{"id":10117,"date":"2023-09-16T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-16T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/?p=10117"},"modified":"2023-09-14T20:57:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T18:57:33","slug":"water-retting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waltin.se\/josefinwaltinspinner\/water-retting\/","title":{"rendered":"Water retting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Since I started my experimental flax patch 2014 I have dew retted my harvest. This year I try water retting for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawn issues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 there are practically no gardens and no fences. The lawn is also part of the whole row of four town houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dew retting in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last year our neighbours were renovating their kitchen. I had laid my flax out to dew ret<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enter: The kiddy pool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The kiddy pool water retting on day 1 and day 3.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We live very close to a lake, but I wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019t bother the neighbours, I wouldn\u2019t have to worry so much about the flax being trampled on and the retting wouldn\u2019t take three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Water retting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I harvested my flax on August 7th, but due to heavy and frequent rain it wasn\u2019t 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 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Drying some test strands on day 6.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

End of process<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Knot test not failed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our big oak watches over the drying water retted flax.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The weather was warm and dry during this time and the bundles dried quite fast. The stems weighed 900 grams when fully dried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking and scutching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Newly broken 2023 flax.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scutching my flax. The boon that isn\u2019t on the ground is in my bra.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For the scutching I used my beautiful scutching knife, custom made for me last year by master carver Frej Lonnfors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Test hackling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t seem to separate. I decided to hackle a couple of stricks to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My soft and golden test hackled water retted flax. I can\u2019t stop looking at it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I ran the flax through rough and fine hackles and I was right. Despite the experience of ten harvests I obviously still haven\u2019t 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baby soft<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next summer, sweet flax, you and I. Next summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy spinning!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You can find me in several social media:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n