Nathalie is the name of the seed variety I use for this year’s experimental flax patch. Today is the day I sow them and think about what I learn from them.
Sweet little flax seeds, shaped like almonds, glistening in the sun. The beds in our community garden allotment are ready, soil nutritious, loose and bursting with life. Today is the day I introduce the seeds to the patch, when the maples are in blossom, birches crispy green.
A sweet harvest of flax seeds.
Karolina or Esbjörn?
Tradition says to plant the flax on a day with a female name, the longer the better. Karolina’s day on May 20th is said to be a good candidate, but I am quite confident with my choice. Apparently I chose the day of Esbjörn and Styrbjörn. I am sure they don’t mind. If I were Esbjörn or Styrbjörn I would be honoured to be the guardian of newly sown flax babies. And the seeds have their own Female name, don’t they; Nathalie, half from last year’s allotment harvest, half from the local flax husbandry society.
Flax seed threshing.
I don’t have my hair down, I don’t sow with a silver spoon and I do wear underwear, contrary to the folklore, but I am a daredevil. I mix the seeds and divide them into the two beds I have prepared. Sprinkle them gently on top of the sun-warmed soil. My heart smiles at a whiff of sheep that sweeps by from the squash bed I have topped with fleece skirtings from shearing day last month.
All that can go wrong
Being an adoptive mother to a flax patch can be quite adventurous – I never know what to expect. Weather, soil, harvest day, drying and retting are all steps on the way from seed to yarn that can go wrong in a number of ways, and a lot of them by my hand. This is the 11th year I grow flax, and every year I learn something new that can influence the result. Still, every time I do end up with spinnable fiber and seeds for the next year, so I must be doing something right enough.
My flax patch yarn from 2011 to 2022.
All is as it should be
This little patch of land, just a couple of square meters, teaches me so much. I learn what to look for in the soil, to spot the miniscule difference between sprouts of flax and chickweed, to harvest the thicker edge plants separately and to use a rolling pin and a pillow case to break the dried seed capsules.
Come June…
All that can go wrong will eventually do so, and I embrace all that I learn from it. This is my experimental flax patch for a reason, I keep it to learn, to get a tiny glimpse into the vastness of what there is to learn about flax husbandry. With gratitude and humility I think about all the people who have grown flax before me with so much more at stake than just my flax growing pride.
Flax 2024: Weave
Last year was the first year I dared to spin my homegrown flax. During a couple of weeks I spun up all my stricks, year by year. This is the year I will weave with my own linen yarn. I may also dye it with indigo that I have grown in that same soil. Imagine, a linen towel with the experience from seed to yarn from the past 11 years woven into it, and blue. If that is not priceless, I don’t know what is.
Nathalie, grow well. I will do my best to nurture you and make you shine.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. So subscribe!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
When I talk to people about my experimental flax patch I often get the question of yield – how much flax do I get per square meter of harvest? I have never been able to answer the question since I haven’t documented the numbers. But this year I tried to estimate a flax yield.
It is a relevant and interesting question. But, as always, there are many parameters that need consideration and there is a lot more than just a figure. I will however give you some numbers and then challenge them.
Unprocessed weight
This year I planted two of my community garden allotment beds with flax. They are approximately 3 square meters in total. After I had harvested, dried, retted and dried again I had 900 grams of flax. I have nothing to compare it with, but of the ten harvests I have had it was at least one of the top three in harvested flax.
Newly water retted flax that, after drying, resulted in 900 grams.
Despite careful checks I managed to underret my flax this year too. More than usual, actually. While the fibers were very soft from the water retting, as well as long and fine, there was a lot of waste. The fibers were very strong, so the waste was in the amount of fibers (lots of plants where the fibers hadn’t separated) rather than in length.
Processed weight
After breaking, scutching and rough and fine hackling I had 72 grams of prepared flax. I arranged the flax in two stricks, one with the long first hand quality and one with the second hand hackle waste that I rehackled. In addition to that there was a lot of waste that ended up as mulching in the garden beds.
Broken, scutched and hackled flax. All in all I got 72 grams of spinnable fibers out of my 900 grams of dried and retted plants.
Parameters
So, I have listed some interesting parameters to challenge and break down these numbers. Some of which I can experiment with and improve and others that I just have to deal with. Some of which spell C-A-T-S.
Area, distribution and height
While I can measure the flax patch area there are lots of parameters that I can’t really influence. I aim at fine fibers, so I plant quite tightly, but I don’t measure the distance between the plants. Depending on my deweeding diligence there can be more or less weed between my flax plants.
Tighter planted seeds make more and finer plants. Both pictures are from previous years.
I buy the seed that is available that particular year. Sometimes it is a higher plant sort and sometimes a lower.
