Material of the Month: Linen

This month, I will be talking about another natural fiber: linen. Unlike with wool, I don't have much experience working with linen. I haven't ever processed raw flax, and I have only really worked with one linen yarn. But, since I am currently finishing up a linen shawl, I thought it would be a good material for December. I guess I will give my first impressions.

First, and most obviously, linen is a plant-based fiber. It is derived from flax:

A field of blooming flax

Flax is a grass. To make it into linen, you take the 3- to 4-foot-tall plants and dry them. After beating them to remove the seeds, you place them in stagnant or slow-moving water to rot away the outer parts of the plant. You then dry them, crush them, scrape them, and comb them, until they are ready to be spun. As I mentioned above, I have never tried any of this. I might try spinning it at some point, but since I'd have to isolate it from my wool (for religious reasons), it might have to wait until I have a larger place.

Linen is rarely used for knitting, and, after making two projects with it, I can see why. It doesn't stretch at all - whatever the tension you put into the stitch, that is what it will stay, and you will hurt your wrists and fingers trying to get the next stitch in. It doesn't grip itself either, so it will easily slip off needles or pull out into a loop on the fabric. It is stiff too - when you fold it, the stitches will often slide past each other, rather than bending.

Pretty much the worst technique you can use with linen is mosaic knitting - or maybe cables. Because  both require that the stitches stretch out to multiple rows, and be larger after you have already set the tension, attempting to do them with linen will kill your hands. With wool, it will stretch easily, then settle back later, giving texture. With linen, you have to fight the yarn to get it to do what you want.

And this is why I know you should avoid mosaic knitting with linen

Ok, so those are the disadvantages of linen. Why would you ever use it?

Well, first off, the stiffness and un-stretchiness can be an asset in crochet, and definitely are in weaving. Although I haven't tried it, I hear that it is a dream to weave with.

Secondly, when spun wet, the yarn is beautiful, smooth, and soft.

Louet Euroflax yarn

The fabric it creates is light and airy, and feels good on the skin. It is smooth and washes easily. And it becomes more supple as it ages and gets washed. There is a reason that tablecloths and sheets are called "linens." It does tend to wrinkle, so it needs frequent ironing, but it makes good, firm, fabric, especially for summer use.

Speaking of summer use, I did almost finish my linen summer shawl today. Something about the pattern of colors reminded me of a snake, so I called it a snakeskin shawl. I was using big needles with a simple pattern, so it knit up in a little over a month.

Even aside from using three colors in the shawl instead of two, I ended up modifying the pattern pretty heavily. It was supposed to be a right-triangle shawl, where you knit from one corner, growing by a stitch every other row, until you are knitting the entire other side of the shawl. But it was getting too wide for me - I wanted something a bit more scarf-like. So I added a SSK decrease to the rows that were supposed to be growing, and turned it into a crescent shawl. I also added a black border at the neck to make it more sturdy.

Ok, one more thing about linen. It is really important to block it, because the stitches need to be evened out and "wrinkled" so that they will stay in the places you put them. So that is what I did today.

Snakeskin shawl, pre-blocking:

Notice how the elongated stitches are not lying flat before wet-blocking

And wet and pinned to a towel for blocking:

The end of the shawl where it "grew" every other row

The end of the shawl where I added the extra SSK