How Linen Is Made From Flax Movie

This video was sent to our Porrey Cross weaving study group.  The movie is in French with English subtitles and lasts 15 minutes.

I so enjoy spinning flax.  I hope you find this an informative movie.


BE LINEN MOVIE from Benoit MILLOT on Vimeo.

Free Shipping Until October 15, 2010

In honor of my Happy Birthday, any orders placed through midnight mountain time Friday, October 15, 2010 will receive free shipping.  In order to participate in this offer you must email me prior to purchasing your hat so I can adjust the shipping fee to zero.  Send those emails to hospitalhats.gmail.com.  Stock up on your Halloween hats today!

Janice

Hemp - Spinning and Weaving

I'm working on a Spinning Certificate.  The current fiber I'm learning to work with is hemp.  I'm discovering much about this "forbidden" fiber.  Firstly here's a post about a 200 year old nightgown made from hemp.

Here's the beginning of this interesting post.  Photos and closeups are on the linked page.

"My fiancee deals in antiques & I help him on the side. I went to an estate sale & purchased a bunch of handspun cloth nightgowns from the 1820s/30s era. The woman at the sale was telling me about the process of how the woman made the cloth from hemp & showing me the beautiful tiny details of their work.


There was not a hole in ANY of the fifteen I purchased. They were thick & sturdy. I brought them home & gently washed them with some oxyclean & put a little fabric softner in with them. They came out white & beautiful.

I was awe-struck. I have always known, intectually, that hemp was suppossed to make great clothing & it has a million & one other uses as well. But, it wasn’t until I put my hands on these nearly 200 YEAR OLD pieces of fabric that I realized why industry would want to fight this plant. It lasts, if not forever, then for a couple of life-times or more. How on earth would they be able to generate profit. . . . "  [misspellings are from original post]


Read the entire post at Found Handspun Antique Hemp Nightgowns – I now know why Pot is illegal
Janice

New Women Scrub Hats Being Listed

Halloween and Fall listings are continuing!  Here is the latest batch I am photoing for Etsy.  Contact me if you have questions or would like to reserve a particular hat for yourself or a colleague.

Janice

I just stepped in for a sandwich when . . .

unexpectedly I saw this gentlemen sitting by the fireplace sketching. He looked friendly. He had just a Number 2 pencil sharpened with a blade of some sort and a very fine Sakura black pen.

On his lap was a sketch of a mountain lion lounging on some Arizona rocks. Naturally I ventured over to him and asked about his sketches and why on earth he was sitting in the Wildflower Bread eatery sketching away. It seems he spends about 3 hours every day there sketching. He once taught art but no longer. He has been a resident of Prescott, Arizona for about 35 years. He takes photos and then sketches them or actual drawings in the woods and then continually refines them.

His name is William R. Buttler, (928.308.4651) and specializes in Western Art. What a pleasant surprise!

Planting Future Cotton for Spinning!

Jillan (from Ravelry) sent me four colors of cotton seeds recently. Surprisingly I planted six of each color and have these adorable little plants. Now I need to figure out where to plant them so they will grow! grow!! grow!!!!