To get fine thread, flax has to be grown very close together, so that it competes for light and nutrients, and becomes long and thin rather than a 'healthier' size (same thing happens to all plants grown without suffucient light). Then this flax, after retting and various other processes has to be spun, which requires a skilled spinner to cope with the fineness (and therefor delicacy) of the thread. When lots of this thread was needed for lace and I presume other things, it was commercially viable to grow and manufacture it. Sadly now, so little is required that it isn't commercially viable. Add this on to the shift in attitude from 'serving the public' to 'best bottom line', and perhaps we will understand why, as there are so few of us working in the finest threads now, no-one is likely to start making it again.
Occasionally old thread is available, but without knowing how it's been stored and what state it's in, I'm always wary of paying a huge price for it.
Edith
North Nottinghamshire
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