I taught myself to wet spin line flax a few days ago at the request of a dear friend with an important weaving project. I find it positively addictive, and it's getting me reacquainted with my Country Craftsman wheel, which is the only working wheel in my possession that has a distaff that can hold a flax strick. When the wedding wheel is fixed, it can become my go-to flax wheel.
Flax practically spins itself, and it wants to make very fine thread. The tricky part for me has been making it spin a bit thicker that it likes, as my friend is a beginning weaver and is making a shawl, not a tablecloth, so I gather that finer is not better for her right now. I think that my next piece of spinning equipment to build is one of those hanging water gourds for wetting my fingers as I spin.
Flax and weaving feel to me like the gates to The Mysteries of the ancient women who made the fabric of our species - the clothing, the tents, the sails... When I feel the flax twisting between my fingers, I can almost hear their ghost wheels and spindles, turning endlessly through time.
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