Every time the weather warms up here I go off in search of some plant-based yarns to try. Last year I ended up with a lot of hemp I hated and some Pakucho organic cotton I had no idea what to do with. I was originally thinking colorwork but this yarn has zero elasticity. I think I'll use all the shades for a spontaneous scarf. (To make a spontaneous scarf you just find the longest circular needle you can find, cast on as many stitches as you can stand (I'm 5'7 so I like scarves to be around 6 feet long), and do seed stitch with a new color each row. Leave about 4-6 inches of yarn at the beginning and end of the row to make fringe.)
So far my favorite plant-based yarn is Crystal Palace's Panda Cotton. It is a bamboo/cotton/nylon blend. I used it for these fingerless mitts and ripped one mitt out FIVE TIMES to come up with a design I liked and you can't even tell the yarn was mistreated. So it gets a good grade for durability and the price is decent. There are not enough solid colors though. As it turns out Panda Cotton is now 35% off at the Woodland Woolworks going out of business sale so I just bought more along with some Panda Soy to try and some more Maizy. I bought some Maizy last year but I have yet to try it.
Finally, I bought some Elann's Esprit (similar to Cascade Fixation). This yarn comes in lovely colors and is a great price. I started some hiking socks for DH - he's exceptionally picky about knitted items so I am waiting to see what he thinks after he tests them out.
Does anyone have any other recommendations for plant-based yarns I should try? I'd especially love to find something that would work for stranding.