The Flax long course - final day

We sowed, saw it grow, harvested, rippled, retted, dried and ground our own flax in a two and a half months time. This was the easy part of flax growing, the hardest one was yet to come and that is the one that demands us to scutch, comb and spin our flax.
In the last day of our course, we got together to work in the same place where it all started. It was a beautiful day, spent taking care of our fibers. We shared opinions, discussed experiences and results. Learned how to scutch by hand and with our new scutcher. Combed the flax with old and new hackles. And we still had time to learn how to use a simple pair of handcards to make the most of the shorter flax fibers.
Spinning flax actually was not a part of the program, but I took the spinning wheels, drop spindles and portuguese traditional spindles and people got the opportunity to experiment with that. Flax is not the easiest fiber to start to learn spinning, in my opinion, and that difficulty increases when you realize you're learning while using the beautiful fiber that took you so much time and effort to grow. A sense of responsibility quickly arises!

This course was one of the projects that I had most pleasure in developing this year. One day workshops are interesting, but this is clearly the next level. Following the natural rhythms of growing and processing flax allowed us to approach each subject with the required time and, in between activities there was time to let the information settle and see more questions arise. On top of learning about this specific process, we visited several places and people that helped us get a realistic notion of what is the context of flax production in Portugal, without illusions offolklore or museums.
We also were very lucky to have a very interested and diverse group, with people that came for very different reasons.
This course was an exceptional opportunity and was only possible because of the support of the Vila Nova de Famalicão Municipality, to whom we need to thank for the way we were received in this city and for the generous collaboration in all the stages of the process.
We'll have more next year!