LINEN - Making Linen Fabric from Flax Seed - Demonstration Of How Linen Is Made 

How much thread would he have been able to make from what he grew? Enough for a shirt?

This video content is awesome. Thank you for showing this incredible technique to us.

@@xxshevilxx it be lot of tread to stitch your lips together

If you would please contact me about this video, you could contact me.

Thank you for showing us how it is done. I had wondered if growing flax could be a viable small crop option for producing some of my own fiber. I'm still leaning towards banana fiber as my projects would be more utilitarian. However, if I ever get to the point where rugs, mats, baskets and decorative crafts are no longer fulfilling my creative goals, then I'm sure flax will be a good possibility.

😂😂😂

😆 lol

Haha love the way you think. Needed a chuckle.

I thought it was the sound flax made when growing🤔🤔🤔

Haha!!♡♡♡

I thought about that too. How did people ever figure out each step of the process to turn a plant into clothing. It fascinates me.

I think a lot of stuff was accidental. Amazing.

Trial and ERROR.

@@inkyguy thank you. This predictive text is crazy. Best to look over what ya text.

Goes back before ancient Egypt they made linen from flax and paper from papyrus goes way back people were so skilled.

Oh wow!

@ref eds mostly linen. Her family was from Ireland, so we raised sheep and used wool as well. I remember she spun very fine and her fabric was soft as silk.

Very cool

@Chaz Nonya, and now linen sheets are incredibly expensive. Way more expensive than "Egyptian cotton." I bet your gran would get a laugh out of that. What she thought of as commonplace is now a luxury item.

@@lorisewsstuff1607 I can only sleep on egyptian cotton - closest thing I can find. Luckily, I found them for $15 a set ☺️

Me too!

I watched for that reason

Kimberly F ...you can ask this man question after question and he’d never get annoyed. I think he’d enjoy it.

That's Just Because Your a Female... All I Heard as a Man, Is "If Y'r Want Y'r Next Diaper, Get To Planting !!! " As a 'Rebel', I Decided to Go Without Diapers, Didn't Do My Early Love Life Much Good, Finally Became One of the "Prodigal Son's". 'Stupid Kids'...

Yes. I'd love to sit chatting with him a cosy local over a pint or two.

He's the older generation. Can u just imagine how many times he's done this??!! That is the most perfect square laid out in a garden I've ever seen!! God bless ye Colm! Love the music!

Kimberly F hard work equals no time for being rude.

It's true! Back in the olden days maidens would start growing their hair out in early April, and come June they would pull it all out and soak it in water for a time. They would lay it bare on their plains til it was dry, then they'd beat the everloving hell out of it. Also crimping. These days, maiden hair is produced industrially, often using synthetic materials. It's generally less itchy though, which is a relief to many.

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YEITVTcGbzc.html

Omg you are right

Oh, wow, yes!

@@maxsparks3764 that was good chuckle

Greg KEEL it’s crazy. How’s shirt making even become so advanced. I bet thousands of years ago, a naked person could of made due with the product after he refined the flax by banging it on that board

I read a historian once- I can't remember who it was, but the subject was the middle ages- who said that, after the obvious things, like electric lights and flight, what those people would have considered really amazing about the world today is our abundance of textiles. In our world, clothes are so disposable, in Africa and south east Asia where huge charity organizations send bails of used clothing by the boatload, there are places where you literally can't give away a t-shirt. In the ancient world, and right up until well into the industrial revolution, a person's clothing and household linens represented a significant portion of their personal wealth. The amount of labor embodied in even the most common and widely used cloth made it a very valuable commodity, and articles of clothing, especially outerwear like coats and trowsers- carefully maintain ed and mended- had an expected period of use which could extend into multiple generations!

