Nentes Plantarum Spinalong
(Spinning Plants Spinalong)
You may have noticed, HipStrings and The Homestead Hobbyist like each other. Like, BFF like each other. We’ve supported each other over the years both professionally and personally, bounced ideas off one another, shared our thoughts on fiber and equipment suppliers, and bought so much of the other’s fiber that it’s a bit ridiculous.
And now, we’re taking our friendship to the next level: We’re collaborating together for a spinalong this fall!
We worked together to design a custom blend of fiber: Polwarth/Natural Tussah Silk/Flax 62.5/25/12.5. The natural, unbleached tussah and flax gives the undyed fiber a wonderful creamy color that adds lots of depth to the dyed braids.
Because we both also share a background in plant research (and because of the plant fiber —flax—included in the blend) we chose to create colorways inspired by plants for this spinalong. We are each offering three colorways based on plants with connections to our lives. With six unique colorways, we’re looking forward to spinning along with everyone and sharing our love for plants.
Stargazer Lily (HipStrings)
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
This is totally a sappy love story about how Stargazer Lilies are Nik and my “thing,” about how when he proposed, he named a star “Nuestro Amor,” how he asked me to look into the sky to find our star, and gave me my engagement ring as my “star.” As you can guess, Stargazer Lilies hold a special place in my heart.
For this colorway, I used a dye technique to layer the same color over itself, resulting in a tonal colorway with lots of depth.
Lithops sp. (HipStrings)
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
In the undergraduate lab I worked in, I remember my advisor giving instructions on how to take care of the various plants in his office before he left for a trip. A collector of “odd” plants, among his collection was a pot that contained what seemed to be uniquely colored river rocks. I was surprised to find out they were little succulents that had very cool camouflage.
This colorway is low immersion vat dyed, which means it will be a little different with every batch, with lots of variegation and different combinations of color as the colors mix—a wide variety of greens and browns, just like the Lithops.
Nymphaea cearulea (HipStrings)
Photograph from Wikimedia Commons
One of my early graduate career missions was to figure out which waterlily had the smallest genome (and would be best to use as a model for genetic studies for one of the earliest branches of flowering plants). Well, the waterlily with the smallest genome is Nympheae cearulea aka Egyptian Blue Lotus. It also happens to be difficult to get a hold of because of its hallucinogenic properties. (For a while I was convinced that my advisor was only sending me on exploratory missions to find out more about hallucinogenic plants...after the blue lotus I was sent to do research on Papaveraceae, home of Opium poppy.)
This colorway is a four color gradient going from bright yellow, to sky blue, light teal and then light amethyst.
Sinningia (The Homestead Hobbyist)
Photographed by komhuus
Sinningia are relatives to African Violets, but since I can’t grow African Violets to save my life, Sinningia are my jam! Most of them produce tubers (underground or mostly underground storage organs—like potatoes, which I spent a year studying at the USDA (well, I was doing research on a “biocontrol agent,” a microbe that produced proteins that killed Colorado potato beetles, which can be devastating pests to one of our nation’s primary crops)), so if I forget to water them for a few months, they’re still alive when I get around to taking care of them. Most of them have a winter dormancy, which is perfect for an apartment gardener who has to move plants inside in the fall. (If there isn’t a ton of foliage that will be shocked by the transition or unhappy with the lower light levels, the plants will be happier in the long run!) Sinningia flowers come in a wide range of colors—lots of reds, oranges, and shades of purples, even some white! I was introduced to Sinningia by Kyoko/jadevine and other gesneriad enthusiasts in Washington, DC, so they hold a particular fondness to me.
Plants that inspired this colorway are: Sinningia defoliata, Sinningia muscicola, Sinningia sellovii, Sinningia hybrids (“Florist’s Gloxinia”)
Amorphophallus (The Homestead Hobbyist)
Photograph from Plant Delights Nursery
The genus Amorphophallus translates into “deformed penis.” If you look at photos of the flowers, you’ll see why it’s called that! Amorphophallus are aroids, related to Philodendron, Jack in the Pulpit, and Peace Lily.
The name Amorphophallus makes children of all ages titter, and when the plant flowers, it smells like rotting meat! (Not all species—but many.) The most famous Amorphophallus is the Titan Arum, Amorphophallus titanum, which flowers once about every decade, with a flower up to 10 feet tall with a strong aroma of dead, decomposing flesh. Amorphophallus and its close relatives are some of my favorite plants-with-underground-storage-organs to grow, along with Sinningia.
The ripening fruit and moo-cow patterning on the peduncle (flower stalk) of Amorphophallus kiusianus inspired this colorway.
Dyckia (The Homestead Hobbyist)
Photographs from Green Meadow Growers, Dyckia Brazil, bryan69 on GardenWeb, Chris Nguyen, and Fine Gardening
Dyckia is another genus that makes the little boy in me giggle. The plants themselves, though, steal my breath away. They are absolutely gorgeous, and dangerous—many species have jagged saw-like spikes on the edges of their leaves, which makes them almost impossible to repot without thick leather gloves. Dyckia is a bromeliad, like pineapple and Aechmea fasciata. There are many bromeliads that are epiphytic (they grow in trees), but Dyckia is a terrestrial bromeliad, like Cryptanthus (another of my favorite bromeliad genuses).
The variety of leaf color, primarily from Dyckia fosteriana cultivars and hybrids, inspired this colorway.
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Samples of the colorways will be released on Tuesday (August 23), and you’ll be able to pre-order your favorite colorways then!
HipStrings will be offering up a custom set of Bitty Batts inspired by your favorite plant as a prize for the spinalong.
The Homestead Hobbyist will be offering an eco-printed silk scarf as a prize for the spinalong.