Plant Fibre Processing

Book excerpt: This is the last of the Small-scale Textile series and covers the pre-spinning processes which make plant fibres suitable for textile manufacture. The book includes not only familiar plant fibres such as cotton, sisal and jute, but also less well known fibres from plants such as Himalayan nettle, pineapple leaf and kenaf, which are of great value to small communities where they are used for both utilitarian and decorative purposes. As well as extraction and other pre-spinning processes, there is background information on the growing areas, soil and climatic requirements and methods of harvesting, and details of equipment suppliers and sources of further information.