bass or bast?

We eat bass but I love to wear bast.  Bast is a plant fiber like hemp or flax.  I love the feel of linen in the summer.  I think I'm tired of winter.  More than 8,000 years ago both France and Finland were using chords.  2 and 3 ply.    Even today we follow the ancient methods.

All  bast fibers treated the same way:  plant is dried, heated or retted( broken down by moisture:  dew rain or river water) then dried again:  Residue of the stem  -rind-  is then removed through breaking flailing and finally combing the inner fibers.  Tree-bark same process but extra step:   needs to be boiled with wood ash or lye.  Northern Africa uses salt water.

           

from University of Michigan archives:  if interested:  search :  making flax to linen