (smooth) 1 Knitting (working) yarn 1 Knitting Needles 1 Scissors Instructions Tubular Cast On Setup Now, to begin, you're going to want to cast on approximately half of the number of stitches that you need, minus one. For example, if the pattern calls for 77 stitches, you're going to cast on 35. If the pattern calls for 19 stitches, I'm going to cast on 10. With your waste yarn, work 4-5 rows in stockinette stitch, ending at the end of a right-side row (you'll be ready to work a wrong-side row in the next part). Cut your waste yarn. Join The Working Yarn Join your workin...
Read more