not really the people being spoiled, more a matter of companies sacrifice quality for mass production with the sole intent that products will never last and you have to replace it. If I could buy one pair of shoes every 20 years that would be awesome, but no.. They prey on people who don't have the time or means to make their own clothing and the economy in many countries now thrives on constant purchase. I make clothing as a hobby and it's really cool to create something I worked hard on and will last, but if everyone in the world had to provide their own clothing from scratch, our economies would suffer and many of us would be homeless, since we all quit our jobs to spend the year making one outfit for each member of our family. Today a machine can knit a hat in 30 seconds, it takes a person a half hour, only if they're a record breaker and never get hand cramps lol

Consider how in the Bible there is so much fuss about how valuable clothing was. It was even used as currency. Consider that a few garments would be the fruit of MONTHS of work by artisans, even the most humble items. Jesus had a tunic that was all one piece, woven seamlessly from top to bottom. It was too valuable to damage, so the Romans cast lots to see who would get it. It was the most valuable thing He owned. What a labor of love from someone, since it was surely a gift. It’s no wonder that we have such a difficult time grasping the profound, fundamental things of our existence, being as we are so far removed from the beauty which we once took for granted.

I know this is old, but you can still find quality clothing, designed to last years, but it is expensive. A 100% wool or linen shirt can cost hundreds of US dollars, but can last a very long time. I have a 100% wool coat that was gifted to me 13 years ago, it's a very fine thread so I can wear it almost year round, 9-10 months depending on weather, even here in the south eastern US, and all it's ever needed is to be brushed with a scrub brush to remove dust and dirt, and to be hung in the sun for a day to remove any odor. Other than a bit of sun bleaching it's still as good as it was 13 years ago, just a lighter shade of green.

Yes, linen lasts a lifetime. Thanks for watching

Back when things were made properly and to last.

We all would, but we’d have to “sneak” him home sober (his missus may not approve🤣) Fit as a fiddle he is, hats off to him 👍

He deserves it, doesn't he?

He IS awesome yes?

Me too but maybe don’t call him a bloke, it’s a very English word. Kind of irritating sometimes, I’m not really sure how to explain it

Exactly. And I’d nod along and smile at whatever he said, even though I can’t understand a word.

Animal fur and hides are HOT in the summer.

Robert Rijkers. 😆😆Or looking at some dirt and thinking "shit... I could make an axe out of this"

@@nyakwarObat 😂😂😂

Robert Rijkers Yes, you wonder how, with so little, they would even have foresight to look at plants growing and envision cloth. IT IS A WONDERFUL THING-THE MIND.

Kim the ancient Egyptians wore linen clothing almost exclusively because it was well suited to the hot climate

Thanks !

@@davidsexton6604 You're most welcome. I have a late uncle whom I loved dearly but he (as well as the other sons in the family) had to live for, at least a year, in the beautiful (imho) homes built for those they worked alongside. They were not "overseers" by any stretch of the imagination but were obliged to work along with everyone else. Same conditions, hours, pay, etc., This one uncle lived there until the land was sold & there were some visits, I kid you not, when, as much as I loved him, I simply couldn't understand him :-). I got tired of the snide comments which, in most cases were justified but uncorrected & tried to do my part to clarify the spoken explanation. On both my & my husband's side we also know the man called to be the original Captain of the "Titanic" (Smith was not the 1st choice) & we knew draughtsmen & those who worked on that great ship. We know of the 1st time she was put on the "slipway" in Belfast & stopped halfway. Sailors are very superstitious & my husband's grandfather (who died over 100 yrs of age) said that all who observed this, immediately removed caps, hats, any head coverings, as gents did at funerals, once-upon-a-time & the word"death" & "disaster" were whispered from one to the other. Finally, we had a late friend who practiced as a lawyer & purchased two massive book cases, intended for the 1st class library on Titanic but ended up being unneeded & he was proud to have them stand, in use, in his law offices - quite a sight!! Sorry for the "Ready! Steady! Go!" which is all was required for my unasked for my unrequested burst of Irish truth & lore :-). Glad it helped. And apologies, once again.

