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RAMIE

© Lili Pintea-Reed

Ramie by Lili Pintea-Reed

Ramie is a little known fiber in North America and Europe, but is used extensively in the Orient for cloth making and rope production. Older Victorian sources list it as a fine strong fiber on par with linen, but more recently when I've inquired about the fiber at various dealers, I've been told it is quite inferior in hand and use to either linen or cotton. I suspect from the beautiful garments that can be constructed of it like those shown in Kathleen's article, that it similar to linen in its uses.

It is a bast fiber found in the stems of the boehmeria nivea plant which grows in the warmer parts of the Orient (Funk and Wagnall's Encyclopedia, 1984). It is also called "China Grass" in some advertising I have seen. It is processed in a manner similar to flax or nettles. The outer covering of the plant is rotted off (retted) and the bast fibers separated from the pith by beating the retted plant to loosen the ramie fibers. The raw fiber is very white and lustrous. The tow or shorter fibers are separated for use in rope making. The resulting fiber can be spun fine and strong like linen, but has a softer hand. It has been reported by some fiber dealers to not wear well, but Kathleen Forance-Johnson a fiber textile expert, reports seeing textiles several hundred years old. See her page at: http://www.ait.org.tw/

To spin, handle much like flax another bast fiber. It has a long staple length so one must draw the fibers apart for a much greater distance than in wool spinning. If you have worked mostly with animal fibers. practice with lincoln or cotswold fleece to get the hand motions down, then make your transition to working with the long bast fibers. And remember practice make perfect. I prefer spinning ramie over flax as the fiber is so much softer. However, when it comes to wear tough old linen outlasts everything else in the fiber world.

Ramie for spinning can be purchased from a number of suppliers in the USA. They are listed below.

Jane's Fiber Works 604 Franlin Street Greenville, Tenn 37745 1-888-497-2665 fiber@greene.net (cotton,flax,various fibers) http://fiber.xtn.net/

South West Corner PO BOX # 418 BISBEE, AZ 85603 1-520-432-3603 (Various fibers, with focus on American cottons plus ramie and hemp)

ROBIN & RUSS HANDWEAVERS, INC.533 NORTH ADAMS STREETMCMINNVILLE, OR 97128 PHONE 1-800-932-8391 FAX 1-503-472-8220(various fibers)