Hemp Yarn

Hemp yarns are made from the bast fiber available from the outer layer of hemp stalks. Hemp plants meant for fiber use are usually planted close together to make them grow tall with little or no branches. They get harvested as soon as the seeds start coming. The harvested hemp stalks are left on the fields for retting. That is a process to naturally break down the harder woody core of the stalks known as hurds so that the outer bast fibers soften. The next stage is to separate the bast fibers from the hurds. A machine called the decorticator often gets used for that. Then there is scutching and hackling. Both are processes to refine the separation of the bast from the hurds. The bast fibers are then roved or twisted to strengthen them further. Then comes the spinning to produce the yarns. There are two spinning processes for hemp yarns: dry and wet. Dry spinning is for coarser yarns while wet spinning is for producing fine linen-like yarns. Usually, the shorter fibers known as tow are dry-spun and the longer line fibers are wet-spun. It is possible to spin hemp yarn manually using spindles. But for large commercial crops, machine spinning is more the norm. In mechanical spinning, the roved fiber gets boiled in caustic soda and bleached with hydrogen peroxide for finer quality yarns. The processes called doubling and drawing play an important role in determining the finesse of the yarn. At Hemp Foundation, we pay full respect to the traditional wisdom of the local farming families of Rudraprayag, using the machines only to empower them with faster production of finer yarns. The combination of local expertise and new technology makes Hemp Foundation the chosen hemp yarn supplier for the majority of hemp importers in the world.