It seems like what you're saying is that everything we saw on a small scale is done at a large scale but at a larger scale. Is that it?

@Opaque Motives Simply that a lot of commentators were under the impression that a "folk visitor's center's" tiny example of how linen was made was the whole industry!!!!! Considering the vast amounts of linen which left Ireland, that couldn't be. I was merely pointing out that this was merely a tiny example to foreign visitors & school children of the process NOT the whole linen industry...........easy!!!!

I totally understand what you mean, I imagine flax is harvested and processed by machine now? But the process itself is unchanged. Here in North America we call Rape seed or Canola, flax and for years I have wondered how that can be. This is so eye opening and amazing to me. Is your centre about saving tradition?

Greetings from Donegal, Ireland. Thanks for watching

actually you are a princess👸

Do you know how many square meters of fabric one could produce with one acre?

David Earnest, wow, amazing. Thank you for sharing that. How nice to be directly linked back to this.

That patch is not an acre; if an square, an acre is 209 feet x 209 feet; but during the time an acre was a rectangle shaped field, 66 feet by 660 feet, so you can use a horse to plow it easily. This was just a few yards long at most. I love that your grand mother showed you her linen making process. Thank you for sharing.

And that linen was passed down through the generations. It was almost indestructible. Especiall when it was made out of hemp which were the first blue jeans. They lasted forever. You only needed two pair for your whole life. One pair for workdays and one pair for sundays.

@@Gesundheit888 I didn't know that about blue jeans being made from hemp.

I totally agree! Would have liked to have watch further on how to make the thread out of the finished linen. Seems like there isn't much linen left after all of the process to finish it is over. So, how much linen does it take to make one dress like the one shown? Soooo interesting! Thank you so very much! It seems like most of the equipment was probably hand made as well. Would love to watch a video on how to make the equipment needed for this. Thanks again!

Debbie Travis Blakley I’d like to try making linen!

I would have liked to see the spinning wheel in action next. Also, seems like the weather was good for each step in the process. How did he learn to do this? Also, what would that crop pay when finished, as shown.

Quite charming, indeed! I can imagine a lassie or two has had her eye on him.

Thank you for your comments. Linen is indeed a tough and long lasting fabric.

Well put!

stoned?

hah fucking gay

HighSeasDrifter57 so beautifully put. thank you for saying what my heart felt

Just the way hes always bent made my ache hehe

me too.

Just Bend Y'r Knees, Luckily, I Guess I Was Born with Short Legs, Never Had Back Problems...Tho', I Sometimes Forget. It Makes for Oxen Legs, Or, At Auction, " I'll Take the Pretty One with 'Short Legs' " Damn Short People, What Are They Good For Anyway ?

I was thinking what a lot of hard work he was at and how diligent he was working. How nice he can still work like that.

I know! Me too!

I was admiring the yield from tiny plot. I've been told that the seed should be sewn thickly to force the plants to grow taller. Still that's a lot of flax from a tiny plot of land. Well done.

Lots of flax, but very little linen. Every plant produces only a few strands of fiber, thinner than a hair, which need to be spun into thread before being woven into fabric. The amount shown in the video probably isn't even enough to make a shirt from

@@mynamejeff3545 Oh man, I had no idea it would take that much! 🫤

@@waiata216 and your comment was unnecessary AND stupid. 2 in 1!!! 👍😉🤣😂

Thank you, Max. I found this very interesting as I too am from the Phoenix area. So cool how every area is able to use their indigenous plants!

Wayne Gatfield how rude!

witchy hour I’m always amazed and shocked at the disgusting replies from many “people” on RU-vids comments section! It’s like the worst people in the world have been given free reign to spew their filth. How something as benign as making linen can result in this kind of response, is beyond unbelievable! It’s so sad at how low people can sink and drag others down with them. Living in this world is hard enough, we are supposed to be uplifting each other, not ridiculing and insulting others. Thank you for this video, I find it calming.

maxdecphoenix interesting. Thank you for sharing.

