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Linen Project

Date started: 
1 March 2010
Public Launch date: 
20 June 2010
Number of People Involved: 
50
Last updated: Thursday, 27 October 2011
Related Transition Stage: 
Connecting

Website

http://transitionvictoria.ning.com/photo/albums/the-linen-project
Contact Project

Project Aim

To develop the skills and knowledge to produce and process fibre flax locally. 

Further details

  • Collecting a group of allies to experiment with growing good quality fibre flax
  • learning together the skills and processes for producing linen
  • obtaining/building the tools.  

Potentially a long term project which may evolve into larger scale production, mechanisation (driven by Billy's brain plus human, horse, donkey or locally produced biofuel) and the provision of livelihoods - who knows?

Inspiration

  • Rob Hopkins and The Transition Handbook, the idea of reskilling and skilling-up now so that future beings might meet their basic needs 
  • Vandana Shiva and her four f’s - Food, Fodder, Fuel and Fibre - from Monocultures of the Mind
  • Linda Heinrich and her book The Magic of Linen 1992 (Linen: From flax seed to woven cloth 2010 edition).  Linda first grew fibre flax and produced fine linen here in Victoria and wrote her marvelous book based on this experience - so I knew it could be done.  It was a surprise to find we have the climate for it - hadn’t thought about it before.
  • Billy Metcalfe and his vision of producing linen locally to clothe us sustainably.  (See Billy’s “Let us take heart”  link above) 

 Outcomes so far

  • April 2010 planted Linum usitatissimum, var. Marilyn fibre flax seed obtained from Heirloom Seed Project,  Lancaster Pennsylvania.  Seeded two garden beds with an approximate total area of 120 sq. feet and a small field of 1/10 of an acre
  • crop harvested August 2010 
  • Mailing list of 50 both local and BC - friends, family, TranitionsVictoria members, neighbours, hand spinners and weavers, fibre artists.  Roughly 25 people have taken part in one or more of the work parties or retting or both - ages ranging from 13 years to a lot older
  • regular bulletins to the email list and postings on the Reskilling page of Transition Victoria
  • bulk of harvested crop in storage with a smaller portion of the crop at various processing stages
  • information tables (including Transition and Reskilling info.) at 2 fibre festivals (2010, 2011) SASH heritage Fair (2011), Earth Day 2011, Transition Victoria events
  • collected most of the tools needed for hand processing 
  • 4 work parties to demonstrate and practice the processes using the hand tools where we rippled, broke, threshed, winnowed, scutched and hackled
  • a small amount of the has been taken through all the processes from straw to fibre and made ready for spinning
  • classes arranged with Knotty by Nature to learn how to spin our own fibre using a drop spindle
  • buckets of, perhaps immature, seed and bags of tow
  • mature seed saved for the next planting 

Unexpected outcomes

  • Billy planting a whole field of the stuff having (mis)understood that I would provide the labour by enlisting others, was the first surprise!  
  • Finding some of the tools we needed in friends’ basements and on kitchen shelves
  • The pleasure and satisfaction to be found in working together on the processing tasks from pulling the flax in the field to (attempting) to spin the fibre
  • The beauty of the plant and the wonder of its fibre qualities hidden in a piece of straw

Obstacles, and how we overcame them

This is a long term project and I have begun it in total ignorance so in one sense everything is unexpected for me but by reading Linda Heinrich’s book I was prepared for this to be a gradual learning curve as we have to work with the seasons and cannot rush things. It took Mavis Atton (Flax Culture: from flower to fabric) ten years of successes and disappointments before producing a fine lustrous fabric from her own flax grown on the shores of Georgian Bay in Ontario. The climate here is more conducive to flax growing so perhaps we can cut a year or two off Mavis’s record.

  • Obtaining tools - we have begged, borrowed and built hand tools - still short a couple of grades of hackle needed for the final combing out of the fibres to ready them for spinning
  • land - Obtained in exchange for labour (Billy’s) and by chatting up a friend willing to try something different in her large Saanich food garden. Where we will plant our next crop remains a question at the time of writing.
  • retting - Not having one large space for dew retting all the crop at once or access to a suitable stream or pond for water retting. Retting can be a smelly process. So tried dew retting small quantities in backyards - 16 people volunteered to experiment with a few bundles each. More small retting sites will be needed in September if no one large site can be found.
  • muscle power/labour - work parties, encouraging young folks to get involved
  • lack of skills and knowledge - books and online research, workshop with Pat Davidson on Salt Spring Island, looking upon the project as an experiment and learning tool, expect to improve our product over time
  • dust from processing can result in breathing problems for those with sensitivity - doing some of the dustiest work outside can help
  • funding - e.g Pat Davidson’s travel expenses, fresh seed, materials for building tools - have started to put out the donation jar at work parties

 

 

Lessons Learned

Every step from preparing the ground and planting the seed to spinning the fibre is crucial e.g. sow more densely to grow finer quality fibre; keep the root ends even and bundle straw of the same length at all stages and store bundles with roots aligned to reduce waste manual labour is best done in company with song and dance and food don’t assume everyone will be enthusiastic about your crazy project idea, but there’s likely to be a few

Links and Partnerships

 Knotty by Nature Fibre Options www.kbnfibres.ca/

Wayward School waywardschool.wordpress.com/about/

Contacts

Primary point of contact: 
Denise Mary Dunn
Themes: 
Arts & Crafts
Themes: 
Education
Themes: 
Inner Transition
Themes: 
Business & Economics
Themes: 
Energy
Themes: 
Transport

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