Linen Fiber Part I

My newest Arts and Science project is a study of Medieval Fibers. My documentation will be a history of where and when the fiber was used and also how it was processed. I will have fibers, spun samples and woven samples to accompany all of the fibers I cover in the documentations. I will post about these fibers as I work on them. The original motivation for this project was to make a display of period fibers and I figured I might as well also make it an Arts and Science project. It has been a great learning experience and I have found out some really cool information. But of course the most fun is to work with the fibers.

 

So here is Flax which when it is woven will magically become Linen.

 

I would like to process my own small quantity of flax from scratch someday, but that will be another Arts and Science project entirely. For now I am using some commercially processed flax I purchased from Halcyon Yarn.

 Singles

 

I purchased a pound of it and since it is a large quantity I have decided to spin it on my Ladybug wheel. I am wet spinning it, which means I am dipping my fingers in water to smooth out the fiber after I have drafted it. I am so surprised at how thin I am able to spin it. Spinning flax is quite a different experience from spinning wool. It feels like straw and you would think that it would be difficult to join the fibers to the spun single but it is actually pretty easy. I have been really enjoying working with it.

 

Singles ready for plying

 

Plied yarn with a quarter for reference

 

 

plied yarn is 17 WPI. It needs to be scoured then dyed.

 

 

I am going to set aside some of the unspun flax, along with 25 yards of spun linen and a small woven sample to go with the Arts and Science project. I plan to dye the rest of it up using synthetic dye (natural dye do not work as well on linen) and then weave up a small plaid table cloth.

 

I still have some more to spin then on to the dying and weaving. Stay tuned!