The white sisal is ordinary parcel 2 ply and is a bit hard on the fingers, but it can be made into great contrasting fluffs if it's worked on long enough with a comb and pressured steam (hard graft, that bit with plenty of sneezing!).

Ply-split braiding (SCOT). The Chatham bowl is so named because the rope was made from aromatic golden sisal yarn spun at Chatham Royal Dockyards in Kent, UK, where most of the ropes for the Royal Navy were made (they still make rope there in the traditional way in the quarter-mile-long rope walk shed). It has an identifying yellow rogue yarn spun in with the sisal fibre.

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