I had previously spun some Rust hemp from Opulent Fibers (posted in this blog). The yarn turned out nice but my drafting hand was sore for days. Lesson learned: I need to spin hemp without hurting my hand. Because I wanted to spin more beautiful hemp fiber from this source, I ordered 2 ounce bundles of a variety of colors. In the meantime, I purchased Stephenie Gaustad's book on spinning cotton, hemp, and flax. I read the section on hemp several times, took my Matchless wheel outside, and gave it a go with the color Soft Fruit. Definitely an improvement but still needed work.
Note: In her book, Stephenie issues a warning about spinning dyed hemp. But I am stubborn.
I searched the web for suggestions on spinning dyed hemp fiber. Not much out there, but some information that proved useful. I determined to use some of my Spring Break from teaching
to get my dyed hemp spinning under control. Here is what I learned:
1. Set the pulley on your wheel to an appropriate size for spinning yarn the size of a paper clip.
2. Adjust tension for light take-up; I had my Matchless on Scotch tension and a tiny bit was enough. As the bobbin filled, I increased it very slightly.
3. Divide the hank of hemp fiber carefully in half but do not mess with it, pre-draft it, or shuffle it around. I had to divide it because I found the whole hank was too unwieldy to spin from. Make sure you find the correct end to spin from - it really makes a difference.
4. Treadle slowly and draft quickly. Let the wheel take the yarn as soon as it is sound enough.
5. Too much twist will snap the yarn.
6. These fibers are relatively short; some are very short. I used a short forward draw but I let a tiny bit of twist enter the fiber mass to help pull out the wiry, short fibers. Otherwise I found the yarn drifted apart.
7. I moved my fiber hand across the tip of the fiber mass somewhat like drafting cotton sliver. I opened up the fiber slightly as I moved across the mass since the dyeing had compressed it.
8. As with cotton, hold the fiber mass gently - do not mash it.
9. Don't let the yarn hump up on the bobbin - move it frequently.
10. Let the singles sit on the bobbin for at least a day to get used to the twist.
11. As with all my singles, I rewound onto a plying bobbin to distribute the twist, remove slubs, and let larger pieces of woody hemp fall out. You see one ounce of rewound singles yarn on my plying bobbin above.
I actually started out moving the wheel by hand, a bit at a time. Then one treadle, then both but slowly. After I had one ounce spun, which took me an hour, I was able to speed things up a bit. The other ounce went in less than half an hour.
I am going to ply today. My plan is to combine this color with the Rust I spun previously for a woven scarf. Yes I do think it will be soft enough to wear!
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