Last post about the flax and linen production

Random photo, nothing to do with UW, because blogspot won't let me write anything today without posting a picture first. Yesterday, it was OK even though it wouldn't let me edit of do corrections, but today it's having a psychotic event again.

So this will be my last post for Urban Weaver. Dealing with blogspot takes hours of frustrated typing and retyping, playing around to see what its problem du jour is currently. USE WORDPRESS POTENTIAL BLOGGERS.

So, that's it from the Urban Cloth Project, aka Vancouver Flax2linen. You can find some of the stuff we do here http://aberthauflaxfibrefood.blogspot.ca/ but the things happening at McLean field house will not be reported. We will carry on processing flax there and don't forget we will be processing broom in a couple of weeks time (see post below this one) - please come and join us.

Basketry/cedar stuff continues as in the workshop/events page, and though the flax/broom/linen stuff will also continue, I will no longer be bloggin about it.

Happy spinning, weaving and dyeing,

Penny

We now have tubes you can use to rett your flax crop - and here's how to use them

Blogspot seems to back on it's cycle of not allowing me to write without a photo........

We now have a couple of PVC pipes set up ready for anyone to rett their flax crop - thanks Sheska! Here's the link to how she made them and how she used them http://www.instructables.com/id/pvc-pipes-for-retting-flax-plants/.

So far she's the only grow-along who has retted, and from teh processing we did on Monday night it looks like her crop is going to produce better linen fibre than mine. It seems to be finer.

Meanwhile, Sharon has been spending time on Saltspring with someone who has been growing flax for herself for years and who has generously shared her knowledge with us. Seems that sorting your crop before retting is very important. More about how to do that here http://sharonkallis.com/2013/07/30/the-beauty-of-my-community/

Here's what the flax grower (Pat Davidson) had to say .. "sort the donated flax from thick and thin stocks- as retting times are different ( fatter = faster) ". There are lots of photos of Pat's linen weaving and her processing equipment on Sharon's blog, so I recommend you taking a look at what an expert can do!

So Monday night was full of 'firsts'. Three people spun flax on a drop spindle for the first time. For one of them (that's you Judy!) it was the first time they'd ever spun anything at all. Three other people processed flax for the first time in their lives, and Sheska wove a cloth sample with her own home grown, processed and handpun linen.

So three new flax spinners initiated, a new spindler taught, three flax processers produced and a flax grower sees the process through from beginning to end for the first time (and I suspect it was her first time weaving anything too)! Plus, we all learned a lot from seeing the great retting tubes Sheska made and these will get much use after the linen season is over for soaking willow and other basketry materials too.

Penny

We have all the processing equipment now and started turning flax into gold

We now have all the equipment needed for flax processing and spent last night making our own linen - very exciting!

This is Sharon using the antique Doukhobor ripple to get the seed heads off the flax.

Martin is using his beautiful hand made flax brake and Sharon is using the scutching knife he also made. The brake is way more efficient at breaking up the dried pith inside the flax stems, and the scutching knife pulls the broken pith pieces from the stems, ready for hackling.

Here's what scutched flax stems look like.

Sharon is whipping those scutched stems through our coarse hackle, the fine hackle can be seen in the background, and the scutching knife in the foreground.

The hackle separates the fibres in the stems and pulls out any short weak fibres. The fine hackle separates the fibres into finer ones, only we found ours didn't make out linen as fine as the sample I bought from Victoria Flax2Linen. Is it our processing technique, something in the growing, retting not long enough, or something else? We don't know, but hope to get some answers ar Aberthau on August 15th when Victoria Flax2Linen come to give advice and spin with us (details of this in the Events post at the start of the UW blog).

Sharon is already spinning flax into gold like Rumplestiltskin, despite this being her first try! You can get a very fine thread if you wet your fingers. She's using a home made spindle made from a chop stick and a circle of wood (for the whorl). I wove the thread into another sample on the spot.

More processing to be done next week at the field house on the day of the full moon.

Penny

PS It was very cool how many people stopped by to see what we were doing and to join in. Some of our older Chinese neighbours clearly knew what we were doing and demonstrated the techniques they used to use. A young girl came past and asked if we were making linen - she'd seen the flax growing in the park and last night saw it made into cloth.

Linen cloth from my own, home grown and processed linen!

Here it is folks!