Height and fineness
Even if the seed has an estimated height, the individual plants can of course vary. The further the distance between the fibers, the more space the plant gets to grow, and the taller and rougher the plant will grow. This is especially clear in the edges of the flax patch where the plants have lots of space to grow. But height through roughness isn’t necessarily what I want. Where the plants have grown tighter the fibers will be finer, but also shorter. The tighter growing plants will also have less branching and a higher quality than the tall and branched rough plants. Finer fibers would also result in a lighter yield.
Last year’s flax was quite uneven in height.
Some years the plants are very different in height and I haven’t got the slightest clue to why. But perhaps it has something to do with the soil? I have read that flax likes to be planted on an even surface and so I try to make it as flat as I can by walking over the whole patch after sowing, pressing the soil even.
The weather
No matter how well I tend my flax patch, the weather always has the final say. Whether it is too wet, too dry or too windy, the weather will influence the quality of the flax. This year, for example, we had some very heavy rain in a couple of early August weeks. The flax laid flat and got too heavy to rise. Flax lying flat on the ground can result in mold or retting while it is still in the ground.
Retting
The retting, oh, the retting. How it eludes me. I have managed to underret most of my harvests so far. It seems like I need to overret it once to understand what perfect retting is supposed to look and feel like.
I did so many retting tests, but I still managed to underret it. Again.
When the flax is underretted there will be more fibers that still stick together in a band. These will make the hackling more exhausting for me and result in more tangles and broken fibers. A lesser quality, no doubt, and, in the end, more waste.
Cats
I’m not joking here. The more the neighbourhood cats that take naps in the flax field, the more bent the plants will get, resulting in the same disaster as heavy wind or rain. And no one has any say in the catdom other than the cat.
My flax patch has been terrorized by both cats and heavy rain. Screenshot from video.
This year Findus the neighbour’s cat trotted around in one of my flax patches as I tried to harvest it, resulting in tangled plants and lots of fuss. The main fuss was caused by heavy rain, though.
Waste or tow?
I have to admit I’m not very good at taking care of the hackle waste. I do try to unwaste the longer hackle remains and rehackle it into shorter bundles. But I am certain I could make more of an effort with the tufty tow and make a rougher yarn with it. This is actually a parameter where I can step up and turn some waste into unwaste.
Experimental
My flax patch has been experimental from the start back in 2014. My main aim is to learn, which I do every year, sometimes with varying degrees of pain. The more I learn the better quality my flax gets. There was a lot of waste this year. From the 900 grams I started with I ended up with 72 grams of prepared flax. That makes a yield of less than one per cent from the original dry weight. I have nothing to compare it with, but it sounds very low. Still it isn’t as simple as only numbers. I am very happy with the quality of those 72 grams.
Retting is and will always be a factor that heavily influences the yield and a constant adventure. Soil, fertilizing, weather and weeds are others. And cats.
I have written quite a lot of flax posts through the years. Use the search field to find them.
Happy spinning!
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Since I started my experimental flax patch 2014 I have dew retted my harvest. This year I try water retting for the first time.
Every year I have been nervous about retting. About the retting process in itself because it is such a vital part of the quality and yield of the harvest, but also about something happening to the flax on the lawn.
Lawn issues
We do have a lawn right outside our house. The tricky part though, is that it is not our lawn. Our house is situated in sort of a park area through which people can stroll – there are practically no gardens and no fences. The lawn is also part of the whole row of four town houses.
Dew retting in 2022.
Last year our neighbours were renovating their kitchen. I had laid my flax out to dew ret the day before they started ripping out the old furniture and dumping it uncomfortably close to my flax. It all worked out in the end, but it is a challenge to hog the lawn for three weeks for something people have no idea what it is. To them it is just straw in rows on the ground.
Enter: The kiddy pool
As I went out every day last year to check on the flax and the threat of the renovation bags, I read about my friend Christiane Seufferlein’s water retting. For water retting, a creek or a lake is recommended, so that the water is not still. Christiane did her water retting in a kiddy pool, though.
The kiddy pool water retting on day 1 and day 3.
We live very close to a lake, but I wouldn’t dare to leave my flax where passers-by can see it. We also have a creek, but there is only water running in it in the early spring from melting snow. So a kiddy pool was the perfect solution. I wouldn’t bother the neighbours, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about the flax being trampled on and the retting wouldn’t take three weeks.
Most of the kiddy pools on the market seem to come with either Disney motifs or inflatable palm trees. Or both. I did manage to find a plain rectangular pool, though.
Water retting
I harvested my flax on August 7th, but due to heavy and frequent rain it wasn’t dry until late August. I rippled it and started the retting on August 30th. I threw some soil in the bottom of the pool to get the retting a head start. To keep the flax bundles from surfacing I covered them with a couple of compost grids and some bricks. When I had it all organized I covered the arrangements with hose water of around 20 °C.