In some places it is still kind of expensive

@Markus Patients well, if women are never satisfied, then doesn't that mean women have more ambition than men?

Not just linen. A well-made garment was something you'd pass down from generation to generation because making clothing was labor intensive when you considered everything from start to finish.

It’s hard to find linens today, and when you do they’re not cheap from my perspective.

@Markus Patients Hate to break it to you but people have been making clothing this way a lot longer than hundreds of years lol. While some cultures did use animal skins, in a time and area where such things were plentiful fabric clothing predates even agriculture. I believe the current oldest flax fabric is dated at 34000 years old and was dyed. Of course such fabrics as well as skin clothing rots away very quickly so it could be even older than that easily. SInce plant clothing is made of thread, which is just thin rope.........which was probably one of humanities first inventions I see no reason why clothing made of such materials wouldn't be almost as old. Everyone could weave.........everyone could make rope/thread. It's actually quite a short jump to clothing. It's also something you can do all day every day whereas hunting is not. Not to mention leather clothing is hella hot in warm climates. I suspect fabric clothing was more popular in most parts of the world.

lol

Absolutely brilliant.....my ancestors HARGAN.....came from that part of Ireland.

Not anymore, huh? 😉

This is the old way. They have machines now

I agree, it is so interesting! Now I see why linen is so expensive, but worth it !

Perfect.

Moira Egan but that’s exactly what they’re for.

Moira Egan Ahh I see what you did there!

Ahh So I’m not the only one that uses a handkerchief.

@@fauxty I've developed a nose for finding high quality linen handkerchiefs and now have quite a wardrobe of them, most of which are new old stock from ebay. They make nice little gifts for those who appreciate linen - and lace.

Lol

Funny how "they" seem to know just what we need to watch. This is one you sit down with a cup of coffee or tea while you learn how to turn flax into linen.

Aye you willing? Lol

El Fraser Wow! How much have you "used" them? What I mean is, do you put them on your pillows regularly or just a couple times a year etc. Are they a natural color or have they been dyed or embroidered etc. Did she make them herself?

I also prefer linen, ive purchased vintage linens at thrift shops and find nothing as soft and cool as a well used linen pillow slip. They feel so powderey and smooth..my teenagers even fight over them!

mindy fussner Linen is a really hard-wearing fabric, that's probably why it got used for sheets. When the centres got worn down, they would resew the the sides together, so that the sides became the centre.

shannie medrano where do you find vintage linens??

@@luciatilyard2827 my mother did that with my sheets as a child (which I think were linen) I refused to use them after that though, I hated it! that line of thick sewing in the middle completely spoilt the luxurious feel :( I would have rathered keep using without that split until they wore the whole way through. Maybe I'm spoilt, but it just really upset me as a kid to have sheets that to me still had lots of use in them & were SO comfy have that done to them

I'll trade you 1 pig, a bushel of beans, a bag of beads and a sealed jar of Grape Kool-aid mix for 5 yards of your finest linen!

Garnet I'll trade 2 fat pigs (no, not my ex'ses. but real pigs), two busheLs of beans, 2 bag of beads and .. okay.. one of my ex too.. to help me understand the instructions! (not from the west and certainly not from around Ireland, Scotland)

I will steal all but yer undies Mr Kush.

@@coffeepot3123 ha! Jokes on you, I'm not wearing undies. :p

*+Coffee Jack* but it is precisely the UGs (uuooo-geeez, under governments) made out of natural linen that are long lasting, of highest quality and totally resistant to microbial activity. (this is not to imply the "Mr Kush", others or your good selves have any bacteria, viruses on or in you or in any of your cracks, crevices).

Besides the flaxen hair word connection, I grew up calling snow- white hair kids tow-headed. It is from the very strong "tow" ropes they made from flax for boat ropes. That is not a term appreciated today if you say, "oh look at your cute tow-headed son."

