Agree with Alex and Brenda. I grow flax for handspinning. Have done so for six years. Environmental conditions do affect color as does retting process, be it dew retting, pond retting, or my method baby pool retting. I believe the flax seed variety also gives subtle color differences at least in my experience.
Sue M. Exhausted having passed my master handspinning certificate exam. > On Jul 3, 2015, at 04:35, Brenda Paternoster <paternos...@appleshack.com> > wrote: > > I agree with what Alex has written but I have also read somewhere that the > soil and growing conditions has some effect on the colour of unbleached > flax/linen. Where the soil is rich in iron and has a reddish colour the flax > fibres will absorb some of that colouring. > > There is a lot of detailed info about flax retting here. > http://www.astm.org/SNEWS/SEPTEMBER_2005/akin_sep05.html > > Brenda >> >> When flax is prepared to make linen thread it gores through a process > called >> retting. Traditionally flax stems are allowed to start rotting in order to >> free the fibres either by leaving the cut stems outside so that dew forms > on >> them or by leaving them in water. One of these processes results in grey >> fibres, the other ecru. So the colour of the unbleached linen is the result > of >> the retting process used and also the weather at the time and the time that >> has been allowed for the process. Being a natural product the colour will >> depend on the growing season and how the retting process in managed and > will >> vary from year to year. > > Brenda in Allhallows > paternos...@appleshack.com > www.brendapaternoster.co.uk > > - > To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: > unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to > arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: > http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/ - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