The first Vancouver DTES linen in recorded history! Looks a little hairy and string like, but I was braking in my fingers and finished the hackling by using carders, so there's shive still attached in places and the fibres were jumbled together from the carding. Proper line flax is only hackled and is much smoother like this stuff from Victoria Flax 2 Linen.

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Here's how I did it....

I broke the flax by twisting the stems over my finger. Then I used the scutching knife made by Martin Borden to get rid of the broken bits of dried pith (shive). This was pretty hard to do, so I can see why the scutching flail was invented!

Then I hackled the flax stems through a coarse hackle. This is also hard work, especially to avoid hackling your fingers. I separated out about 3 flax stems once I could see the linen fibres starting to appear. It wasn't good quality because of the amount of shive still attached to the stems.

Here's what it looked like

I carded it using some dog/cat fur combs because there was so little of it.

Spun it wet using a lightweight spindle and skeined it on a tiny niddy noddy and waited for it to dry. Wound it into a ball, wetted it again and wove it.

And here it is on my home made pin loom. When it's dry I'll take it off.

Interestingly, it is a mix of the golden colour you get from water retted linen and the grey from 'dew' retted.

This week we will be trying out the almost completed flax brake and processing more flax at the field house. Exciting times!

Penny

Flax retting complete, some processing done, and Blogspot is working (almost) properly again.

Retting is complete now.

I untied the bundles and spread the flax on the concrete of my patio. I sprayed it with the hose before bed for two nights and left it to dry in the sun. Seems to have finished the retting process nicely.

You can see from teh picture that the flax is no longer green at all. I have dried it and have it hung in a shady place away from the sun and (potential) rain.

I think that the Encyclopedia Britannica might be right about retting twice being a good idea. Flax that has been over-retted is a right-off. It's unusable. Retting in water is risky because you need to check so often to see if it's 'done'. Better to partially rett in water, dry it, then finish off the 'dew' (hose) method. That's much easier to control. I assume the bacteria needed to rot the green part from the flax is already on the stems from the water retting, so additional water in the form of a spray from a hose, just reactivates the breakdown process.

We spent part of Monday night at UW this week (in between making felt) sanding the parts of the flax brake. The wooden scutching knife is complete. Many thanks to Martin Borden for all the hard work.

I had a try at processing the flax, braking it by hand in single strands, then getting rid of the shive on my knee with the scutching knife. Finally, I tried using the ripple to hackle it and this was partially successful. I have some partly teased out fibres. Hopefully my Shropshire hackle will arrive next week!

Meanwhile, check out the flax events happening at Aberthau. They're at the end of the Events post - the first one that opens on this blog.

Penny

Woad weeds from the flax plot - fighting Blogspot to get the post up on here!

Here's the picture that Blogspot wouldn't let me upload on the last post. This is the first dip in my woad vat. Fleece (and silk and cotton) left overnight in the vat came out the usual turquiose with some areas of mauve. This isn't supposed to happen, as leaving stuff longer in the vat doesn't increase the colour. I did add some thiourea before I did the overnight dip, so perhaps I had an oxidation issue - who knows?

And that's why conservative voters don't make good natural dyers. Psychology longitudinal studies of US voters reveals that people with an intolerance for ambiguity of any kind will vote right wing. So you can be sure they won't like the unknowns involved in natural dyeing!

Just a further thought - I wonder if the proximity of the woad to the flax in the plot changed the chemical nature of the indigin in some way, so that it was more prone to oxidation?

Is retting complete? And Blogspot won't let me complete the post with photos of the flax's woad weeds dyeing mauve (instead of the usual turquoise)

Blogspot still in snit mode about me writing before posting a photo (and still won't let me correct typos without deleting back to the mistake, so appologies in advance), so here's photo of my retted (?) flax so far.

It seems to be turning the golden colour you associate with water retted plax, but the centre of the bundles are still damp and need further drying, I think. The golden flax is still pliable, and I can see the need for braking and scutching if this really is the end point of the retting process. It bends and isn't at all brittle.

Sub heading (because I can't make the bold or underline functions work either!): Why Conservative Voters Don't Make Good Natural Dyers.

I used the woad plants that were growing as weeds in my flax plot yesterday. Did my usual successful woad method, except that I didn't remove the roots from the plants (too lazy). Instead of my usual lovely turquoise blue colour, the first dips produced this.....

Restoring soil fertililty with alfalfa - planting details

Yes this is the same picture as the previous post, but blogspot won't let me write anything without first putting up a picture.......... go figure!

