Eco-Friendly: Recycled Banana Fiber

You already know that here at Blonde Chicken Boutique, it’s all about the Eco-friendly. But what does “eco-friendly yarn” mean? In the next few weeks I’ll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I’ll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for the Boutique.

It’s been a while since I talked about why I choose to get both my fiber and my food locally, but I want to restart this discussion and share why I get so excited by recycled and sustainable fibers.

Part of my commitment to eco-friendly crafting is to find high-quality, recycled spinning supplies.  While there’s a plethora of local wool that qualifies, finding vegan (non-animal) fiber is a bit trickier (I finally found some good organic cotton, I’ll share next week). You can imagine my delight when I was offered this recycled banana fiber unspun and undyed.

Textiles from banana fiber is pretty rare here in the states, but in India and Japan it’s widely available. Commercial banana fiber is produced in the same way rayon is – the stems and leaves are made into a pulp and extruded into long strands.  Banana trees are more renewable than the wood used for rayon, and of course it’s multi-functional (mmm, bananas), so the fiber itself is already pretty eco-friendly.

But that’s not all. My Bananiere fiber comes from the remnants of the clothing industry. These bits and bobs are cut from the looms and would be tossed out if not for the ingenuity of a women’s coop, in Nepal, that collects them for spinning.   I buy the yarn they handspin from this fiber and handdye it for Bananiere (in the Boutique) but I was thrilled when I was offered the unspun fibers!

These fibers are most definitely scrappy, not smooth roving or combed top, often with a few knots, but this is part of the recycled charm! The fiber is shiny and soft, but with a bit of fuzz.

I drop them in the dyepot  with skeins of Bananiere to produce matching sets of yarn and fiber.  Once dry, I tease the fiber apart a bit so it’s easier to draft or card.

The fiber can be carded with wool to add just a splash of texture:

or it can be the star of the show:

In this yarn, I wrapped the banana fiber around a core of hemp thread to create a strong, but crazy yarn.

Ready to try it out for yourself?
You can find it in the Hand-dyed Fiber section of the Boutique (if it’s sold out, drop me a line and I’ll reserve some for you!)

Have you spun with banana fiber? If not, what’s you’re favorite recycled fiber or yarn?