@@lynettepatten904 People hear it today as "toe-headed" and then they really get confused! You have to see it in print to recognize what the original meaning of the term was. Thanks for explaining the original source of the phrase!

@@lynettepatten904 Hahaha people used to call my siblings and I tow headed, now I understand what it means. As a kid, I pictured a giant toe for a head!

@@lynettepatten904 My son was patted on the head many a time by someone calling him tow headed. His hair was the very color of the flax.

And why some linens are so soft and others scratchy and stiffer.

I have my mother's lace making supplies. She is German and used to make lace.

Shakaama I’m Irish, living in Ireland and I could barely understand what he said! The Donegal accent can be tough! I used to go up North and my ex’s brother would talk to me, I’d smile and when he left I’d ask what he’d said, could never understand him!

You can try listening with the subtitles turned on - they're pretty good.

I understood almost everything and I'm from America.

Shakaama - So .. your ancestry certainly isn’t from Donegal. Twat.

Can't judge a book by its cover, some genetics either.

freedom freedom A real family hero,

vivling999 linen is a great fibre

I inherited some linen kitchen towels from my dear Granny which she and my Grandpa got when they got married in the late 1930s. The towels look as if they were made a week ago. So yes, your shirts will last for sure. But don't wash them with strong detergent after only one day's use.

@vivling999 Where did you get them from?

@@freya5902: CP Shades - in the US online, and they were specific, Irish Linen. The finest shirts I ever purchased!

if it's soft then it's mixed with some other fibre, pure linen is a little itchy to be honest, irish linen that is.

Woah that's really cool

This pleases me to know that we are among the people (younger and older and all in between) who care and keep sharing along the arts-&-crafts and SKILLS and TALENTS of 'yesteryear'. I learned hand-embroidery as a child & at the knee of my 'town' Grandmother. Farming and gardening at the behest of and with further encouragement from my 'country-farm' Grandmother. I'd love to learn more about spinning of wool from sheep &/or alpaca because I've learned weaving with a floor loom AND also off-loom weaving as custom-made art pieces to give as gifts &/or to possibly sell for added income. Wouldn't you just love to accept this gent's invitation and actually go to Donegal , Ireland and the Heritage Centre there? (I hope to also return someday.... no later than year 2020...to the Irish Folk Village in County Clare, Ireland......... not far from Limerick City and also Cork City.... the "Butter-Making" capital of the world on the banks of my own "Lovely Lee" River.

Would love to hear more about what stooking wheat was like and what it was used for.

"Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.."

@@janetbedford7562 - Oh please Janet DO follow through. These skills are dying out. If you stay to learn these skills you will be able to teach others. We may still have a hope. Thank you, Janet!

Chuffpup I would love to trade seeds with you

Laura Curtiss Will see what I can do, I have a cousin who is a Maori weaver and knowledgeable about this. I could go and grab some seeds from my garden, as this flax grows everywhere. I'd hate to introduce some disease and wipe out the linen industry by being careless, so will check the protocol first. It may be available there as New Zealand flax (Harakeke) from garden centers etc. I've got your youtube moniker here so will get back to you. Thanks for your interest. There will probably be something on youtube about it.

Chuffpup aha now I get it...I was wondering how they get those tough grass skirts from this plant 😂😂.

Valerie H we've been doing "science" since we first learned to cook foods

Al Hen That’s true!

EGYPTIANS of Kemet made linen as well as ''paper'' from papyrus aka ''rushes'' what he used to tie the bundles. really it was not alot of work if thats all you did all day. ''many hands make light work''

Yara Mery Yes, but unless one lived a communal life there were *many* things that needed to be done during any given day.