Plated my alfalfa seed yesterday after weeding the plot. 50 seeds per sq ft is the density recommended (for those of you who still haven't become metric!). It needs to be sown in the next 3 weeks to get a chance at decent growth. You'll need to rake the seed in and water well as the soil is very dry.

You can leave it over the winter and dig it in in the new year to put nitrogen and humus back into the soil, or you can use it to dye a nice range of yellow/greens and olive colours.

Penny

My retted flax is out of the water and drying after 4 days

Blogspot seems to have partially recovered from its hissy fit (though I still can't go back and edit, so sorry for any typos).

Here's a picture of my flax out of the retting 'tank', AKA green bin, today. I'm not sure if it's completed the retting process, but according to what I read it's better to take it out partially retted and try scutching (once it's dry) only to find it's not retted enough, than to over-rett and thereby ruin the crop. Encyclopedia Britannica says that traditionally flax was twice retted.

The water in the 'tank' had become very green and yesterday developed a white scum on top. It smelled a little, but mostly a kind of hay/silage smell, so not bad at all.

I removed it and put it in the sun to dry, based on 3 pieces of info abut when retting is complete:

1. When the stem makes a snap sound when you twist it around your finger in the water. Retting begins from the root end so you should try there first and also 6-10cm higher up.

2. when you can break the stalk and see the fibres coming away.

3. When you can remove the outer stalk with a fingernail and see the fibres exposed.

Mine did #2 and #3, but only the root end snapped when I twisted it and there was a smaller snap 6cm up the plant.

I decided to take it out and try scutching some. If I don't get any linen fibres, then back in the water it goes.

Some of  the advice I read says to change the retting water after 48 hours and then every 24 hours after that. Some advice says no need to change the water at all...............

Here's the flax a few hours after it came out of the water. You can see it's starting to get that golden colour of water retted flax, but only the bottom third of the plant. Perhaps I haven't retted it long enough for the top of the plant to change............................?

Penny

Retting my flax

Retting my dried flax in my 'green bin'....

My flax is dry, I think. It seems dry like hay, rather than dry like straw. The leaves had all fallen off and were crsipy, the stems had shrunk in volume quite a lot, and were dry but still a little bendy (ie they didn't snap when I bent them). I have no idea if this is dry enough or not, but I guess I'll find out!

I tried filling a clean plastic tote with water and weighting the flax down. The tote was about 30cm too short for the flax, but the largest thing I could find. It leaked from a crack in the base that I can't seem to find. So I've filled my green bin with water and am going to try retting in that.

As you can see from the photo, the flax is too tall for that too, sticking out by about 20 cm. I've bent the flower/seed tops part over and am hoping that will work!

I've had to put the bin in a part of the garden where I can bale out the water and use it for irrigation after the process is complete. Sadly that means it's in a shady part of the garden, and I suspect that will slow the retting.

Appologies for typos in this post. Blogspot is having one of its regular hissy fits and won't let me make corrections or take the cursor back into already written text. I'm hoping it'll let me publish without losing everything as it so frequently does (won't let you save either....). If you're ever considering a blog, use Wordpress, not Blogspot is my advice!

Penny

Flax harvest time has come quicker than I thought! **Now updated to show how to dry the flax.**

This is my flax crop currently. The round bits are pods of seeds and flowering is almost over!

I had no idea it would progress so quickly.

I shall harvest tomorrow (pulling it up by the roots), and will string the plants roots up on a fence to dry.

Grow-along people, check your flax plants! Could be time to harvest for you too!

My library research (great book called The Wartime Farm) said to harvest when the leaves are just turning yellow.

Here's my flax stem with yellowing leaves.

This gives you a sense of how tall the plants are.

Looks like we'll be harvesting at McLean Park soon too.










Harvest update

Pulled the plants up by the roots today.

Collected them together and took them home for drying in the sun.

Tied the flax in small bundles and hung them on my cucumber climbing frame in the sun. It's important to get the roots all at the same level in the bundle (you'll see why when you come to the hackling part). I've made the bundles small so that the sun can get to all the plants.

More information on how to rett your harvested crop coming soon. I had hoped to do some retting try outs using the previously grown flax that was kindly donated, but that trial is being done as part of the Aberthau project. That means it won't be finishing until the end of August (too late to give advice to you grow-alongs).

So my flax will have to be the trial run so that I can let people know what I've found that works (or doesn't!) before the end of the summer and you'll have enough sunny, warm weather to try retting for yourselves.

