Working with Flax and Nettles

Here at Bentley Woodfair we see expert Allan Brown talking us through the various processes involved in preparing flax and nettles ready for hand spinning - from growing, cutting, drying and storing through to working the plant to reduce it to its most useful natural fibres. Allan uses traditional equipment, adopting specific techniques to best work the flax. We appreciate how, in times past, this would have had enormous production value - as flax and nettles were used to make all sorts of crucial items, from sails and bed sheets to clothes and cordage - and this skill still has its value today. For more info, please email: [e-mail]
www.bentley.org.uk/ An Adliberate film www.adliberate.co.uk for WoodlandsTV www.woodlands.co.uk/tv

[@kiradoyouknow]

The baby feeling the flax on her cheek...so precious 😍

[@AnnaMorris411]

I was married to my soul mate in a linen wedding gown I can vividly remember every seam and edge. The fine linen lace may have been crocheted? It was absolutely perfect for a summer evening wedding! The vail was also crocheted and hung from a small linen cap, (so vintage), also matching linen hankies with the groom! Sadly, I wore it last time to our daughters long planned for wedding, six months after my husband passed away. I know there’s something very special about that very fine linen and the lace!

[@frankparrish2928]

I like how they focus on the "industrial quality" of the cottage industry. Nicely done. Everyone imagines rowing the Viking long-ship but first they had to weave that sail!

[@calliarcale]

The craziest thing about the Viking sails is that they were made from what seems like the worst possible fiber: wool. Wool seems like an insane fiber for sails, because it's so heavy. In the age of sail, it was all cotton, but the Vikings didn't have access to cotton. They did have access to linen, but they weren't using it to make sails. As it turns out, there was a specific breed of sheep used to produce the wool; modern commercial sheep breeds do not produce a suitable wool, which is why nobody thought they could possibly have had woolen sails. But they did.

[@elliotsingh2329]

I think you might be able to get the nettle fibers a bit finer by boiling them on wood ash (i.e. In lye) and scraping them (in addition to retting of course); this is how ive seen a lot of bast fibers extracted in Japan

[@salahfathi4610]

Egyption flax We have all kinds of Egyptian raw linen and its derivatives for the manufacture of textiles and use in many other things. Please contact: [e-mail] Egypt: 00201276007225 France:0033753934337 Thank you Salah

[@elizabethwang7408]

Some new details I did not know about. Also he is a great teacher and has SO much fun!

[@lajwantishahani1225]

Very interesting. Good to see these old skills of working fibers with hand are still continued and hopefully passed down to the next generation.

[@anmnou]

Woodlands TV, where have you been all my life? So happy I came across your channel! Just the sounds of the forest alone made me happy :)

[@mooseknuckle8334]

You had me with the thumbnail hahaha. You and your folk seem like great people. Cheers from Nova Scotia!!

[@deeaden2025]

I don’t quite know how I got here, but I’m glad I did. This was fantastic! Thank you for sharing.

[@zagcatt]

will be calling them stringing nettles from now on . lovely vid.

[@salahfathi4610]

Egyption flax We have all kinds of Egyptian raw linen and its derivatives for the manufacture of textiles and use in many other things. Please contact: [e-mail] Egypt: 00201276007225 France:0033753934337 Thank you Salah

[@PG-wz7by]

Lovely pun, thank you 😊

[@worldofsurvival]

Fascinating stuff! Also very well presented and explained by Allan. Makes you wonder how well we would cope if thrown in to a world without electricity and metal tools!!

[@itsjustrenee1320]

worldofsurvival Do or die. 😣

[@rubygray7749]

Looks as though this could happen sooner than we expected! And I have no nettles!!

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

I'm growing a batch of flax, I start the seedlings off indoors as it's winter (Australia, so pretty much an English summer) and he's right about all animals wanting to lay on it. Every time I leave it unattended out of the light box I find it crushed. I don't understand it, but there's something about it that attracts animals and their immediate reaction is to throw themselves down on it. My pets are all obsessed with it. One of my cats keeps trying to eat it, she puts it in her mouth and just gums on it. It's like catnip for cats AND dogs.

[@moonhunter9993]

I think it might be the oils. Remember it's omega 3s...like fish oil. Might explain the cat's fascination with it.

[@motooilermotooiler9597]

great people. was glad to watch this material.

[@thedruiddiaries6378]

Thats wonderful! Appreciate the detail you gave us. Thank you!

[@claudine7985]

Love it! Thank you for making the video!

[@elainesnyder6307]

Well done. Nice to see this hasn't been lost.

[@bon47ful]

Bravo, Alan!

[@timothymitchell9956]

Thank you for sharing your history, culture and knowledge. Fascinating!

[@bon47ful]

Wow...”streaming flaxen waxen”! Such an interesting video. Thank you.

[@justinholifield7708]

brilliant film good to see old skills being kept alive.

[@Braddha]

Wonderful... I have been curious about the use of flax AND nettles for the longest time... Beautifully explained and demonstrated... Amazing that these items - once SO essential to our ancestors - are relatively forgotten today... Much thanks.

[@calliarcale]

Flax isn't forgotten. ;-) It's still heavily cultivated, and the dew-retting process is still preferred -- but everything is now all mechanized, of course. It's the fiber used to make linen.

[@badgersbunk7311]

Fascinating video.

[@christopheropstad7266]

Very fascinating! I think I have nettles growing in my back yard and now I want to try to harvest them!

