Spinning and Weaving Hemp

Spinning takes the hemp fibers and spins them together to produce a long continuous strand of yarn. This yarn is then used to weave or knit the fabric used in hemp garments and textile products. The spinning process is essentially the same for hemp that has been processes using chemical methods or using organic, chemical-free methods. After all, spinning is spinning.

What is different in the spinning process between hemp fibers processed using chemical methods and fibers from organic methods is generally the length of the hemp fiber and the spinning machines that are required to spin the long fiber organic hemp and the short fiber, chemically processed hemp. Textile manufacturers who simply want to get on the hemp bandwagon as cheaply as possible are more likely to also use chemical methods to process their hemp fibers. 

When the hemp fabric is washed and shrunk, the weave will naturally close up. This is in direct proportion to the degree of shrinkage obtained. In practical terms, this means that identically woven fabrics may appear different if one of them has been washed, dyed, bleached, or shrunk.

Chemical Methods.

Unlike long fiber hemp, short fiber  cottonized hemp created by chemical processing can be spun and finished on slightly modified cotton or wool processing equipment, so that the existing and cost effective infrastructures for the processing of cotton and wool could be used. This allows textile manufacturers to begin processing hemp fabrics quickly and with a lower cost to enter this new market. Several textile equipment manufacturers are currently conducting spinning trials using short fiber hemp on modern rotor spinning machines.

Organic Methods.

Today s fiber spinning machines have been designed for the shorter fibers found in cotton and wool. Because hemp retted using traditional organic methods retains the long fibers in hemp, specialized spinning machinery is required to process the long fibers into spun yarn. The additional expense of the specialized spinning machines and the greater cost to operate, have discouraged existing textile manufacturers to expand their operations into the production of long fiber hemp yarns.