This was the second plant fiber I’ve ever spun and oooooh boy is is weird. From my reading, it’s probably bamboo from rayon, which means it is very similar to most other rayon produced plant fibers.
It is shiny, silky and has a staple of around 2 inches. When spinning, I had to keep the twist out of the drafting zone, no matter what because it was impossible to thin the fiber out with twist in it. It was extremely difficult to spin long draw and at best, I could do a very short long draw. It wasn’t that it would be too thin, it was that the twist didn’t carry up the fibers in the same way and there was no give to the fiber either.
I could spin it quite fine but it also made my left hand sore since it was constantly removing the twist from the drafting zone while working. I’m not sure if it is just a characteristic of the fiber or my drafting technique but I ended up with a lot of tiny bumps in my fiber.
Treadle extremely slowly until you get the hang of how the fiber feels and then you can increase speed.
Final note: it took a very long time to spin up one ounce of bamboo. Because it was fine and dense, it just took so long and made a very shiny and hard fiber that was significantly smaller on the bobbin than animal based fibers.
I don’t think I will spin this again, I did not enjoy it that much. Maybe in a blend with something else, which is how it’s usually found.