The McLean flax will be drying in both stooks and bundles on the fence after tomorrow night - come along and check it out!

Penny

PS I've haven't been able to get a coarse hackle in time for processing my flax crop (I will probably be hackling at the end of the month), so have ordered a small one from Shropshire from these folks http://www.flaxland.co.uk/projects.html. Hoping they can ship it to me in time! If it doesn't arrive by hackling time, then I'm going to see if it's possible to use the ripple donated by Capilano College as a substitute and the fine hackle I bought from Texas to finish the process. It's not the ideal way to make linen from flax, but the best option for now.

Final PS. If your crop has started to lodge (fall over) like the McLean Park plot, then it's best to harvest as soon as there's flowers out. Don't wait because once the plants are on the ground they will get mildew and won't produce any good linen fibre. FYI the McLean plot was planted at 3x the density of everyone else (45g/sq m), so this may be an isolated problem.

My Flax is Almost in Full Flower

Here it is on July 3rd. It was sown at the end of April.

This being (almost) full flowering, means that in 10/14 days I'll be harvesting the crop. I can tell it's almost full flower because there are very few flower buds left to open.


The McLean Park plot sown a week later has one or two flowers (but doesn't get as much sun).

By comparison, here's the Aberthau flax, sown on June 18th. You can see that it's less that half the height.







So check your flax plants for flowers. You don't want them to set seed if you can avoid it, as this takes energy away from the fibres that will become your linen.

When the plants are in full flower, wait 10 days, then pull them up, roots and all, a handful at a time. Stack them roots upward, against a fence or wall or in stooks, to dry in the sun. If it looks like rain, bring them indoors or under cover to dry. You don't want the plants to get damp and mildew.

I'll post up when I start to harvest...........

Penny

PS Here's a link to teh blog about the Aberthau plot http://www.aberthauflaxfibrefood.blogspot.ca/. Lots of information about the upcoming workshops out there.............. Come and join in!

Handspun and handwoven Eastern European linens on sale at Le Marche, Vancouver

If you want to eat at a great cafe and get a look at some great linens, you only need to go as far as 28th and St George. I was taken there by a friend this week.

Le Marche cafe has a collection of towels, tablecloths and tea towels for sale, all in natural flax colour or bleached. If you want to get a feel for what you can produce with your flax, this is the place to go - the food excellent too!

(photograph courtesy of Le Marche)

http://www.marchestgeorge.com/2011/08/linens.html

Penny

Do something revolutionary - grow your own shirt and be part of the revival of linen growing in Vancouver

Here’s a summary of what’s going on for anyone who wants to be part of the local linen revival.

We’re going to be growing flax this year at the Means of Production garden http://moparrc.com/, a garden I’ve annexed at the back of a rental property and a couple of Park Board sites around Vancouver. If you see a plot of lovely blue flowers at McLean Park or Aberthau – it’s a future linen shirt in bloom. We also have several people growing flax either at home or in their community garden plot, using this blog to tell them what to do and when to plant.
Flax was once grown all over BC, as far north as Bella Coola - we have the ideal climate for it. Families planted a small plot of it every few years to provide the material to make garments, bed sheets etc. As it's such a hard wearing fibre, it wasn't necessary to plant every year. Being able to process, spin and weave your own linens wasn't an art, it was just what you had to do if you wanted something other than woollen underwear (scratchy!) and blankets.

Caitlin ffrench (knitter, weaver, spinner, dyer and much more) will be partnering with me to grow at MOP, and she'll take the project forward in 2014 to grow more flax at Trillium Park and various other City pieces of land. Flax needs a 5 year rotation so she'll be growing dye plants in between the flax years.

The flax processing equipment that we will be building this spring will be stored at the McLean field house until Trillium Park's artist space is ready and will be available for anyone to use. If you want to grow some flax in your garden (it has such pretty flowers!) let me know. Flax seed from the store won't work, it needs to be a specific fibre producing type (I can provide you with small amounts of Elektra flax seed if you come to the field house). You could grow some at home and use the processing equipment to make your own linen.


Some details on flax cultivation

Here’s the type of soil and site you’ll need:

1. Location and moisture - flax likes to be shrouded in moisture during the
   growing season. This isn't usually a problem in Vancouver, but you may need to water the seedlings if we have a dry spell in spring.
2. Location and wind - flax will rot if it falls over. You need to either grow it in a place where it's sheltered from the wind (or animals walking through the plot) or put up a short fence. Willow or bamboo sticks put around the plot edge would work.
Flax doesn’t like to be shaded by trees, or be in waterlogged areas.