@@valsedonia The oldest living culture in the world is Australian Aboriginal, so they're often a great reference point to figure this stuff out (if looking properly & not at European propaganda) They have extensive hair based clothing. Women would continually grow their hair & then cut to produce fibres for making clothing, bags etc. The development of weaving techniques can still be seen in the various hair fibre products available, with finer/more advanced weaving techniques used for clothing, while rough techniques are used in bags & other more durable items. Presumably for fibres like linseed (hemp's the same & even more likely to have come first), people were probably eating the seeds & leaving the fibres & probably noticed on returning to the location some months later that some fibres had naturally reeted & split & were lying around on the ground in a form close enough to the final product to prompt them to experiment with the other partly decomposing plants in the same location to discover they could create a hair like fibre by collecting & working the stems at the same time as collecting the seeds. It could also have been that they used fresh hemp as a twine to tie up logs to make shelters & then found it split over time into various fibres that were even more useful (hemp has rough outer fibres that are used for rope & soft inner fibres that are used for clothes) & so they might have then refined the weathering process to intentionally separate them before beginning to use & once they'd stumbled across one fibre that did that, they probably tried it will all fibres, especially if moving to new locations that didn't have the old fibre they used in that way flax & hemp aren't Australian, nothing on them in what I'm about to suggest, but if you want to learn more about early agriculture & how humans figured a lot of this stuff out, there's a book called "dark emu" that is a fascinating look at the extent of agriculture & development of this nature in a way that is completely foreign to what we think of as "civilisation" today, lots of incites as to how working the environment for our needs really happened

Me too in Wales, uk. I grew my first crop of flax in 2021. Processed and spun it, then wove it into a small sample of cloth which is now pride of place in a display frame on our living room wall 🧱 It might be the first piece of linen cloth to be made in Wales for 300 years so I think it's special enough for the wall 😃 I watched lots of videos before attempting it and this video is one I come back to regularly, there's just something about it!

​@@Eternal_Hope_Qwhat equipment you needed for this

Yip, Colm is a hard-working man. He loves showing people how things were done in the past. He's a real gem with loads of passion for traditional ways. Thanks for your comments

Donegal is in Ireland and the speech patterns and accents are very similar to some areas of Scotland.

Jane Sawyer: That is so neat! I don't know too much about my ancestors, except that some portion of 'em came from Ireland.

Did you mean spinners"

@@orianeshiroma2924 On the passenger ship list after the women in this Lockhart family and some of the other women and girls on the ship was the term "spinster". I know, we know spinster as a women who are single and past marrying age. This is originally why I thought the older woman Hannah Jane among this family may have been Thomas's unmarried sister. But so was Anne Lockhart also listed as a spinster after profession, and she was only 16 then. So I don't think spinster referred to the marital status but that of yes a spinner. It was called spinster then.

Thanks for watching

My ancestors also came to America from Donegal! Just curious... have you been there?

Hahahaha...

Ikr

Me too. This charming gentleman explained everything perfectly, even if I couldn't understand a word he said.

@@LivingLegendMe We need sub-titles. Preferably English lol

And the Latin word for flax, "Linus", also means flaxen-haired when used as a name.

Oh yes!

Irish Linen is NOT itchy!

Ah but can you spin and ply, and knit or weave and sew? I can weave. Badly, but I'm just starting, I'll get better. I can't spin very well either yet but I'm also learning; although with a drop spindle, wheels are dang expensive these days. I haven't learnt to ply yet but I would love to go through the entire process and make a garment completely from scratch from my own flax that I grew. We've lost so much. I'd be utterly useless if I fell through time and had to live as a crofter. I'd probably be dead in three weeks. We need to relearn these skills. Otherwise we're all screwed when SHTF.

linen is not itchy

Linen is not itchy besides from that suits are lined.

Sound like a growing problem.

Good question! hand spun linen was very expensive back in the day. It lasted a life time

same here but from the southwest corner of Washington state U.S.A. Would loved to have been able to learn then teach my children and their children as well.

We're pleased you enjoyed the video. It's great to see that we have viewers from the sunny West Coast

Kayinfso Here thank you so much very informative

Thank you. I am from California too. Very informative.

Admiring this demostration from Brasil!

