Friday, January 24, 2014

Spinning flax into linen yarn

 
So, this past summer I grew some flax for fiber. After rippling, retting, breaking, scutching and hackling, I ended up with 6.9 ounces of fiber, ready to spin (see a picture here.) I finally had a chance to spin half of the flax fiber up into a two-ply laceweight linen yarn:
 
 
 
I got 425 yards total. The other half should yield about the same, so I should end up with between 800 and 900 yards of laceweight linen yarn.
 
I'd love to weave it into a kitchen towel, but I don't have a loom yet. I'm not sure how much knitted fabric it will make, so I'm searching patterns. I'd love to get a small apron out of it, but don't know if that's possible.
 
The yarn is a bit rough, but not as bad as 2012's crop. I'm hoping it will soften up nicely with washings and wear and do fine as an apron, if I can manage get one out of 800-900 yards.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lovely smooth, fine yarn - I hope you find something suitable to make with it!

ICQB said...

Hi In Stitches Daily!

Thanks, and I hope so, too! Your blog is terrific - wish we had programs here like the one you're involved with, and workshops on processing flax and weaving it on a warp-weighted loom!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the comment about the blog. We have some great crafts people around here running workshops. It's thanks to them that I've been able to pass some skills on to the project that I'm involved with. I'm looking forward to getting further with processing the stored flax crop.

rita said...

I love love Flax Linen. I make everything from it: bed sheets, towels, baby stuff, dresses, table linen, bags, eco gifts . It is the most eco friendly fabric on the planet and it is healthy for you!!!! https://www.etsy.com/shop/UniqueSewingStudio

ICQB said...

Hi rita!

You have a nice Etsy shop! Thanks for stopping by!