It's a very different spinning experience from spinning wool or other animal fibers. It will take getting used to.
Friday, June 7, 2013
spinning flax
I've decided it is time to start tackling one of my goals for 2013 - learning to spin flax. I've started with tow, which was given to me by someone who was giving up spinning. I have about a 200 gram ball of it. The fibers are fairly short - about 8 centimeters. I am using a modern 40 gram disk spindle. I decided I should start with something very easy to spin with, rather than a medieval style spindle, so that I wouldn't have to pay attention to too many things at once. Even so, I have dropped the spindle several times when I haven't noticed it back-spinning. But I am making progress - slowly. While it is not particularly difficult, I cannot take my eye off the "roving" if I want a consistent thread diameter. It is S-spun at 9-10 wraps per centimeter. That might be a good gauge for weaving a basket cover.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Good luck with the flax! I started with flax and when I went to wool I found it a huge difference. I delighted in the fact that if I'd drafted too mich fibre and gotten a slub it was so easy to fix.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement! I can use all I can get. My spindle is almost full now, and it has gotten easier. But wool is much more forgiving. I keep reminding myself that my first spindle of wool thread was not a thing of beauty either. I will try spinning the long flax fibers as soon as I get around to dressing my distaff.
Delete