|
Nettle
 The common stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, is a widely distributed plant that grows very easily on disturbed ground that is damp. It has been used as fodder for livestock and to make tea, beer, rennet and a plant dye.
It is related to flax and hemp and can be used to produce a fine linen cloth. The first known nettle textile find in Europe is from the late Bronze Age in Voldtofte in Denmark (Barber) and there is evidence of nettle cloth production from Scandinavia, Poland, Germany and Russia. It does not however appear to have been as widely used for fibre and textile production as flax and hemp, apart from in northern, central and eastern Europe.
In Poland, nettle thread was used until the 17th century, when it was replaced by silk, and nettle cloth continued to be produced in Scandinavia, and in also Scotland until the 19th century where it was known as Scotch cloth. In WW1, the shortage of cotton resulted in the Germans cultivating nettles to make clothing.
The Voldtofte textiles had been assumed to be pure flax, as had the Oseberg Ship textiles, until they were examined by a nettle expert and shown to be nettle not flax (Barber).
Nettle fibres are white, silky, and up to 50mm (2”) long, and produce a finer and silkier fabric than flax, so that it is possible that fine linens for the wealthy may have been woven from nettle rather than flax.
Top of page
|
