This is the very roughest fibre that we get from the flax - it's the stuff that gets all tangled up and doesn't even make it to the retting tank. We tried it through a carding machine and got some quite nice matting, we also had a go with some chopped hemp and some nettles that we'd retted.
The hemp is harder work than the flax and gives rougher fibre, it's a paler colour but when we put it through the carder twice it seemed to hold together really well giving a nice sort of felt material with very little processing.
The nettles are harder work again - it's very difficult to separate the woody bits but the fibre is a beautiful green colour and wonderfully soft.
Will update on the next stage of trials as we try to develop more routes to market for fibre crops.
