Flax spinning
When flax is spun, it turns into linen. Flax+twist=linen. Just like that.
Flax is a bast fiber, which means it’s grown inside a plant and beaten out– the woody parts of the plant dried, retted (rotted) and removed, so that the long cellulose fibers remain. Ramie, nettle and hemp are also bast fibers.
In the story of Rumplestilskin, the millers daughter is locked up in a room full of straw, and she’s expected to spin it into gold. Talk about high pressure; to strik and scutch and hackle all that flax before even thinking about taking it to the wheel. We’ll assume the drying and retting was already for her since it spun to gold we might assume that it was retted in a pond and not dew retted, as dew retting tends to result in a grayish tone and retting in a puddle results in a golden color.
The flax I’m using is bleached Irish line. Line consists of the longer fibers, whereas tow consists of the shorter fibers.
Mine is spun wet to smooth the fibers and help them soften just enough to create a slightly exaggerated memory.
During spinning the flax fibers are quite harsh, and the single is stiff. No worries though, the more abuse linen takes the nicer it becomes. Boiling it with a little soda ash makes it softer and the fibers start to take on a sheen. Most of those little fuzz prickles will break off as well leaving a smooth single behind; making me look like a much more adequate spinner than I actually am.
