Kim touches on another point in this discussion. We may not have fine linen thread because of extinction (perhaps brought on by war) of the extra-fine cultivars, but that's not the whole story. We also don't have them because breeding new extra-fine cultivars isn't economically feasible. Aside from hobby lacemakers, there's not a huge demand; not with so many other fibers to chose from.
(1) The cost of breeding over many generations to produce the extra-fine fibers, (2) the cost of growing the more fragile plants (those fibers are what keep the plants standing upright), (3) the cost of trying to spin and weave on mass-market machinery (where speed trumps delicacy and fragile fibers can't take the stress), and (4) the delicacy of the resulting fabric (can't be machine washed or machine dried or machine dry-cleaned, and even hand-washing has to be extra-careful) all conspire to make extra-fine linen not so popular. So if it can't be mass-marketed and it can't get enough public adoration to sell at very, very high price, it's just not going to bring in enough money to make it in our economic climate. Robin P. Los Angeles, California, USA robinl...@socal.rr.com Parvum leve mentes capiunt (Little things amuse little minds) ---- Kim Davis <k...@wirelace.net> wrote: Regarding the thread, I am also interested in this topic. I have heard a few theories surrounding why we don't have it anymore. The first was that the fields were bombed by the Germans in WWI, and the strain of plant destroyed. This didn't make sense to me because we stopped seeing the fine threads very much a good century before WWI. The French Revolution makes more sense time wise. However, it seems hard to believe that we could not cultivate this flax if we wanted to. I am eager to here what your agricultural searches turn up. - 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/
