Flax has been part of our textile story for thousands of years, and for good reason. Spun well, it gives you a yarn that softens with every wash, wears like iron and carries a quiet sheen that no synthetic can imitate. But before any of that can happen, the fibre has to be sorted. That means separating the long, elegant line fibres from the shorter, tangled tow, and that work is done with combs and cards.

Why Flax Arrives Needing Preparation

By the time flax reaches your hands, it has already been retted, broken and scutched, which loosens the woody shive from the fibre. What you are left with is a bundle of fibres of wildly different lengths, still clinging to bits of boon and stray pieces of straw. Unlike wool, which grows in a neat crimped lock, flax fibres run the length of the plant stem and are held together by pectin. Your job is to break that pectin down mechanically and to sort the fibres by length.

This sorting matters because long and short fibres want completely different treatment. Line fibres, the long staples, are combed and spun into smooth, strong yarn for weaving. Tow, the shorter tangles, is carded and spun into a rougher yarn better suited to rope, twine or utility cloth. Mixing the two gives you a lumpy, inconsistent yarn that drafts badly and sheds everywhere.

Stripping and Hackling: The First Pass

Start with a handful of scutched fibre and pull it apart gently across your body to open the bundle. Keep your hands no more than a handspan apart so you do not break the long fibres. Work through the whole bundle this way, then move to the combs.

A hackle is a bed of upright steel pins set in a wooden or metal base. For flax, you want two or three hackles of increasing fineness, coarse first. Warm the fibre slightly if it feels brittle, as cold flax snaps. Then work in stages:

• Coarse hackle: draw the fibre through the pins in short strokes, turning the bundle so all sides get worked. This removes the bulk of the shive and short bits.
• Medium hackle: repeat, working closer to the ends and separating the bundle into smaller sections.
• Fine hackle: a final pass to align the fibres and tease out the last of the tow.

As you work, the short fibres collect in the pins. Pull them out regularly and set them aside. This is your tow, and it is not waste. The fibre left in your hand, now smooth and glossy, is line flax. Keep your strokes long and steady rather than fast and jerky, and stop before the fibres start to squeak, which means you are abrading them.

Carding the Tow

Tow is short, crimped and full of neps, so it needs carding rather than combing. Hand cards, the kind with a curved back and wire teeth, are ideal. Load a small amount of tow onto one card, no more than a light covering, and begin to card with slow, deliberate strokes.

Transfer the fibre from card to card, stripping it off the teeth with a gentle pull rather than tearing it. As you go, the fibres open up and the last bits of shive and dust fall away. Ten to fifteen passes usually does it. If the tow is very dirty, card it over a cloth to catch the debris.

When the fibre looks airy and even, roll it into a rolag by laying the card flat and rolling the fibre off with your hand or a dowel. Rolags spin beautifully from the fold, which is the technique you want for tow. Do not over-card, or you will entangle the fibres and create more neps than you started with.

Dressing the Distaff for Line Fibre

Line flax spins best from a distaff, which holds the long fibres in an orderly bundle while you draft from the end. To dress it, take a ribbon of hackled line, fold it over the top of the distaff and tie it loosely with a strip of linen or cotton thread. Arrange the fibres so they fan out slightly, then wind the tie in a criss-cross to hold them.

Spinning from a distaff keeps your hands free and the fibres aligned, which is exactly what gives linen its smooth finish. If you do not have a distaff, you can wrap the line fibre around a wrist distaff or hold it in your lap, but the drafting will be slower and less even.

Storing and Spinning Your Prepared Fibres

Keep your line fibre and your rolags separate. Line fibre can be rolled in a cloth and stored flat so it does not tangle. Rolags should be stored loosely in a basket, as squashing them flat makes them harder to draft.

Both fibres spin with a high twist and a short forward draw, but the feel is different. Line drafts smoothly and quickly, giving a crisp, strong yarn. Tow needs a gentler hand and more patience, but it rewards you with a soft, textured yarn that is perfect for everyday cloth. Label your skeins as you go, because once they are wound onto bobbins it is easy to forget which is which.

Take your time with the preparation. A well-combed strick and a basket of clean rolags make the spinning a pleasure, and they are the difference between linen that lasts a generation and linen that sulks on the bobbin.