# spinning plants

posted on January 11, 2026 by Lee Cattarin

- yarn

> work in progress! To be updated as I continue spinning.

in picture, from top:

1. flax
2. (probably) lotus
3. banana
4. hemp
5. tencel
6. rose
7. ramie

notes on handspinning various plant fibers. Fibers were purchased as a sample pack from Hearthside Fibers. Unfortunately, I spun the first sample - flax - in 2023, so don't have thoughts on that left in my head. I also received a mystery sample along with the 12 named samples that may have been lotus - it's the smallest skein in the image. The lotus was also spun in 2023.

- overall, these are broadly more slippery than wool
- most if not all of these benefitted from pre-drafting moreso than I usually do for wool

## ease of spinning

- easy: flax, hemp
- middling: banana, tencel
- hard: rose
- worst: ramie

## texture (of final yarn)

- softest: rose
- pleasant: banana, tencel
- meh: ramie
- itchy: hemp, flax

## density/thickness

I am estimating this via yards per gram of fiber. Other than the flax and lotus (can't promise anything there), I aimed for my average spin with all of these and spun them on the same tool (Wheeliam, an Ashford Kiwi 3). Per-fiber notes mention whether they spun thick or thin if notable.

fiber | yards | grams | yds/g
--- | --- | --- | ---
banana | 33 | 22 | 1.50
flax | 33 | 27 | 1.22
hemp | 41 | 26 | 1.58
lotus | 16 | 12 | 1.33
rose | 60 | 29 | 2.07
tencel | 31 | 29 | 1.07
ramie | 7.5 | 5 | 1.5

## per-fiber breakdown

written up in order of spinning.

### banana

- felt a bit wear-y on the hands - that may have been the silk I spun earlier that day though
- a bit hard to draft, quite liked to stick to itself and clump, but once moving was quite slippery

### hemp

- awful feeling. awful awful awful. hate.
- easy to spin
- quite grippy
- easy joins
- difficult to tell apart from stray plant matter

### rose

- incredibly soft; shiny and very pretty
- quite difficult to spin
- wanted to spin thin
- joins were tough, it's quite slippery
- needed slow and careful drafting because of the above - I brought my wheel down to a lower ratio which is rare

### tencel

- also felt a bit wear-y like banana
- spun a bit thick and liked to clump
- not as bad as rose on the slippery front
- very shiny, almost glittery in spots
- dense and spun up fast

### ramie

- hated this
- slippery af
- constantly splitting all over the place so I couldn't keep the fibers aligned in the slightest
- stopped after 5g because it sucked and I didn't care to finish it

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