[Regia-NA] good nettle prices?;)

[Joy Cain]

On 8/8/05 3:45 PM, "Ben Pyles" <ishieben at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Joy Cain <jcain at insight.rr.com> wrote:
>> I have a flax brake, a scutching knife and two sizes of hackles. I’ll be
>> right over.
>> 
>> Sounds good... whatcha want for dinner? ;-)
>> 
>> According to Rita Buchanan, “A Weaver’s Garden”, pgs 40-42 there are three
>> ways to prep the fibers from nettles:
>> 
>> “...The first is to cut green stems and peel off the outer layer of fibers
>> and skin right away (within an hour or two of cutting) and then ret the
>> strips of fiber. The second is to cut and ret whole stems until the the
>> fibers strip off easily. Either way you begin, finish by scraping, rinsing,
>> combing and drying the fibers. The third method, used by North American
>> Indians for wood nettles and stingless nettles, is to leave the dead stalks
>> outdoors to decay until winter, then peel the fibers from the dry stem and
>> flake off the remnants of outer skin.”
>> 
>> I was trying something akin to the second one, and the stem wanted to stay
>> adhered... so now I am drying the things for a while to try to get them to be
>> less tenacious- It has been ~105deg here for many weeks- and verry dry, so I
>> hope the fiber isn't too brittle... should I re-wet before trying to break
>> the fiber out?
>> 
>> I would break a stem and see what happens. From my flax experience, the fiber
>> will stick to the bark and pull away from the stem when it is ready. If it
>> clings to the stem, spread it outside and let the dew do its work, but check
>> it frequently so it doesn¹t get over-retted (this comes from experience).
>> 
>> You might help Mother Nature along by giving it a light misting with water.
>> 
>> 
>> 
> 
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