milkweed! flowers, fiber, twine

[asakiyume]

This year I'm mainly growing milkweed. Milkweed for flowers, milkweed with the garlic and other vegetables:





In part that's for pollinators and monarch butterflies, but it's also in large part for the super strong, super beautiful **fibers* that milkweed produces. I realized I can put that chambira fiber knowledge to work here with my own, local fibers. I used to have a goal of trying to spin the fibers... in spite of the fact that I've never spun anything. But in the Amazon, they're not spinning the chambira fibers, they're making twine--well I can do that! There are a thousand videos on Youtube of people turning milkweed fibers into twine.

Here are the dried stalks from last year.



And here's some of the fiber:



You separate the fibers from the inner pith, and you end up with long ribbons. They're not pure white like those fibers in the last picture, I think because of the mildew and weathering from being outside. I'm going to experiment with processing fresher stems. The ribbons remind me so much of the chambira palm fibers!



And here it is as twine! I have several little bits of twine now. Next two projects: (1) dyeing it with the madder I've got growing in the yard and (2) making bracelets!

Comments

[asakiyume]

For varying values of poisonous! But yes.

[amaebi]

I was catching insect for my collection, and that's what I thought of myself as doing, but mostly what I was doing was contemplating the universe through both senses and mental mastication. It was a magic space.

[asakiyume]

wonderful. those times and places are a blessing

[noachoc]

Neat!

[asakiyume]

Heee, I'm glad you think so!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Yeah, here they sell "edible dahlia tubers" that are supposed to be better than the ornamental variety but they are apparently still not that good. :P

Food fashion is a funny thing, and I spent quite a bit of money in the past trying out "exotic" things that a) just aren't that good, b) don't grow as well as they are purported to, c) take too much effort to grow/harvest/cook. I think it is good to diversify one's food sources but sticking to mostly tried and true staples is not pretty smart, too. :D

[wayfaringwordhack]

LOVE your fiber experiment. I STILL have the seeds you sent me. I have to prep ground for them and figure out where I want them and even though we have a lot of space, that just always seems like such a hard question!

[asakiyume]

I hope the seeds are still good! When you’re back in France for longer I can send you more<3

[asakiyume]

Yeah, exactly! I do like having the foraging knowledge, but it’s not the case that there’s a delicious food source that people have been overlooking—or, well, some foraged food is delicious, but when it’s delicious, it’s usually hard to obtain in some way, and that’s why it’s ended up not commonly consumed.

[wayfaringwordhack]

After I posted this, I thought of where I could plant them but it means I need to figure out where I want to move the current residents: golden raspberries. :P

[wayfaringwordhack]

Bingo! :D

[asakiyume]

Maybe you could just mix the milkweed in among the golden raspberries? I feel like maybe they could coexist...

[wayfaringwordhack]

I *could* try that but the raspberries aren't thriving and I would like them to take off better. ;)

[asakiyume]

*nodding* --that makes sense, then. Maybe they'll do better in another spot.

[rebeccmeister]

Likewise!

So satisfying to grow one's own fiber.

[or_midnight]

phew, extremely delayed reply, but I sort of got flax to the point where I could spin it. I didn't grow a kind that was ideal for long fibers, and I also didn't process it the correct/traditional way. I did the whole soaking process to separate the fibers from the stem, then sort of went stem by stem, peeling off the fiber with my fingers, and from there I combed it in tiny little batches. So I wound up with, like, a handful of really beautiful golden fibers that I think, in theory, could have been spun, but by that point I was just like, "I have proved that this could work if I had a million hours to spend on it, experiment complete!!"

But I could definitely skip the combing process and do a coarse version of the stem vs. fiber separation and just work with the pieces like you've done with the milkweed to get some very useful twine!!

I think the only reason you couldn't knit or crochet with what you have here would be texture: it might be coarse for a garment that had a lot of skin contact, but it could be awesome for something like a sun hat or sandals/slippers. Anyway, thanks for chatting about fiberarts stuff, I'm mentally putting milkweed on my to-grow list for next year!

[asakiyume]

Good point about the texture! Maybe I won't try knitting it :D ... But a bag made of it would be fun!

[asakiyume]

Very much so!

[squirrelitude]

I know dogbane (Apocynum) as "Indian Hemp", but that's common names for you. :-)

In my experience, dogbane is *really* good for this, much better than Common Milkweed at least. Very sturdy fibers. But with milkweed you can sometimes get this wonderfully smooth and silky stuff. Not as strong, but quite pretty.

[asakiyume]

"Indian hemp" is a nicer name than "Dogbane" for sure!

We have an awful lot of milkweed and much less dogbane, otherwise I'd definitely try dogbane as well.

[squirrelitude]

If you need more stalks, I maintain a patch of milkweed that might be somewhat convenient to you. Last year's stems are still there. (I also have a ton of milkweed seedlings to find homes for, and should harvest seed this fall to distribute... or put up a sign asking people to take some.)

[squirrelitude]

I transplanted some dogbane into the back yard two moves and maybe 10 years ago, to the ongoing displeasure of one of the current tenants. (It's quite hard to get rid of.) I should make another attempt to move some to the Somerville Community Path, although the rhizomes are *so* deep. It hasn't worked the last couple times I've tried—the transplants just die. Maybe need to wait until early spring.

[asakiyume]

Thank you! I think I have an eyes-bigger-than-stomach risk here. I'd like to think that I could process all my milkweed and then some--hell, I'd like to make not just bracelets but bags and how about a hammock while I'm at it? ... But I think I'll be lucky to work through what I've got.

[asakiyume]

I'm very tentatively celebrating a (maybe? dare I believe) successful transplant of something else that's notoriously difficult to transplant: sassafras. A tiny seedling. They hate to be disturbed. It looked so very dead after the transplant... but a couple of leaves hung on, and now it has little green spots that look like they want to grow into more leaves. I would adore to have a sassafras tree in my yard.

[squirrelitude]

I've never ended up doing large amounts. It has always just ended up as a sort of fiddle-toy, a relaxing activity to do sort of mindlessly or while paying attention to something else. But there's so much *potential* there... :-)