Flax to Linen - The Movie!

 The Flax to Linen Victoria group did not participate in public demonstrations this past year, but we have not been idle.  

We found another way to reach out and share our passion with a larger audience.  We made a video.  

 

Watch our members demonstrate the processes from planting the seeds through processing and weaving the fibre into cloth.  

Demonstration Dates for 2019

The Flax to Linen group of Victoria will be attending three public events in 2019.  Everyone is welcome to come to our hands-on demonstration of how to transform straw into gold (flax into linen).

• Fibrations, at the Fairfield Gonzales Community Place, 1330 Fairfield Road, Victoria, BC, Canada Sunday, from 10am to 4pm, 18th of August, 2019

• Back again at Heritage Acres, on the 21st of September, 2019

Homegrown Linen - the book!

One of our members has written a book about growing flax!

Homegrown Linen:
Transforming Flaxseed into Fibre

by Raven Ranson
Grow linen yarn sustainably at home. Reclaim the traditional skill of growing flax, extracting the fibres, and preparing them for spinning.

Homegrown linen is both a conceptual and hands-on book about gardening, homesteading, and creating yarn.  Appropriate for all levels of experience from the yarn-curious to the master spinner.

Discover: how to grow flax for fibre • how to adapt growing techniques to your conditions using permaculture techniques • how to create a personalized fibre flax variety • how to process fibre from straw • the tools • tips and tricks for working with linen • other uses for flax
The book is illustrated by Tracy Wandling, and will feature drawings of the flax plant, the tools used, and even one of Raven turning the dew retting flax.

Also featuring full colour, stunning colour photos of the process of creating linen yarn using homegrown flax.

Part of the 2017 flax to linen Victoria harvest

Softcover book
108 pages total
12 full-colour pages
eco-friendly paper by a carbon-neutral, local printer
ISBN: 978-1-9994733-0-3

Learn more about Homegrown Linen here.

Flax to Linen Victoria - 2018-2019

As of 2018 and 2019, Flax to Linen Victoria is demonstrating at three events per year:

Two events at SHAS (the Saanich Historical Artifacts Society), early summer and at the thrashing festival in September.

and

Fibrations, the largest fibre festival in Victoria, BC, Canada.

When we have more updates, we'll post them on this blog.  You can receive email updates by subscribing to the right of the screen under "Follow by Email".

The Flax to Linen Group of Victoria has been active for over a decade now - doing educational displays at festivals, events and markets.  We are currently undertaking a fallow period while we pursue our individual artistic endeavours.

Where to buy fibre flax seed

Here are some places we found Fibre Flax seed for sale.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds occasionally has fibre flax available.  Perhaps if more people start requesting it, they will bring it back as a regular item.

They also carry a few other heritage varieties of flax that look promising for fibre production. Just because they don't say these are for making linen, doesn't mean they can't be used for it.  All flax has fibre hidden in its stem, perhaps it just needs the right conditions to make it useable.  So far, I've had the best luck with their perennial flax.


Richters Herbs also has fibre flax from time to time.

At the moment of writing, they have Evelin Fibre flax in stock, but Regina Fibre Flax is out of stock.   They also have a listing called 'flax' which may also be useful for fibre making.  I can't tell how tall it is from the description, but if one had the room, it would be worth trying.



Wild Fibres UK also has flaxseed, however, I don't know if they ship overseas or not.

Flax for Sale is a place in the US that sells seeds as well as fibre for spinning.  They don't mention if they ship internationally.

Woolgatherers sells Marilyn Flax seed which originates from Holland.


Know of any other sources of flaxseed?  Please let us know in the comments section.

videos spinning flax into linen

An example of spinning flax into linen.

And here's Monique dressing a distaff with line flax, ready for spinning fine linen thread.

Our next public demonstration is at Heritage Acres on Sept 16th, 2017.

2015 Aug 16 - Our demo at Fibrations Victoria turned out great. What a crowd there was. Lots of people wanting to try it out and more young people this year I think breaking, scutching and hackling. Thank goodness for Liz bringing us the tent as it was a hot day and Nancy Bissonnette getting some pictures. I printed out lots of pamphlets and they were all gone before the end of the day. I think that's a good sign that people are interested. Of course, we were at Fibrations where everyone is interested in fibre which explains it.  New photos on Flicker.

We in Victoria have had a very mild winter but there is still the dampness in the air that the flax likes to suck up, making it hard to process. It doesn't break nicely if it's not crispy.  With the least bit of dampness it will flatten rather than break.

 We are getting a few days of sun in a row now so I've been out a couple of times to the garage to process a few bundles.  I have no long line to spin so need to process. I've been spinning tow - which we have a lot of.  I ply a ball of spun tow to a ball of spun long line fibre to make the thread I use to crochet face cloths.

It's almost time to go out to the barn and bring in some more flax bundles. We have them in my garage in town so we'll have some ready for the demonstrations we'll be doing this spring and summer.

We will be demonstrating how to turn flax into linen at Dickens Craft Fair  

http://jamesbaymarket.com/dickens-fair/
this coming Saturday  Dec 6, 2014.

We will not be doing the heavy processing of breaking, scutching, & hackling as this is an inside event with not much room for the mess we can make.  We will however, be showing off our demonstration table which has pictures, samples, and a number of different items for show and tell.  There will be the opportunity to learn how to spin, using an easily home made, drop spindle.
Hope to see some of you there.

We are going to get a new drum carder for working the flax tow into a spinable fibre.  Will probably have a few folks who want to try it out, but maybe not so many will want to prepare the mess of tow so it can be carded.  Picking tow.  A mindless thing to do while watching TV, listening to music or outside sitting in the sun where the dust and boon (bits of straw) won't get all over the house.

