# Traditional manufacturing of Hemp in the Pyrenees



## wordancer (May 4, 2011)

Among all the crops that the residents of San Juan de Plan have practiced on their scarce farmland, hemp is one that stands out.

In 1996, a group of neighbors decided to plant a plot of hemp in order to document all the steps of this traditional process, from sowing to making the fabrics with their fibers. The video is 30 minutes long, but I found well worth the watch.


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## marylin (Apr 2, 2011)

Thank you !
I will never complain about winding yarn in a skein to dye it.
What a easy life I have !


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## spins2knit (Jul 29, 2013)

Another great video!


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## wordancer (May 4, 2011)

marylin said:


> Thank you !
> I will never complain about winding yarn in a skein to dye it.
> What a easy life I have !


I know, right? Once the film got into the process of prepping the fiber, the actual spinning, then the prepping of the yarn...my first thought was 'no pretty tools here'! That this fiber work was for the older women because it was easier than the other 'outside' work. I enjoyed listening to the women as they were spinning, while the closed captions were loosely translated.. I understood enough to get the feel for what they were saying and that the group spinning was a social outlet for the older women back then. And spitting (on the fiber) was encouraged by sucking/chewing a berry that encouraged the formation of saliva.

So much information, it is wonderful that this group was able to show us all the detailed steps how hemp was processed in their region before modernization ruled it too old-fashioned, too labor intensive.


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## Hilary Mercer (Feb 24, 2015)

An amazing film, thank you for posting.


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## barbaralbb2119 (Sep 18, 2015)

Processing hemp is really hard... I really admire this group of farmers who made a commitment to do this!


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## gardenpoet (Jun 24, 2016)

Wow, so much work!
Thanks for the good share.


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## joycevv (Oct 13, 2011)

I love hemp cloth, it wears forever. Hemp sails helped conquer the globe. Any mention of that? They replaced earlier linen sails.


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