Meeting 17: Further Processing

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.

- A. A. Milne

For our first Invasive Fiber Study Group meeting after this year's Kudzu Camp we rinsed and separated kudzu fiber that had been sitting by the creek in a 5 gallon bucket submerged in water retting for 3 weeks. It was over retted. The fiber was soft and in tact, but when separating the bast from the core of the retted vines in long strips, the fiber broke into 2-3 foot pieces. This worked well for weaving on our table loom with a foot weaving width. 

We hackled the freshly separated bast fiber and wove in some pre-dyed kudzu fiber as well. Kudzu took the indigo better than most plant fibers. After 2 dips this rich blue color was achieved.  

See you in the weeds,

Nica