Hurray for Hemp

We have a farmer friend here—he recently purchased the husband’s 2008 work truck—who used to grow wheat. He supplies the round bales of straw we use in the chicken coop and pig palace. A year or two ago, this guy switched over some of his acreage to growing hemp commercially. The husband went to get a couple of round bales over the weekend, so I asked him to check with our friend about getting waste from the hemp growing operation for me to use in the garden.

The husband brought home some of the hemp waste so I could check it out:

If you look closely, you can see some of the individual fibers.

I think this will make nice mulch for the garden. It is grown without chemicals. The husband will go back later in the spring to get some for me.

Hemp is probably my most favorite fiber, after wool, for spinning. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when I was doing most of my spinning, hemp was hard to find. I had to order it from China. Hemp is similar to flax (for linen) in its cultivation and preparation. For some reason, though, I enjoyed spinning hemp more than I enjoyed spinning flax. I spun up some hemp and knit a vest out of it, and a woman in Kalispell tried to buy that vest off my back. I declined.

Target began carrying linen sheets a few years ago. I’ve been buying sheets at Target for years now, because they are actually of reasonably high quality. (Anything that can withstand use and abuse by the husband gets deemed “high quality” by me.) One of our sets of linen sheets has worn out—it developed a few holes, so it has been repurposed—and I needed to replace it. Target no longer has the linen sheets, but they do have hemp sheets. I bought a set. I can report that they are very comfortable.

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Today’s podcast guest is John Willis of Special Operations Equipment in Camden, TN. Some of you may remember that I went to Tennessee twice last year: in April, to attend Nicole Sauce’s Living Free in Tennessee Spring Workshop, and again in October, to attend and present at the Self-Reliance Festival. SRF is held at Special Operations Equipment. When not being used to host events, SOE is a sewing factory making high-end tactical gear.

John and Amanda Willis are amazing people, and John graciously spent two hours last week visiting with me over Zoom. The story of Special Operations Equipment is fascinating and one that I thought podcast listeners would enjoy hearing. And John is a great storyteller.

Because our conversation lasted longer than a usual podcast interview, I’ve posted two versions of this week’s episode. The “short” version is about the length of a regular podcast episode and covers the sewing part of our conversation. The “extended play” version is the entire two hours and gets into more of John’s personal experiences and observations about life. There was so much wisdom in that part of the conversation that I felt it needed to be shared even if it veered off the topic of sewing a bit. Note that it is marked “explicit” for some language, but we’re all adults and I expect people to make the appropriate choice for themselves. Either way, I hope you enjoy the episode.

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I made another boring top yesterday after frankenpatterning the LC tunic with Burda 6329. I’ve made that Burda top before. It’s a raglan with pleats at the center front neckline. I wear those two versions frequently, but I wanted to see how that neckline looked paired with the longer tunic length. I used some navy blue fabric from the Walmart remnant rack. I think it’s a rayon/poly blend. The top turned out well. I’ll post a picture in the next blog post.