Will let you know when we get the carder (a few days) and will take some pictures to show.

OK folks - Tomorrow (Sept 13, 2014) is our Saturday demo at SHAS (Saanich Historical Artifact Society) aka Heritage Acres. They have a web site.

This might be our last demo of the year & I'm going to it. Haven't been to any since June 28 (when I broke myself),  Some of the flax folk have been sending me processed flax fibre for spinning from the demos they have done. I thank them so much for that, as I would have gone bonkers if I couldn't have anything that I was able to do for the last couple of months. Was easy to spin with my leg up on the couch and other foot working the spinning wheel.

I won't be able to process but I can cheer them on. They really do need help if anyone can come and put in a bit of time just to spell them off for a break.  Processing flax straw to a spinable fibre is good exercise and you can take what you process home to spin if you want to make linen.

Hope to see you there

Barb

The flax to linen folks will be at James Bay Market (Victoria, BC) next Saturday the 28th of June from 9 to 3pm. The market is on the grassy area on the corner of Menzies and Superior between the back of the Parliament buildings and the James Bay Tea Room. The flax folk are on the west side near the parking lot.

Come and watch how linen is made or try your hand at processing the flax into a spinable fibre that can be made into linen thread by using a drop spindle we have for your use.
Hope to see you there

This Saturday 14th of June is our first demo of the year.  It's out at SHAS aka: Heritage Acres. Off the Pat Bay highway East onto Island View Rd by Michells Farm Market then the first left onto Lochside. 

If anyone wants to come and help or learn how flax turns to linen you are most welcome to come take part.  Just watch or we can put you to work making your own strick of fibre to spin.

We will be in our usual spot on the porch and grass in the front of the Moody building, across the lane from the food concession.

It's the Fathers Day weekend so there is lots going on at Heritage Acres - trains, food, machines working all over the place - steam and otherwise.  The Museum is open with a terrific collection of items and a weaving loft with a display of looms etc.

We are only going to be doing our demo on Saturday.
Hope to see you there

Oh Dear - should have posted this before now.  Last week (May 13 Tuesday) we bundled the rest of the retting flax and took it all to the barn. It was nice that it was all dry enough to stack without the fear of it continuing to rot.  
So, that is the last work in the field that we'll be doing for some time. We have enough flax to process for a couple of years or more.  We should be doing more of that breaking, scutching & hackling now the warm dry weather is here.  Flax does not seem to process well in damp weather so I guess we'll have our winters to do nothing but spin flax to linen. At least that can be done indoors.  So I guess the plan would be to work hard this summer so we have enough to spin in winter.

Beatrice and I went out to check on the retting flax laying in the field at SHAS (Saanich Historic Artifact Society) and it's ready to bundle. We checked the weather and it didn't look good for Saturday (showers & rain) but Sunday doesn't look too bad.

We want the flax to dry a bit after the rain on Saturday so we'll leave things to dry in the field until later in the afternoon.  About 4pm Sunday we could start bundling the flax, leave the bundles in the field (to dry further) and before we go home stook loosely (so the breezes can finish drying throughout the stook)  in the field by the end of the train. There is some nice weather next week so we'll take it all to the barn one evening during the week so the flax can have a day to dry off any dew from the morning.

>>Posting this the day after checking the field and the weather forecast gives a different look on the weather. Going to be nice today apparently. But we'll bundle tomorrow (Sunday) anyway.

This will be the last of the field work for a long time - a few years of processing to do before we ever need to plant any more flax.
barb

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2012 Rolling the flax field chanting video

Beatrice took this video of Jonathon, Kief and me(barb) pulling the roller over the field to press the flax seeds into the soil. The field was so lumpy and my foot hurt so much I had a tough time trying to keep up with those young fellows, but I wanted a turn just to say I did it. Beatrice did a much better job but she needed a break. It was so hot that day and at first I couldn't hear the words Jonathon was chanting. When I finally figured it out I took them some water. The usual team was Ken, Kief, Beatrice and Jonathon. They were so hot, tired, and had blistered feet and it was the hottest day of the year so far - it was the long weekend in May 2012

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Pictures are available on the Flax to Linen Group Pool on the right side of the screen. Some of you might not know if you click on a picture you'll be taken to Flicker where there is a description for each photo. You can also make comments there.

Ken, Kief, Rita, Brenda & I  - had a busy time giving a demonstration at Victoria High School March 3rd. The great area inside was a hive of activity and I think most of the kids enjoyed themselves. There were 3 classes that came - 2 before lunch & 1 after. Ten people signed up for our gmail list to find out when workshops and events are happening. Hope we see them coming to help and learn in the future. Was a good day.

The Flax to Linen potluck tea went well - good food, not overly crowded which was good as it gave a lot of people a relaxed time to learn how to work some of the tools for spinning and weaving.  I always love the demonstration of "dressing the distaff" and I think the use of the drop spindle was a bit hit with a CD drop spindle.  A few people were very proud of their new found skill.  Practice, practice.

Flax to Linen Victoria is having a gathering

If anyone local is interested, we are having a potluck tea - just bring some finger food to share It’s free:

Monday February 10th , (BC’s Family Day)

Public invited from 1:00 to 5pm at Sons of Norway Hall, 1110 Hillside ave Victoria BC

Pot luck afternoon tea (finger food), DVD, slide show, making

spindles, spinning lessons, spinning and weaving demonstrations, seed packaging and sales. Flax seed packs will be available for a donation. Enough for one square metre of your own flax!