Time line for growing flax and making linen　
　
The time line is:

1.Prepare the seed bed by removing weeds, and adding a layer of compost and bone meal for the potassium and phosphate needed to produce fibre. Don’t put any nitrogen based fertilizer on, as this makes weak stalks which will fall over (lodge). Best done right now, but at the very least by the end of March.

2.Rake the seed bed (and remove any extra weeds that have grown) just before planting. Seed planting will be in April/May depending on the temperatures. Watch this blog to see when we plant ours. Spread the seed by broadcasting (throwing it!). Firm the seeds in by pressing the rake head onto the soil over the entire plot (you can do this with your feet too).

3.If we get a dry spell during germination, the seeds will need water – again, watch this blog and I’ll tell you when/if that’s needed.

4.When the plants are 10cm high, weed the plot barefoot (so as not to damage the plants – they die if they get knocked over).

5.  90-100 days after germination the plants are in full flower..

6.  10 days after that you can harvest – more about that in the blog as we get closer to harvest time. You can follow along and harvest when we do……


So check out this blog for updates on the flax growing process. I'll also be posting photos and details of how the building of the scutcher, brake machine and hackles are coming along.

Penny

Anyone wanting any flax seed?

I’m just finalising the details of the seed order now. So far we have the following flax plots:

2 plots at Means of Production garden of about 20x20 feet that Caitlin ffrench is taking on

a 5x20 plot at McLean Park feet that Cindy, the Parks Board gardener has graciously offered to help with

a 10x4 plot at my ‘other’ garden

a 5x20 plot at Aberthau Community Centre

and a possible plot in Strathcona Community Gardens


If I’ve missed you off the list, please post into the comments below and remind me!
　
After some very generous offers of land by the Parks Board, we decided on just one plot at Aberthau. It was a hard decision, but we decided to make this a trial year, and add in extra plots next year once we have more experience. Also, as flax can only be grown on a 5-year rotation, this year’s plots will need to be planted with something else until 2018.

We also have limited time (and of course no transportation) for getting to far flung, transit unfriendly places like Jericho, though the Parks Board have kindly agreed to do the soil prep and planting here. We will just take on the initial weeding and then the harvest. Look out for a harvest party out there in the fall with a picnic, a band, and lots of fun….

As to the crop rotation, I suggest the intervening crop years could be a year of red clover, to replace the nitrogen. It has the benefit of dyeing a lovely gold colour with aluminum sulphate. Woad would make a great year 2/3 crop (as long as it isn’t allowed to seed!), and a 4^th year of local indigenous dye plants like Hypericum perforatum or perhaps another legume that also yields a dye. Anyone got any suggestions?
　
　
　
　
　　
　
　　
　

　
　　

Buying your Elektra flax seed ready for the spring.....

‘Blue Monday’ seems like a great time to be thinking about seeds and planting – new beginnings.

If you’re growing along with Urban Weaver this year, here’s my email from Randy Cowan at Biolin with purchase information for your Elektra flax seed. Good day,
Thank you for your interest in the art of flax fibre growing!
The seed prices, which are valid to March 31, 2013, are:
0.0 to 4.9 kgs -> $10/kg
5.0 to 24.9 kgs -> $5.00/kg
greater than 25 kgs (sold only in 25 kg bags) -> $3.00/kg
Prices do not include GST or shipping
we accept cheque or paypal payment before shipment
Thank you,
Randy Cowan
Director of Operations
Biolin Research Inc
161 Jessop Avenue
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Canada
S7N 1Y3
Phone: (306) 668-0130
Fax: (306) 668-0131
Website: http://biolin.sk.ca
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/biolinresearch
Google+: https://plus.google.com/106224068896437970548
twitter: @flaxfibernshive
And just a reminder from a previous post of what he said about how much seed you’ll need:

The seed needed depends on the seeding method, if you are broadcasting (scattering) the seed then you will want to aim for a 2,000 plants per meter squared, this will make the plants compete and thus will give you a consistent small stem, easy to ret and decorticate. If you are row seeding the competition would not be as good as broadcasting, the loss in emergent plant count is also not consistently known as the seed now has to compete with its neighbor in the row as well as the environment.