To trick the pool into believeing it was a real creek, I removed a bucket of pool water and added a bucket of hose water every day.
Testing
As the days went by, the water got increasingly gunky. Luckily, water retting is usually a lot faster than dew retting. Christiane had told me to check daily once the make-believe creek started to smell. On day 6 I took out a few strands, dried them and checked how the fibers came off the core. It had definitely started but was not finished.
Drying some test strands on day 6.
End of process
I tested again on day 8, but it was on day 9 I decided to stop the process. The fibers came off the cellulose core with ease. On some strands the fibers had come off by themselves.
Knot test not failed.
I also tested the strength of the fibers by tyeing a knot and pulling. If the fibers break close to the knot the fibers are strong. My fibers broke just by the knot. Happy as a clam I removed the flax bundles from the pool, sprinkled them with the hose and put it all to dry around the base of our oak tree.
Our big oak watches over the drying water retted flax.
The weather was warm and dry during this time and the bundles dried quite fast. The stems weighed 900 grams when fully dried.
Breaking and scutching
I have no idea if I will get the time to process the flax before it gets too cold. However, I like to at least break and scutch it before the winter so that it takes up less space indoors.
Newly broken 2023 flax.
Breaking flax is quite laborious, but also something I look forward to doing. My 1821 flax break was made for a shorter person and my back wined a bit. After I felt the first blister in my hand I put on a biking glove. Neither pretty nor contemporary, but sometimes style needs to take a step down. I did take it of for the photo shoot, though.
Scutching my flax. The boon that isn’t on the ground is in my bra.
For the scutching I used my beautiful scutching knife, custom made for me last year by master carver Frej Lonnfors.
Test hackling
As I scutchted I started to suspect that the flax was underretted after all. Even if most of the boon came off, the fibers didn’t seem to separate. I decided to hackle a couple of stricks to investigate.
My soft and golden test hackled water retted flax. I can’t stop looking at it.
I ran the flax through rough and fine hackles and I was right. Despite the experience of ten harvests I obviously still haven’t learned how to ret properly. There were still lots of strands with the fibers glued together and there was quite a lot of waste, in both rough and fine hackling.
Baby soft
But the softness, oh the softness. I have never had a flax harvest as smooth as this! I read that water retting can make the fibers softer than dew retting and in this case it seems to be correct.
The colour is beautifully golden, in contrast to the more subtly silvery brown dew retted flax I am used to. Despite the high waste I expect to get more hackled flax than I have before. I had two flax patches this year, each around 1.5 square meters, and the flax quite high and even in length.
Next summer, sweet flax, you and I. Next summer.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Last weekend I decided to process my 2022 flax harvest. Flax processing is always more laborious than I tend to remember it. Lucky me I had already broken and scutched it, back in September. Join me for some spring hackling!
As I was watching my 2023 flax babies sprout the other day, my thoughts went to my 2022 harvest. To save workload and storing space I had already broken and scutched the harvest from my two flax beds, so I just had to run it through the rough and fine hackles.
I broke and scutched the 2022 flax harvest in September. Scutched flax to the right.
Processing flax takes time and energy.
Processing flax takes time and energy.
Processing flax takes time and energy.
Spring hackling
Now I should remember for next time, shouldn’t I? Because there is no “just” in flax processing. There is always time, hard work and bloodshed involved. Still, having the flax already broken and scutched back in September was a sweet gift to myself now, eight months later. When I harvested the flax I also divided it into qualities – the edge plants (thick plants and rough fibers) in one bundle and the rest in separate bundnes according to fineness and length.
Rough hackling
I have two antique hackles, one rough and one fine. I let the flax go through both of them. As I rough hackled the flax I could feel and see the difference between the bundles. The finer the flax the shorter the fibers.
Spring hackling! As I rough hackle my flax the boon falls out from the fibers, leaving a smoother bundle.
Rough hackling is always quite straining – the boon (the pieces of cellulose that are made up the core of the plant and were broken in the first stage of processing) gets stuck between the fibers, and so does any underretted fibers. Therefore I need to work to get the flax through the spikes. But it did work and when I looked around me on the floor I was fascinated to see how much boon had fallen out of the fibers and down to the floor.
Fine hackling
When I had gone through all the bundles with the rough hackle, I was ready for the fine hackle. I made sure not to take too thick bundles, to avoid strain on both my muscles and the fibers. Most of the boon and underretted fibers were out by now, but the fine hackling further aligns the fibers and removes tangles and the little boon that may be left. Provided the flax has been properly retted, of course. I’ll get to that further down.
With the fine hackling I further align the fibers and remove tangles, underreted fibers and remaining boon.
In the fine hackling process I can really see and feel the quality of the flax. Since I had sorted it into qualities from the beginning, the bundles were very even in both length and quality. I was very grateful for having gone through the trouble of sorting the flax back in September.
