roving & top
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Hemp – Bleached (Top)
100% Hemp.
This is beautiful stuff, the finest hemp we have ever seen and a local lady with a lot of experience spinning hemp tried it and agrees! If you want to dye your hemp fibre, this bleached version will give you nice, clear and bright colours.
Very clean combed top, bleached to an off-white. Staple length is 6 to 7 inches. Hemp is a bast (stem) fibre from a very tall plant, essentially a strain of marijuana developed for fibre instead of other uses. Spun in a manner much like flax, the two also share the attribute of being harsh at first and just getting better and better over time with wear and laundering. It can be spun all by itself or blended with wool and other fibres. This has a light characteristic hemp scent but it's not overwhelming and should not be offensive to the nose during spinning.
Since this is a plant or cellulose fibre dyers must use fibre reactive dyes. Natural dyers must resort to techniques used on cotton, such as alum-tannin premordanting, or Aluminum acetate. Hemp also works well in an indigo vat.
PRODUCT of CHINA

Hemp – Natural Brown (Top)
100% Hemp.
This is beautiful stuff, the finest hemp we have ever seen and a local lady with a lot of experience spinning hemp tried it and agrees!
Very clean combed top, in a natural tan colour. Staple length is 6 to 7 inches. Hemp is a bast (stem) fibre from a very tall plant, essentially a strain of marijuana developed for fibre instead of other uses. Spun in a manner much like flax, the two also share the attribute of being harsh at first and just getting better and better over time with wear and laundering. It can be spun all by itself or blended with wool and other fibres. This has a light characteristic hemp scent but it's not overwhelming and should not be offensive to the nose during spinning.
Since this is a plant or cellulose fibre dyers must use fibre reactive dyes. Natural dyers must resort to techniques used on cotton, such as alum-tannin premordanting, or Aluminum acetate. Hemp also works well in an indigo vat.
PRODUCT of CHINA

Silk Noils, Cultivated
100% silk.
Bits and pieces of off-white cultivated silk, also known as Mulberry or Bombyx silk. These are waste from the textile industry, and therefore sometimes have debris (like bits of silkworm poo) and could use a good shake before spinning.
Noils are easy to dye. We find it's best to take the extra few minutes to tease them open before presoaking (with hot water and soap), to allow for maximum colour penetration.
Spinners love to use noils to provide bumpy texture to a spin, carding them in with the fibre of choice. Felters also make use of them for embellishment.

Silk Top, Cultivated
100% silk.
Combed top, pearly off-white in colour. Staple length is about 7 to 8 inches. Also called Mulberry or Bombyx silk.
Silk top is easy to dye, using either acid dyes, fibre reactive dyes, or natural dyes.
For spinning, silk top may be spun all by itself or used for blending with a myriad of other fibres. Silk does not felt but is beautiful as a felting surface embellishment on top of a wool foundation.
PRODUCT of CHINA

Silk Top, Tussah (Bleached)
100% silk.
Combed top, bleached but still an ivory-cream colour. Staple length is about 6 to 7 inches. If you plan on using your silk for blending, Tussah silk is nearly always a better value fibre than Cultivated silk.
Silk top is easy to dye, using either acid dyes, fibre reactive dyes, or natural dyes.
For spinning, silk top may be spun all by itself or used for blending with a myriad of other fibres.

Tencel (Top)
100% Lyocell.
Very clean combed top, in "natural" white. Staple length is about 4 inches. Technically this manmade fibre is called lyocell. It's in the rayon family and made from wood pulp. Tencel® has been embraced by spinners and knitters alike, because it is fantastically soft with a terrific sheen and wonderful drape. Excellent for lighter summerwear as it absorbs moisture well.
Tencel® can be spun alone or blended with other fibres. An intriguing choice for those that can't wear wool. <
Since this is a plant or cellulose fibre dyers must use fibre reactive dyes. Natural dyers can resort to techniques used on cotton, such as alum-tannin premordanting, or Aluminum acetate. We don't know how Tencel® responds in an indigo vat.
That being said, when blended with protein fibres, acid dyes will leave the Tencel® alone during dyeing, which makes for some wonderful streaky or heathered effects, depending on how well the fibres are blended.