This was a very popular challenge, with entries originally from fifteen Guilds and results from eleven Guilds which, by 1 December 2004, had at least 65 members taking part, including two youngsters. The challenge was made possible by the generosity of House of Hemp who donated 3.5 kilos of natural hemp for us to experiment with, mostly single ply but some 2-ply. Few members had actually worked with hemp before and after skeining the fibre -which was a lengthy and tedious task as it is very 'frisky' - the next problem was how to scour and bleach the yarn, and a variety of methods were tried with varying results. Many simply boiled the yarn with soap and/or washing soda — often for several hours - and rinsed very thoroughly. Cambridge tried nine different methods and finally chose to boil for an hour with soap flakes and Calgon and then rinse. This certainly scours the yarn but bleaching took some more experimentation.
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