I agree as of last year may I started making my own laundry detergent. Now I'm in the process of starting to making my own bath soap. I'm saving up money to buy the items I need.

@@violetcarson5532 sodium hydroxide is very cheap (unless you really want to go traditional and make your basic solution from ashes -> potassium hydroxide). Your cost is basically the bottle of oil you will transform in soap because sodium hydroxide lasts you forever. Please calculate carefully how much NaOH you need for the oil you use because each oil needs a different quantity. There are online calculators for that. I like olive oil. It is not worth putting scents and colours in it, unless you want to make it pretty and sell it...but who wants to buy from you when there are so many pretty soaps? They don't know your soap washes better, they look at the colours and smells.

that is SO true..I buy old books on how to do these things so I will always know. what started it off for me was coming across a Pears Cyclopedia from 1890's and the info in there was amazing.

I’ve acquired all those skills over the years. It’s fun.

Making fire is a technology. So is cultivating a garden, baking bread. So you haven't been ever independent of technology, just a certain era's technology, maybe.

Thank you Trevor for your comments

My grandfather lived on a "bleach green" an area of land for the flax growers & workers who did it on a larger scale. Larger areas of flax grown (fields & fields of the larger, original plant). Ultimately huge buildings to house the "beetling mills" ( the name given to the "hammering" process, each "beetle" or hammer larger than a tall man's hands put together in circle form & lots of them together). I had originally put it at the top (beside the Swedish Gentleman who praised him greatly & whose praise still remains there!). I explained the process from beginning to end (including the fact that, processed in larger quantities) Obviously, it was more cost-effective than this tiny amount which is done to show only school children & tourists the process from beginning to end. I'm so sorry that you were lead to believe that these small amounts lead to the huge linen table cloths, etc., which is still sold the world over........................

Garments last a long time, but do lose their shape; not a problem for those who can sew.

i found Flax growing by the roadside and processed it over the summer one year and wove it though i prefer to use industrial Hemp whch is now legal thanks to Trump signing the 2018 Farm Bill industrial Fiber Hemp is now legal to grow in America again --Rick

At the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers Museum in Salt Lake City are displays of flax fiber, processing tools, and finished products from the 1800s. I remember a flaxen rope there that may have been as thick as my wrist. It looked like something designed to hold a ship. There's a store in downtown that sells old-style flaxen shirts. They're beautiful.

and more importantly they are fine & strong NATURAL fibers. No plastic crap with all sorts of dangerous chemicals. But These natural fibers won't harm your body or release toxic chemicals if they get hot or in contact with sweaty skin.

@@rickcoona I sooo hope they gonna use it for paper as well. Hemp fibers make really good paper and no trees need to be chopped for that.

Thank you.

@@fool2_ship57 I thought Poly Esther was homeless and living next to a Lego factory.

Well, you'd certainly find out who could put their back into it and could help you build a life together. No slouches could see this process through.

@@wendywolfberg Beautifully said. I remember in the old world when we would go to visit family, every harvest was a village affair and it was fun to watch people come together. Singing, laughing, drinking and eating.

Negro beating parties were also the gala social event of the year.even young kids took part.

@@keineahnung6124 Where in Italy?

@@keineahnung6124 ah, the good 'ol days.

Great! Thanks

Darling, he’s Irish. I’m born and bred a New Zealander , of English parents who emigrated from England in the 1930s. My grandmother was able to do all these cottage crafts and I followed in her footsteps, but sadly not in her lifetime. I was too busy riding my horse in those days to be domestically drawn, but over the years I learnt to spin wool from my own sheep. I’ve known for many years that the pretty little blue flowers that I grew in my cottage garden was where the true linen came from. This ability will die with me in our family, I was the only one interested in the craft, and sadly did not carry a daughter to full term, miscarrying in the 1960s. Maybe if she had lived. We may have gone on to have a cottage industry between us.

Northern ireland County donagal.lovely area

I'm an O'Donnell too!