Spinning Flax

I recently helped out at a demonstration of spinning flax at the 109th annual Flax Scutching Festival in Stahlstown, PA.  I'd never spun flax before (only wool), but it turns out that the skills transfer very easily.

 Below is my own spinning wheel, outfitted for spinning flax instead of wool.  The differences are the addition of the distaff on the left (for holding the unspun flax) and the small water gourd hanging below it, for adhering the fibers together.  I found the hardest part to be dressing the distaff, especially with a pretty good breeze blowing through all day.

I think I got the hang of it pretty quickly!  The motions are very similar. The differences are the fiber length and the feel of it in your hands.  It was stiff and almost brittle feeling, and after a while the combination of flax and water made my fingers feel a bit gluey -- a new feeling, but not too dissimilar from spinning wool with lots of lanolin in it.