Weaver's Web

Dave, bamboo is an interesting fiber to work with, and there's an argument in the fiber community on how to classify it. Is it a natural fiber or not? My understanding (not that I've ever prepared it as a bast fiber) is that there's a way to manually break or rettle it into spinnable fiber, sort of like flax (linen), hemp or ramie. However, most often it's chemically broken into a sticky soup of cellulose, which is then extruded through a spinneret. They've been doing this from wood pulp to make rayon. Within the past decade many spinners have been playing with bamboo, soy silk and ingeo (aka corn silk). These fibers have a silky feel to them as well as a silk-like sheen and they take dyes, both synthetic analine and natural plant dyes, something synthetic fibers like acylic, & polyester won't do.