51 Yarns - 9: Spinning Bast (Flax)

Рет қаралды 5,767

Күн бұрын

*I love helping people learn about fibre arts... I also have to pay the bills! A lot of work goes into these videos so if you found it helpful, please consider supporting the channel by buying me a ‘virtual coffee’ via my Ko-Fi account : www.ko-fi.com/t... or joining my Patreon: / tinyfibrestudio Thank you!*
PLY Magazine is running a Spinalong to coincide with the launch of their book, 51 Yarns to Spin Before You Cast Off. You can post your entries on their Facebook, Instagram and Ravelry groups with the hashtags #51yarns, #handspunyarn and #plymagazine. There's a different theme each week and you can find a list of the topics and other information here: plymagazine.co... The best part is that one winner each week gets a one-year subscription to PLY! I've decided to play along in video form as well by creating a video each week to correspond with that week's spinalong theme.
This week it's "Bast" and having spun my first sample of flax, I'll show you the tips and tricks I learned along with some of the resources I found useful. Saffy and Dexter are back and causing chaos, although I have to applaud their comic timing!
****CORRECTION!****
It turns out banana fibre is counted as bast. My mistake!
Next week's spinalong topic (starting Monday 4th June) is "Semi-Worsted". Hope to see you again then!

Пікірлер: 22

@TinyFibreStudio Жыл бұрын

**I love helping people learn about fibre arts... I also have to pay the bills! A lot of work goes into these videos so if you found it helpful, please consider supporting the channel by buying me a ‘virtual coffee’ via my Ko-Fi account : www.ko-fi.com/tinyfibrestudio or joining my Patreon: www.patreon.com/tinyfibrestudio Thank you!**

@sharoncarpenter4658 2 жыл бұрын

Always believed spinning flax was very hard. Watching you has made me want to try it.

@graceswan4353 9 ай бұрын

I found this video because I heard that some of the oldest woven fabrics we have were made from oak bast! Oak trees! So here I am learning about types of bast. I've also made my own yarn from rose stems before so I wonder whether that would be considered bast. It was a bit of a fail though because I didn't know what I was doing, but I still used it to tie things like how you could use twine

@abittwisted 4 жыл бұрын

Dampened fingers help give grip as you pull fiber for spinning. I feel it is more or less used for grip vs getting wet. I use a wet sponge to wet the fibers when I finish ply the thread.

@hazeluzzell 6 жыл бұрын

I believe that flax naturally ‘curls’ anti clockwise, and hemp ‘curls’ clockwise. That is how textile experts can tell which is which in archaeological textiles.

@onegreenev 6 жыл бұрын

My initial desire to learn spinning was from wanting to learn about flax and other fibers used to make clothing. But in order to learn how to spin flax I figured I should learn how to spin period. Meaning I should learn to spin wool yarn. So off I went knee deep and then just dove head long into this. I have two wheels, 5 fleece and one completed project. Lots of samples and getting a solid feel of the process of spinning. KZbin has become my friend. Google has become my friend to find articles on cleaning, spinning and where to find things. My first attempt to spin flax was with flax tow. Not the first type of flax fiber you want to learn with. I began by growing a 20x20 plot and am now ready to break the plants into fiber after retting. Heading out to Chico Flax to get a tour of the facility in Chico California. I intent to make an article of clothing from this project. From seed to finished piece of clothing. Starting out well. Thanks a bunch for your video on this. Every little bit helps for those interested in Bast Fibers. facebook.com/pg/A-Bit-Twisted-733458853666359/posts/?ref=page_internal

@remembrancespottery8222 6 жыл бұрын

Incidentally, I had to give a little chuckle when you were talking about the distaff on some antique wheels. I spin on an antique with no distaff (it's what was in my budget when I first bought a wheel) and in the last month, TWO of my sons' friends (18 year old males, mind you) have looked at it and said "where's the sharp bit you can poke your finger on like in the disney movie?". HAHAHA. I was actually surprised they at least knew what it was for, in today's technology-based kids.

@cornwallcrafter8410 6 жыл бұрын

Remembrances Pottery so funny!

@TinyFibreStudio 6 жыл бұрын

Ha! I had the Disney Discussion with one of my bosses when I was spinning at work one day. He made some reference to it and I responded with just a tad more detail than he was probably expecting... "Well, in the film she's told to touch the spindle, but on a saxony wheel with a flyer like the one in the film there's no such thing as a spindle. What she pricks her finger on in the film is actually a distaff which is used for holding flax still while you spin it, which shouldn't be so pointy you could prick your finger on it... but the original story is more likely to refer to something like a great wheel or even a Russian spindle... or maybe she was just the most accident-prone princess ever..." (then I noticed his eyes had glazed over so I shut up!)

@rebekkah77 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this (and all) episode! As a weaver, this appeals to me. Perhaps more than cotton, in part because it looks like it's a lot easier to master an even, smooth yarn with flax than with cotton. I have visited a weaving studio on a local studio tour that hosts a maker who has a flax project. I believe it involves every step of the process, and might involve a book at the end. In any case, every time I visit they have handwoven linen towels on display and sale, and it is amazing to feel how well linen woven improve with age. They start out scratchy and stiff, and after a year of use are soft, flexible, and extremely absorbent. I think I'm going to have to weave more with linen, and then perhaps work my way up to spinning with it.

@pjd2709 5 жыл бұрын

Love your kitties, they are beautiful! Great job on the series too, very interesting!

@remembrancespottery8222 6 жыл бұрын

Becks! THANK YOU! This was a faulous episode (as usual). Spinning flax is something that has always been in the back of my mind since I started spinning. I did try to plant a tiny patch of seeds once, but didn't get a harvest. I have since watched a few videos and learned some helpful hints to try again next summer. I so badly want to go from seed to garment, no matter how long it takes me. We have a fiber festival in October about 2 hours from where I live. For the past few years I have been a vendor, so I haven't had a chance to look there for flax fiber (it's a proper fiber festival with straight from the farm fleeces of all types, mixed with indie dyers and spinning, rug hooking, etc) but I think it's my best bet for finding some in person so I can touch it and feel it and get a look at the quality before buying some, so this year I am attending as "just" a buyer and flax is my #1 priority. I have to say, I usually watch podcasts while working, but for this one, I dropped everything and put you on the full screen. It was positively mesmerizing to watch those tiny strands go in. You have me super excited to give it a go.

@TinyFibreStudio 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much! I'm glad you found it inspiring. :) I'm also considering whether I've got the space to get a flax crop next year... or, y'know... an allotment! I definitely noticed a huge difference in ease of drafting between the two lots of flax fibre - one had more short fibres mixed in and was much more tricky to spin whereas the one with relatively even staple length was loads easier. I'm certainly interested in spinning strick at some point... so many fibres, so little time! But it's so nice to connect with something you know you could grow yourself.

@jenm4721 2 жыл бұрын

That was so funny 😅😅😅 your cats I mean. The rest of your content is fascinating!

@TinyFibreStudio 2 жыл бұрын

Haha they certainly know how to steal the limelight! 🤣

@robinmccamont 6 жыл бұрын

Great podcast, Becks!!! I learned quite a bit from this one (mind you, I generally learn something from each of your podcasts!) Thanks for taking the time to do this series of podcasts. For a relatively "newbie" spinner, I always look forward to all of your podcasts, and watch them as soon as they pop up in my queue. Your cats are adorable (even though they are somewhat mischievous!) Take care...!

@TinyFibreStudio 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much Robin, I'm glad you learned something from it - I know I did! "Somewhat mischievous" is an understatement but yes, they are adorable... and they know it!