Today I had an afternoon break from computer work sponsored by nettle. I think maybe it was the nettle tea after lunch that spurred me on, or perhaps the pile of nettle fibre recently  harvested from stalks sitting on my desk beside my computer station. Regardless, I could NOT work until I  made a puni and spun then knit some up as a sample to see what results might be possible.

My nettles were harvested a few weeks back ( mid November)near Trillium North and mostly were already ‘wild retted or root retted’, some I left out in the rain for another week before thoroughly drying. and then peeling fibres off broken stalks.

my nettles in wild fibre state and partially subdued puni on a chopstick

I was feeling a bit of a chickenshit to use speed on my wheel, so I drop spindled and it  went much quicker and frustration free then I had imagined! I plied my yarn in prep for knitting.

Yes, my Fibre-Geek Guru friend Karen would be appalled that I did not rest my yarn before knitting and allow the twist to set-  but some days patience needs to be cast aside to get to the  results as quick as possible!

So- I cast on, and knit up a 2 inch square from my one hand carder sized puni. Another 300 odd punis and I will have a shirt… that is where the patience comes in.