Sally: The process of combing the tow out of the flax, is part of what is referred to as "dressing the flax." If you are serious about spinning flax, you may want to invest in a set of hackles. Alden Amos makes them in various sizes. The difference between hackles and metal combs is that hackles are SHARP. The tines of a hackle are diamond-shaped, rather than round and smooth like wool combs. That's why they come with a metal cover.
The hackle is clamped to a table or bench and the strick is drawn through the tines. Unlike combing, the line stays in the hand at all times. What is left on the hackle is the tow. After the flax is successfully hackled, it is ready to put on the distaff and spun. Also experiment with getting flax from various suppliers. There are differences in the quality of strick available. Of course hackling will improve any strick, but it helps to start with a superior product! Korwyn in Norfolk UK In a message dated 10/3/2003 4:39:48 AM GMT Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >The blurb from Halcyon says that the flax is ready to spin but I quickly >discovered that there's still a lot of tow mixed in with the long flax fibers and >so I have been combing the flax with a metal comb. What I found very >interesting, was that the thread I spun with the tow still mixed in, looks a lot >like the commercial linen thread, with slubs. The unspun flax fibers don't >have anything resembling slubs. Once I combed out the tow, my handspun >thread became very smooth and shiny with no slubs. - To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