When all the flax had gone through fine and rough hackles I was totally exhausted. I may have hackled for over two hours – flax and fingers. My hands looked like a mess, totally unfit for the photo shoot I had planned. Let’s take it again, with an addition: Processing flax takes time, energy and skin.
Hackle waste
All through the hackling stages I got lots of waste – for every bundle I had to remove waste from between the hackle spikes once or twice. I ran this waste through both hackles again, to remove the very shortest bits and free the usable tow for a rougher yarn and/or weft. It resulted in a sizable strick of my re-hackled hackle waste.
I re-hackle my hackle waste.
The waste from the hackle waste ended up as mulching under my red currant bushes.
Josefin’s vs Berta’s flax
Last summer I spent a lot of time on the balcony, spinning exquisite antique flax from the Austrian Berta’s flax project. Spinning that was a dream. Working with my own flax harvest now gave me a good idea of what high quality flax should look like – the antique flax was perfectly retted and was very smooth to spin. I realized that, even though my 2022 harvest was the best so far when it comes to length, quality and yield, it was slightly underretted. But I am very proud of the process and the result, and grateful for learning something new on m flax journey every year.
Voilá! My 2022 flax harvest all hackled and ready to spin. Slightly underretted, but still my best yield and quality yet.
My 2021 harvest, though, was a retting disaster – so much was wasted in the hackling due to underrating, I almost cried. But then I reminded myself that this is an experimental flax patch – I do it to learn. Even if I will never come near the quality of the antique flax, I know now that I need to be even more thorough in my retting process.
Lessons for the 2023 retting
Retting is truly vital for the quality of the fiber. Had the flax been properly retted I would have been able to remove more boon in the scutching step and less in the hackling step. It would have given a higher yield and lower waste. It would probably also have been a less straining hackling process for me. I’m certain it wouldn’t have resulted in less bloodshed. To add to my high expectations of my 2023 retting I am thinking about water retting it in a kiddy pool.
Flax chronology
I have grown an experimental flax patch every year since 2014. The first year I had no intention of processing the flax, it was just a bag of seeds I saw and bought. But as August came that year I decided to process it after all. The strick is very short and with the circumference of half a rat’s tail, but still, it’s my very first flax.
My experimental flax patch 2014–2022 (left to right). All stricks from 2021 and 2022 are not in the picture.
Some years were underretted, some years better, but every harvest different from the previous. The difference can be in colour, length, retting or other. It is truly interesting to see the result every year and the difference between the harvests. I do like to think that I have improved since I started.
Flax summer of 2023
Every year’s flax harvest i have placed in a paper bag. I have been practicing and procrastinating, waiting to gather enough courage and flax spinning skills to deserve to spin it. In the meantime I have spun commercially prepared flax. Last year, when I spun the Austrian flax I realized the difference and the amazing quality in the Austrian antique flax.
This summer my plan is to spin my own flax, for the very first time. Very exciting and a little scary. I will make separate yarns from each harvest (perhaps not the 2014 harvest) and perhaps weave something where the difference shows. I think the time has come now, I do deserve to spin my own flax harvest. Before I do I will rehackle it all and brush it with my flax brush. You can see a video where I rehackle and brush old flax here.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I have grown flax in an experimental flax patch since 2014. The aim has always been to learn, from sowing, growing and harvesting to processing. And I have learned a lot through the years. This week I finished the flax harvest 2022.
The flax patch is an ongoing classroom for me. I learn and relearn every year. Last year I had three flax patches – one in the flower bed outside the house (where I have had it since 2014), and two in the allotment. It became very clear to me that the patch in our flower bed wasn’t a good place for flax. The growth was very uneven and the plants very short, especially in comparison with the allotment plants.
So this year I gave up on the patch in the flower bed and prepared my patches in the allotment only. Let’s call them patch A and patch B. I used one seed in patch A and two different seeds in patch B.
Patch A
In patch A the flax grew evenly in length and development. The plants were evenly distributed over the soil surface. I was very thorough when I prepared the bed – I had read somewhere that the soil surface had to be even and I think I did a good job.
Patch A in the allotment. Even in height, development and distribution. Photos taken in June, July and August.
As I harvested the flax in patch A the plants were high and evenly high. The outermost stems were coarser, as expected, and I harvested them separately. The others were even in thickness (since they were evenly distributed) and length (as a result of the even surface I believe). It was a lovely harvest.
Patch B
I prepared the soil the same way in patch B as in patch A – I made sure the soil was even and spread the seeds (of two different kinds) evenly. Still, they grew quite differently than in patch A. The plants got unevenly distributed, they matured at different times and were uneven in length. The last two parameters may have had to do with the two different seed types. But why the plants matured in such different stages I don’t know. Perhaps the soil was drained from nutrition. I will make sure to fertilize it this fall.