[@P61guy61]

Excellent. Thank you for posting

[@JayneFrogWoo]

Fabulous information.

[@bluetoad2001]

very informative, thanks for posting

[@LizMcNamara47]

Thank you Allan, very labour intensive but worthy work

[@karate4348]

because it knows I'm filming it.! ... love it. thanks-you for such wonder.

[@LizzieDeanMakes]

I have a drop spindle and have been wanting to make nettle fibre yarn for a few years now but might try growing some flax/linseed and try linen too - great video! Xx

[@orangesuitsme]

lovely video thank you so much

[@WonderingGreenMan]

Interesting stuff! Amazing how these important skills get lost over time! Thank you for sharing this!

[@annak2922]

Great information! Thank you!

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Glad it was helpful!

[@itsjustrenee1320]

👏👍 good video, thanks.

[@martiadams1534]

fabulous!

[@ganainm5113]

Cool video.

[@Latheman666]

Awesome!

[@womanofsubstance8735]

Very interesting.

[@crystalheart9]

Fascinating stuff, how did people ever figure this out?

[@guidoezequieldevincenzi9318]

What is the name of this guy??? I love him! Is the third video I see with him but never found this info. Thanks ✌️

[@WOODLANDSTV]

Hi. I'm glad you like the film. His name is Allan Brown and you can find out more about him and his work on his Facebook page facebook.com/groups/1715837118673266/

[@Ilovethebush]

Thank you for this. I've been making banana fibre 2 ply and it is exhausting. I am only able to make about 7m per day in 30-minute bursts between other household tasks. However, I am wanting to speed up the process and spin it instead of plying it.

[@Reality530]

Very sustainable good alternative to cotton

[@tierraenlaboca]

What is the name of this event/institution that processes these materials? Thank you

[@alejandraparker4180]

Peace and blessings. Enjoyed this video. But I am more interested is the surroundings where this video was made. Is this a real neighborhood still thriving in 2018? Is this a commune and where is it located. Would love to see a video of daily life in this community. Thanks. 1/4/18

[@susanlansdell863]

I shall look at nettles in a new light.xx

[@TheRawfoodgardener]

I would love to try this, I wonder if the tools are hard to find?

[@tammy-lynnstewart5677]

I bet you could make tools that would do the job well! I'd love to try!

[@tutorsurrey]

the story the wild swans has nettle weaving in it. That's what brought me here.

[@lowesonia8551]

Just before this i watched a Belgian Flax to finest linen Factories Immense many different procedures before finished product natural dye best quality bedlinen . Very interesting . Alan 's hands must be sore?reminds me during the War holding skeins of wool for my Mother when once in balls, would knit every evening . No television. Radio probably .I Was in bed. Unless the sirens sounded then to the shelters.. How different life was . Even with war . Better than today . World has too many people.

[@LibellulaGlass]

Fantastic, the best explanation I have heard and understood. Anyone know if I buy some linseeds from the health food shop, whether they would grow? I am a spinner, but have only so far spun already processed flax. Thanks again for the brilliant video.

[@rubygray7749]

You could try. There are 2 types of linseed or flaxseed. One is a shorter plant grown to produce high quantities of seed, and the other is much taller to produce lots of long fibre. You would need to do more research on the subject. This Irish man does an excellent presentation on growing flax, harvesting and processing it for weaving : LINEN - Making Linen Fabric from Flax Seed - Demonstration Of How Linen Is Made kzbin.info/www/bejne/infYm2qpjbuhf7c

[@maxdecphoenix]

If you're willing to spend money, why not just order the proper seed from a legitimate vendor?

[@amaris7649]

Had to laugh about the animals wanting to lie on it - I'm always chasing my cat out of the flax patch and then trying to fluff up the areas he's flattened.

[@JakeWitmer]

Not sure if Sally Pointer has an episode on "China jute" or "buttonweed," (Albutilon theophrastii) ...but that's a fiber idiot to see worked. This was great though...thanks!

[@CoxJoxSox]

Allan yer hired! :D

[@MysticMuttering]

Flax fibers are like pizza. Even when they’re “bad,” they’re pretty good

[@Earnshawfully]

A close friend of mine pops up and surprises me! (She of the hoary flaxen hair.)

[@Luna-ej4mi]

But is the flax/nettle yarn strong and lightweight enough to make hats?

[@vikchandla]

How long does dew retting take approx?

[@CoxJoxSox]

Was flax used to stuff mattresses too?

[@maxdecphoenix]

Nick Doe maybe for the ultra rich, but they would have likely been using cotton. There were just far too many waste products which could be used as mattress stuffing than squander perfectly usable fiber. Straw, down, animal hairs as a by product of tanning. Most of the poor would have been using a weaved bed roll of rushes or pelts through out the majority of history.

[@nitro105]

how do you work with nettles, without them irritating the skin?

[@BillWiltfong]

There are lots of videos here that explain that. But, basically you harvest it at the right time and wear gloves. Once you boil or dry the plant, it no longer stings. Boiled nettle leaves are super nutritious food.

[@theScrupulousBerserker]

🤔🧐

[@aryaprincess2479]

Why is he so cute?

[@greenfingersgardener822]

Did he make his beard from flax lol

[@dr.lexwinter8604]

You can't get a better distaff than a bloody traffic cone with polyester ribbon wrapped around it? C'mon mate, pick your game up!

[@Bulit.]

bruh

[@poppetx]

why do u pretend ur from 500 years ago