More on Milkweed

Naturally, after the last post, I made an excuse to go back out to Quantum's farm. I know, twist my arm. I wanted to obtain more than a handful of milkweed this time. Well, Micah and Kelly (being vegans and much happier when I express an interest in veggie fibers) were all over this idea.

We walked along the ditch and scanned around for milkweed. Micah and Josh plunged down into the ditch to pull the fiber from quite a few plants. I, not having the correct shoes to just sink my foot into Who Knows What, kept to the dirt road, pilfering the pods that grew up and out a bit.

In the end we managed to get two gallon-sized Ziploc bags crammed full with milkweed fiber. Whoo hoo! I didn't feel too environmental-unfriendly, since we left most of the plants alone and just helped ourselves to the fiber that was already pretty much drifting down the road. Now all I have to do is gin the fibers of their seeds and we're in business. I don't have any fiber reactive dyes at the moment, so the milkweed will stay white for the time being. I think I'll make some blends with merino and other soft fibers. My handcards are (unfortunately) not made for carding the finest fibers, so the first time I tried to blend, milkweed went flying every which way. Hopefully, I'll have greater success this next time!