Flax harvest 2022
Even though I had sown the patches on the same day they matured at different times. So I harvested patch A about a week before patch B. The patch A harvest was lovely, tall, strong and straight plants that behaved very well as I harvested. I could just grab a bunch, pull it out of the soil and shake a bit to remove the earth.
The harvest from patch A. Even in height, maturity and thickness.
The plants were not branched, yet they had lots of seed capsules. The bundles looked very pretty and even. I made sure to even the roots in the bundles for easier processing. I secretly have high hopes for this harvest.
The flax harvest 2022 from patch A. Tall, straight and even. I made sure to even the root ends in the bundles for easier processing.
In patch B there was another story. As the plants were of very different height I needed to harvest in a different way, scanning the patch for the highest ones and bundle them together, then the next level and so on. Tedious, but it worked. The shortest plants were very fine but too short to do anything with, so I left them to use as mulching in the patch. Some of the plants were altogether brown and I left them out too.
The bundles from flax B (left) and flax A (right) are quite different in length. The tall bundle in the middle is the rough outer plants from patch A.
The bundles from patch A were quite even in length, there was perhaps one bundle that was slightly shorter than the others, but nothing dramatic. The bundles from patch B, though were all shorter than the patch A bundles, and very different in length. However, the plants in patch B were finer than the ones in patch B. I may be able to spin quite different yarns with the flax from my different patches.
Anticipation
The harvest has been drying outdoors for a week or two now. This morning it started to rain, though, so I need to dry them a bit longer. When there is enough dew I will ret them on the lawn.
Sweet lax harvest 2022, what will you be?
Since I have been working a lot with the Austrian flax from the Berta’s flax project, I am very keen to follow this harvest through retting and processing. What will the result be? What colour will it have? Will I manage to ret it enough this time? How will the flax from patch A and patch B be different from each other? How will the flax spin up in comparison with the Austrian flax?
As I underretted the 2021 flax I am a bit nervous about retting the 2022 flax. I have learned a lot from this year’s flax and I am sure it will keep teaching me through the coming stages. I have actually not spun any of my 2014–2021 harvests. Perhaps it is time to try next year?
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
This week I have worked multidimensionally with flax. I have spun Austrian flax harvested and processed before 1900, knit my handspun yarn from 80 year old Austrian flax, hackled my own flax from 2020 och 2021 and monitored my 2022 flax. Have a peak in my current flax brain!
When I teach spinning (wool) I like to start from the beginning, preparing the fibers. As we go along in the class, I encourage my students to look at the previous step for trouble shooting – can I change something in the carding to solve problems in my spinning? When I have trouble getting my rolags even, will I find the solution in the teasing?
The other day I read a quote that stuck to me. It said: “Creative activity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.” (Arthur Koestler). As I work with the yarn, learning about its properties and the technique I teach myself to improvements on current, previous and following steps. And I would add the material as my teacher too.
The flax brain
I’m not nearly as experienced in flax processing and spinning as I am with wool and I only sow, harvest and process my flax once a year. But this week I have been in the flax on quite a deep level and in many dimensions. Those of you who follow me on Instagram may have seen my Daily flax theme in my stories, where I post one flax related picture or video each day.
I have had a flax brain this summer.
Searching for pictures and/or contexts where I can take a picture of something flax related has switched on my flax brain. What is it that I do and why? Can I make improvements in one step to ease the next? What can I learn from one step that may change how I do things in a previous step?
Knitting my handspun flax
As I wrote in a previous post, I have started knitting with flax yarn that I have spun from 80 year old Austrian flax from the Berta’s flax project. By knitting with the yarn I understand how my style of knitting influences the yarn.
Knitting with my handspun flax makes me reflect over and better understand how I need to spin it.
In this case, with a Z-plied yarn I take off some of the (already low) twist, which results in two singles almost parallel on the needles. This means that I need to add twist when I ply to compensate for the twist I take off when I knit. This way there is sort of a communication between steps in the process via me, a communication between the teacher and the pupil.
Rehackling and brushing pre-1900 flax
As I rehackle and brush the pre-1900 flax from the Berta’s flax project I see what really high quality is. I see how fine the fibers are, how little boon that is left (even if it differs between the three batches of Austrian flax I have, all are very clean) and how much time, skill and effort that has been put into the preparation of the flax.
After rehackling my old flax I brush it with a hog hair flax brush.
Without that knowledge I would probably not understand how my own hackled flax should look like. Without the fresh experience of spinning yarn from flax of high quality I would not have the organic connection between the steps of the process.
Creating a fan and dressing the distaff
As I create a fan and and dress the distaff my flax brain is turned on. Since I made the previous distaff dressing and spun it quite recently I have a fresh understanding of how important a thoroughly prepared fan is for the flow of the spinning.