Fiber Flax Seed is 5 grams per 1,000 seeds (Elektra is a fiber variety)
Assume a 90% vigor/emergence because not all seed reacts to the environment the same.
So, for every square meter seeded with fiber flax = 2,000 seed desired seed times 5 grams per 1,000 seeds times 90% vigor/emergence = 12 grams per meter square.


　
　
And if Blue Monday just makes you want to curl up with a book, here are few suggestions from the Vancouver Library shelves:

The Magic of Linen Flax Seed to Woven Cloth By Heinrich, Linda
An excellent book all about flax growing in BC over the ages with interesting photos and lots of information.

Linen & Lace Simple-to-sew Homestyle Charm Using New and Vintage Lace By Sabatier, Chantal Something you can read to help you decide what to do with your flax crop.

Linen Heirlooms The Story and Patterns of A Collection of 19th Century Handwoven Pieces with Directions for Their Reproduction By Gallagher, Constance Dann
How to make some lovely linen pieces for yourself.

20th Century Linens and Lace A Guide to Identification, Care, and Prices of Household Linens By Scofield, Elizabeth
And how to look after the linen that you’ve grown, processed and woven yourself so that your grandchildren will be able to marvel at your skill!

Penny
　　
　

　
　　

Exciting flax news!

The plans for the flax processing equipment have now been ordered from http://www.woolgatherers.com so that Martin Borden http://martinborden.wordpress.com/can start making the brake, hackles etc that we will need in the fall.


I just wanted to share with you some more of the advice that Sara von Tresckow gave me about linen.

And keep in mind what I caution weavers beginning to work with linen yarn -
you will never teach linen anything - it needs respect and it requires you
to follow the basic rules of working with it - no tips and tricks. On the
other hand, I have found over many years that linen has taught me a great
deal about accepting those things that we cannot change and still creating
beautiful items with the fiber. I learned to love the fiber in N. Germany
where, as in many other European areas, linen is life - it is part of the
cycle of nature and the seasons - it is not something that needs to be
overanalyzed and tweaked - it is a gift from nature that needs our love and
respect - we need to prepare lovely textiles, launder them carefully, press
them well, make no damaging creases, caress them when we use them - and
NEVER put it in a tumble dryer for any reasonAs someone who has woven with linen I can only agree. Linen is a very determined fibre and will do what it does. It isn’t like working with wool. In a battle of wills between the weaver and the linen, the linen always wins!


The exciting news is that the Parks Board have become very keen about the UWF2L (Urban Weaver Flax to Linen) project and have given us a small dedicated piece of land next to McLean field house to grow some on. Cindy, the wonderful gardener (and knitter, basketmaker) in McLean Park is looking forward to growing this new crop too! Thanks to Sharon Kallis http://sharonkallis.com/, the powerhouse behind UW for being so enthusiastic and taking the project to new heights.

This means that Strathcona locals and visitors will be able to see the plants as they mature and grow and follow the harvesting and processing. Hopefully it will help inform people about the time and work involved to make the clothes they wear and get children keen to try growing some of the lovely blue flowered plants (in the ground or even in pots).

There’s also a possibility of more Parks Board areas being available this year for flax growing – but the PB themselves would be doing the growing. Look out for blue flax flowers in the summer when you’re visiting any park…...

And watch this space for more details!

　
　　

How easy is it to grow flax? Your questions answered!

Sara von Tresckow of The Woolgatherers http://www.woolgatherers.com has very kindly sent me some overview thoughts on the whole linen growing process. She has been growing, processing and working with flax and linen for many years, and her help is like having someone who can spin (flax) straw into gold (linen) thread as a mentor.

If you’re thinking of growing some flax in 2013 but are wondering how much work is involved and how difficult it will be, here’s what she had to say in reply to my many questions regarding soil preparation and planting:

You are way overintellectualizing this whole process. As is typical for folks in N. America who have never done this, the emphasis is on "just the perfect plot and fertilizer, etc".

You should start hanging loose now. When we send out flax seed, we include an instruction sheet written by Virginia Parslow who once worked at the museum in Cooperstown, NY. She states that nearly every third flax crop planted by colonists went bad. The success rate by professionals is also not 100%.

Since flax does not like excess nitrogen, and we modern folk tend to overdo on nutrients, your intended patch ** is surely going to work. It just might happen , though, that you do everything correctly and nature does not cooperate - and you just have to be ready to try again.

This is something like learning to bake where you need experience to have good success and to know what success is, you need to experience at least difficulty if not some failings.

