(For transparency: This blog post was written on 19/12/2024 as an extended version of an LinkedIn post dated 9/9/2024. It has been backdated to the date of that LinkedIn post so that it appears in the correct order in the blog summary.)

Welcome to the fibre-processing corner of my website.

“Fibre processing? What’s that got to do with translation?” I hear you ask.

Well, I could give a long and complicated answer about how it ties (no pun intended) into all of my specialist areas. For example, understanding the steps of manufacturing textiles is a key part of working on texts about making those processes more circular. Or take the food systems angle: There is huge scope for adding value to some of the by-products of the food system (like sheep’s fleece), or introducing fibre plants such as flax into rotations as a valuable cover-crop. Or I could even make the case for ‘the big picture’ – a good translator needs to be curious about the texts they work on and about how things work. For me, that is expressed in a genuine love of understanding how the things we interact with on a daily basis (like our clothes) are made.

But the honest truth is, I just really enjoy thinking about it, and I strongly suspect there are a few of you out there who feel the same. And if that’s you, you can find a list of all the previous posts on this topic here.

Today’s topic is: lifting

The first step is in processing flax into linen is to harvest the flax stems and tie them up in bundles to dry before rippling then retting (all will be revealed). There is some disagreement about whether you should dry + ripple then ret or the other way round, but since I definitely want to retain the seeds for use next year, I'm going to err on the side of caution and dry first, since it seems likely that the retting with the seeds still in place (ultimately a controlled form of rotting, both words stemming from the same root - no pun intended) would damage the seeds – or worse, cause all the seeds to drop out where they are and self-seed.

Flax is harvested or 'lifted' (traditionally at least) by pulling the entire stem and root out of the ground - this is to preserve as much of the length of the stem as possible. Longer stems are easier to process and supposedly make for a finer thread when spun, so softer fabric. However, I have seen at least one organic linen company claim to leave the root system in the ground to bind the soil together over winter and decompose like you would a green manure, so presumably they cut it like wheat or similar. Unlike other green manures such as clover, however, flax apparently tastes quite bitter to ruminants, so it tends to be a component of mixes rather than a solo cover crop.

Anyway, the stems are pulled out of the ground and tied together into 'sheaves' (i.e. bundles):

Note that I have three distinct groups of stems here. The healthiest are on the left and were grown alongside peas and/or on beds that had been covered in field beans all winter - that’s more or less what they’re supposed to look like, though I may be a bit late. Then there’s the middle bundles, much shorter, which were grown alongside the potatoes – this competition probably explaining why they’re so stunted. Then there’s the bundle on the right, which had pretty much the opposite problem – these were choked by some couch grass that I just couldn’t keep on top of. This meant that they had to grow taller and leggy to compete, and it’s also probably why they’ve terminated their life cycle earlier and dropped all their seeds before harvesting. This sounds like it should be a good thing, but I suspect what it means is that the useful bast fibres are stretched out and weaker than in the healthy bundle. Let it never be said that neighbours aren’t important!

Anyway. these bundles are then left out to dry. This would traditionally be done by piling the sheaves up in a 'stook', which looks a bit like a teepee, but with open sides, to allow airflow for moisture to escape. However, I don't really have enough to do this effectively, and heavy rain is predicted for my area, so they're stacked up on the racks in my polytunnel instead:

After that, it’s just a waiting game. I’ll be the first to admit that a polytunnel is not exactly idea drying conditions, given how they tend to trap moisture in, but it’s the best option I have. I haven’t got a shed to dry them out in, and there’s nowhere to hang them in my little flat, so this will have to do!