I’m spreading my rehackled and brushed flax out into a fan to dress my distaff.
For this distaff dressing I spent a lot of time creating the fan, making sure all the layers were very thin and evenly spread. And I did notice the difference from the last distaff dressing – the fibers came out into the drafting zone more effortlessly and evenly. Instant feedback between steps in the process is truly satisfying.
Spinning pre-1900 Austrian flax
Even if the 80 year old flax was in very high quality, the pre-1900 flax was exceptional, with next to no boon at all. I see what even the smallest proportion of boon remnants do for the spinning flow and the softness of the resulting yarn. The more boon the less fluent the spinning and the coarser the yarn.
I’m spinning, plying and making a skein of my Austrian flax.
Spinning this flax has been a joy and a journey back to pre-1900 Austria. As the flax has been going through my hands, so has my thoughts about all the people who have been involved in the preparation of this high quality flax and the significance it had for the people of that place and time.
Preparing my 2020 and 2021 flax
Preparing my own flax helps me understand what retting does in all the processes: An underrated flax will create more waste, more work, coarser yarn, more tangles and less flow in the spinning process.
I broke my 2020 and 2021 flax harvests in October and scutched it this week. The 2021 harvest (left) was a large one with long fibers.
The sentence above is very sensible. I always tell my students that their mistakes are a map of what they have learned and I usually embrace my mistakes. I do that with my underretted flax too, but I can’t help but shed a tear too.
The large 2021 flax harvest was heavily reduced due to underretting. The longest fibers (but not so long after the brutal hackling) to the left, shorter in the middle. To the right is the short bundles of rehackled tow.
The 2021 flax harvest was large, the largest I have ever had, and with very long fibers (see picture of broken flax above). But it was all underretted. There was so much waste, both in amount and length. Even with the large amount of waste I still see a lot of boon and I know it will cause problems when I spin it and in the resulting yarn.
The hackled 2020 flax was modest but resulted in very fine fibers.
My 2020 harvest was very modest and of very different lengths, none of which was very impressive. Still, it resulted in very fine fibers of an almost silvery colour. And a high yield.
Rehackling the tow
I did take the opportunity to rehackle my large pile of newly produced tow, though. I have saved all my tow through the years, but without having done anything with it. Because of the underretted 2021 harvest, the strick of rehackled tow turned out to be the thickest strick.
Harvesting my 2022 flax
As I harvest my flax I have the chance to do what I can to make a high quality preparation. I begin by investigating the flax to find the best day to harvest. I was planning to harvest this week, but as it started raining I didn’t want to risk molding in a damp bundle. So due to the rain there is no picture of my harvested 2022 flax here.
I’m a little afraid of going to the allotment to check on the flax. What if the rain (and wind) has felled the plants?
Henrietta
This week I bought a spinning wheel and I now have three. It was all done quite spontaneously. I have been spinning my flax with my makeshift umbrella stand and carved stick sort of distaff. My sitting position in relation to the distaff hasn’t been ideal for my body.
The ad for the wheel turned up at a very convenient time. My friend Anna was selling her pre-production Kromski Mazurka that she in turn had bough from a spinner in Germany. Anna lives in Gothenburg and I was going there by car for my aunt’s funeral. My destination, the car and the sweet wheel all fell into place.
The wheel had a flax distaff and was quite petite. Anna came to the hotel where I was staying and brought the wheel. I tested the wheel in the lobby (always a joy to make spinning wheel transactions in hotel lobbies) and decided she would come home with me.
I am getting to know my new wheel Henrietta, a pre-production Kromski Mazurka. Since the distaff is too short (and too close to the flyer hooks) I hold it in my hand. I hope to get my wood turner to make me a taller distaff.
I am calling the wheel Henrietta, which is the name of one of my Austrian great-grandmothers (one of my other wheels is named Berta after my Swedish great-grandmother). My aunt was in turn named Harriet after Henrietta. If I remember it correctly, my aunt Harriet dreamed of being called Henrietta.
I have spun with Henrietta for a day or so and we are slowly getting to know each other. She is such a sweet wheel to work with! She is very easy to carry which is a big plus since I like to bring her out to the balcony to spin my flax. The distaff is too short (long flax gets tangled into the flyer hooks), so for the moment I hold it in my hand and draft from there. I hope I can get my wood turner to make me a taller distaff.
Today may be the day I harvest my 2022 flax. I have high hopes for the retting this year.
Happy spinning!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Many of you may have heard of the project Berta’s flax, initiated by Austrian fiber artist Christiane Seufferlein. She got a chest full of hackled flax that came from relatives to Berta. She married in the 1950’s and, like most women at the time, she brought a chest of flax into her marriage. Today is all about flax community, over time and space.