In preparation, I'd advise looking and touching commercial linen thread and fabric, visiting museums with vintage linen pieces - to get an idea of what you'd like to achieve.

What you really need to pay attention to are following:

1. Location and moisture - flax likes to be shrouded in moisture during the
   growing season. Proximity to a body of water is helpful. The group in Green
   Bay had a plot near Lake Michigan that worked better than our backyard that
   is inland. A low spot collects the dew better than a spot that is elevated.
   Artificial watering, etc. is not ideal - the plant likes to have the right
   conditions supplied by nature.
2. Location and wind - flax likes to lodge quickly. Better than trace
   elements and other weird stuff - do as I read in a 19th century German
   book - for small plots put a chickenwire fence around the plot - 80cm if no
   deer, higher if deer are present. Using baling twine, crisscross the plot in
   an x - binding the twine on the corner fence posts. This keeps wildlife out
   and the flax upright. Naturally some sort of windbreak ahead of your plot -
   in the prevailing wind direction will also be helpful.
3. Weeding barefoot at 10cm plant height is IMPERATIVE!!! If you miss weeds
   at this point, there is no going back to get them later.
4. Seed density at sowing influences fiber fineness. If the plants are too
   far apart, the fibers will grow stronger and somewhat coarses. Thickly sown,
   the fiber is finer - to a point - where it becomes weak and unusable.
   Usually with hand sowing you get mixed density - just sort the plants a bit
   at harvest time to put similar stalks together.

Hope this is as helpful to all you soon to be flax growers as it was for me.

Makes the process look way less daunting, and I'm now prepared for potential failure if the weather doesn't co operate this year.

Penny

**  This is the plot that Caitlin ffrench http://wewilltellyouallofoursecrets.blogspot.ca/ is going to grow at Means of Production garden http://moparrc.com/


　
　　

How to calculate the amount of flax seed you’ll need to grow yourself a shirt in 2013, and has anyone seen old hackles for sale?

We now have a Canadian source of flax seed http://biolin.sk.ca, and what lovely people they are too. They research and promote the growing of flax in Canada for linen, oil and shive (straw), sell processed flax for spinning, shive for mulch and pet bedding and lots more uses.
I have had several very nice informative emails from them and they’re taking a real interest in the Vancouver Flax Project, even though they’re aware it’s only tiny compared to the amount that farmers grow in Saskatchewan.

Randy Cowan, their Director of Operations recommends ‘Elektra’ as the best variety for our climate and to produce a good fibre yield. He was kind enough to include details of how much you would need and how densely it needs to be sown. They’re happy to sell small or large amounts of seed to whoever wants it.

For those of you busy calculating how much you’ll need to order from them to grow yourselves some linen, here’s what he had to say:

The seed needed depends on the seeding method, if you are broadcasting (scattering) the seed then you will want to aim for a 2,000 plants per meter squared, this will make the plants compete and thus will give you a consistent small stem, easy to ret and decorticate. If you are row seeding the competition would not be as good as broadcasting, the loss in emergent plant count is also not consistently known as the seed now has to compete with its neighbor in the row as well as the environment.

Fiber Flax Seed is 5 grams per 1,000 seeds (Elektra is a fiber variety)
Assume a 90% vigor/emergence because not all seed reacts to the environment the same.
So, for every square meter seeded with fiber flax = 2,000 seed desired seed times 5 grams per 1,000 seeds times 90% vigor/emergence = 12 grams per meter squared
Things have not gone so well on the sourcing hackles for flax processing (more about what they’re for in another post).

My supplier, the only supplier of new hackles on the continent, has family heath problems, and cannot be sure if they can provide me with hackles at all. I’m fairly sure they forge and build them themselves. Alden Amos and Stephanie Gaustad have been famous in the spinning world for many decades for their beautifully made fibre tools and wheels. For those of you not sure what I’m talking about when I say 'hackles', here is a link showing what flax hackles look like.

http://pweb.jps.net/~gaustad/flax.html
Old ones, which frequently can be found in antique stores labeled as florist’s frogs, or broken wire brushes, look like this….http://www.mainememory.net/artifact/14773
If you see one anywhere please let Penny or Sharon know and we’ll go and buy it immediately! They do appear on eBay, but are snapped up very quickly.

Now you’ve seen the pictures you can understand where the saying ‘ it made the dog’s hackles rise’ comes from!

Penny