Straw into gold, gold into dust
Berta’s flax chest was used literally as a treasure chest – if she was to lose her husband in any way the flax was her property to use as she liked. If times were hard she would be able to sell some of the flax to stay afloat. In the flax chest were also woven linen fabrics, from the finest table linen to coarser potato sack fabric.
Sweet Austrian flax and handwoven linen fabric.
Keeping a chest of flax was common in many parts of Europe at this time, at first as a dowry and sort of an insurance, and later as a sweet tradition. From the 1960’s though, few people were interested in the flax chests and many of them were burnt or buried.
A flax heroine
When Christiane got Berta’s flax she wanted to make use of it. So many chests of flax had been burned and destroyed. Christiane decided to spread the flax over the world to give it good homes. Berta’s flax flew far and wide, and when the chest was empty Christiane had got many more chests, some containing over 100 kilos of flax.
Flax to Sweden
Berta’s story and Christiane’s project fascinated me, both through the stories and the flax treasures and by its Austrian origin. Both my parents have Austrian descent and my father grew up in Austria. I decided to ask for a strick. Christiane sent it, but for one reason or another the flax decided to take almost a yearlong detour and it was just this week that it arrived here in Stockholm.
Austrian flax from 1858 or earlier.
Two of the stricks I got were from Anna Hanaberger. A linen merchant, Josef Riederer, had testamented two flax chests to Anna in 1858, over 160 years ago. Holding it in my hands makes my heart beat faster, imagining all the work that has been done by another flax community so many years ago.
Flax and linen, true treasures.
Christiane had sent me not only three stricks of golden flax, but also a piece of linen fabric. I had told her that my father was born and brought up in Austria, that a piece of his heart is always there and that I wanted to make something for him with the Austrian flax. She promised to put a surprise in the parcel and the fabric was the most exquisite surprise.
Flax community
By now Christiane has sent flax all over the world and the Berta’s flax community on Facebook has grown, it now has 2100 members. As my experience with spinning and fiber communities, the Berta’s flax community is one of kindness. All members are very helpful and passionate about fiber, spinning, keeping crafting techniques or sustainability.
All the steps side by side. From the left: Retted and unprocessed, broken, pulled, scutched, rough hackled and fine hackled.
The local community where Christiane lives in Austria keeps sending her chests of flax. Christiane keeps sending stricks out in the world, reminding us all of the flax community in another time, working together to equip young women with a solid insurance.
You can find the Berta’s flax community on Facebook.
1kvmlin
Meanwhile in Sweden: A couple of years ago a region in Sweden started the project 1kvmlin, translating to 1 square meter of flax, where flax seeds enough for one square meter was sent out to anyone who wanted to grow their own square meter of flax.
Dressing the distaff (left) and my flax harvests from 2014 to 2019 (right).
I had grown about that size since 2014 and decided to join the project. Since then the project has gone nation wide and people all over Sweden (and some neighbouring countries) participate. 2021 over 6000 people grew their own square meter of flax in the project.
One of two flax beds in my allotment this year. I wonder if the white wagtails slipped on the seeds.
The 1kvmlin project started with an old towel on the attic of ethnologist Inga Widhja. The towel was made from flax that she had grown in the garden with her grandmother. The grandmother had said to sow the seeds “close enough for the white wagtails to slip on.” They had gone through all stages of the process together and spun and woven that treasured towel. Inga’s stort was the starting point of 1kvmlin.
Flax summer
Last summer was my first real flax summer. I had got some flax from the 1940’s from my brother’s mother-in-law north of Stockholm. Her grandmother Anna had grown flax and sent it to a flax mill for processing. It had been kept in a chest, but not in stricks, so the part I got was quite tangled, but I re-hackled it, brushed and spun it into singles yarns.
Last summer I spun my brother’s mother-in-law’s grandmother Anna’s flax.
This summer I will spin the Austrian flax Christiane sent me. Perhaps I can take some of my handspun yarn to Austria later and knit it there, back where it once grew. If I’m lucky I will also be able to meet up with Christiane.
The flax community brings fiber people together through time and space. And by the goddesses do we need it in these times of trouble.
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to missanything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
You are also welcome to make one-off donations on my Ko-fi page.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the new book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I used to go the Skansen Outdoor museum every August to process my harvest from my experimental flax patch since I didn’t have any tools. The past few years I have managed to get hold of flax processing tools of my own. In this summer series of short blog posts I will present my flax processing tools. Previous presentations have been about my hackles, flax break and scutching knives and scutching board. This week I present my last, and most rare tool, the flax brush.
A flax brush history
A rare tool for flax processing is the flax brush. It has been most common in the county of Ångermanland in the middle of Sweden but has been used in other parts of mid-Sweden as well. Some sources also show that brushes have been used in some parts of Belgium, Flandres and eastern Finland.
The flax brush was used for the finest flax and the most exclusive linen products. After the hackling and just before the spinner dressed the flax on the distaff they would brush it to get rid of any short pieces of tow. This would also give an extra shine to the flax stricks.
The left strick is unbrushed and the right brushed with my flax brush. A bit shinier, a bit more organized.
Ångermanland has been the epicenter of flax husbandry in Sweden. Brushing the flax was a mandatory step in the flax preparation process for the fines flax fibers. In some cases three different hackles were used, followed by two flax brushes for the very finest fibers. The most common combination was two hackles and one brush.
The brush is traditionally made with hog bristle. The bristles were carefully tied together with waxed linen thread and covered with a mixture of tar and resin to form a handle.
A flax brush is traditionally made with hog bristle. The bristles were usually bundled together at the end and tied with waxed linen thread for a handle and covered with a mixture of tar and resin to form a handle.
Source: Linberedning och linborsten i norra Ångermanland, by Örnsköldsviks museum
My flax brush
I didn’t know about flax brushes until I visited the study collection at Sätergläntan craft education center a couple of years ago. Marie, the weaving teacher at Sätergläntan showed me the collection brush and told me what it was for. When I found one at Swedish eBay this June I knew I needed to get it.
Helena Myhrman, Sollefteå, Ångermanland is brushing her flax with a brush similar to mine.
When the brush arrived in the mail the seller had attached a lovely photo of a spinner brushing her flax with a flax brush. There is a name on the back of the photo, Helena Myhrman, and where she was from. I don’t know when the picture was taken, but my guess is the beginning of the 20th century. From the picture it looks like she has been doing this for a long time. Her elbow comfortably on the table to get a good height on the strick of flax without straining her arm. The brush in a light grip and a swinging motion. Her relaxed but focused gaze. She knows her stuff. I wonder who she was, how long she had been spinning and growing flax and what happened to the textiles that were woven from it.
Imagine that a hog bristle brush can be such a treasure!
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
I used to go the Skansen Outdoor museum every August to process my harvest from my experimental flax patch since I didn’t have any tools. The past few years I have managed to get hold of flax processing tools of my own. In this summer series of short blog posts I will present my flax processing tools, beginning with the hackles.
Flax processing tools
Flax is labour intensive and you need the right tools to remove the fiber from the cellulose core and arrange it into parallel bundles. Of course it is possible without modern (in a flax processing perspective) tools. Before I got my tools I used a fist-sized rock to break the flax. But I have dreamed of owning my own set of flax processing tools.
A school poster from 1939 with flax processing! Break, scutch and hackles. In the background you can see the flax field where the flax has been dried and put out to ret.
After the flax has been dried, retted and dried again you need a break to break the cellulose core of the plant, a scutch to remove the broken cellulose bits and hackles to arrange the remaining flax fibers parallel.
I live in Stockholm, which isn’t the best place to find old farming tools. So whenever we go outside of Stockholm I put my textile crafting goggles on and start hunting for interesting things.
Finding hackles
For the past few summers we have rented a log cabin at a sheep farm in Tivenden in Sweden. Not far from the cabin is a large flea market that we make sure to visit. The first time we came I had big hopes of finding spinning wheels, hand cards and flax processing tools. I got quite disappointed really. There was a lot of nice things, a lot of rubbish and nothing of what I had hoped for. In the last stall we visited I found a hackle, though. Later I also found a second hackle at Swedish eBay. I don’t remember which is which, though.
Flax hackles in my experimental flax patch. The teeth of the right hackle are a bit denser than the teeth of the left.
Unknown history
I don’t know anything about these hackles. One has the initials VES. They look similar regarding the construction – a raised wooden foundation for the teeth and a metal rim around it. One of the hackles has a simple carved pattern on the front.
The hackles have a raised wood foundation where the teeth are fastened and a metal brim around it.
Comparing to other hackles I have seen in the Swedish digital museum I would say they are from the late 19th or early 20th century.
Hackling
I have used these hackles a few times when I still processed my flax at home. They work really well. One of the hackles has denser teeth so I start with the sparse hackles and move on to the denser for a good result.
The old wood feels so smooth and is a joy to handle. Knowing that these hackles have been used probably over a hundred years ago makes my heart tingle. There are still pieces of fibers stuck between the wood and the metal rim. I see them as my lucky charms that give me the power to do the flax justice.
My hackles with flax from the 2015 harvest. There are pieces of cellulose left, which indicates that the flax was under retted.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write posts about spinning, but also where I explain a bit more about videos I release. Sometimes I make videos that are on the blog only. Subscribe or make an rss feed to be sure not to miss any posts.
My youtube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook page where I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons is an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. Shooting and editing a 3 minute video takes about 5 hours. Writing a blog post around 3. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
