I’m still trying to learn how to spin a fine, strong linen thread, in pursuit of making a ‘cambric shirt’.  I’m learning that ‘fine’ and ‘strong’ are totally relative terms.

A) Hostess talked about the difficulties of weaving 16-singles linen – that it kept breaking, and had to be done over a humidifier.  If ’16’ refers to 16 wraps-per-inch, then that’s not so fine thread.

B) I’ve spun linen in three ways so far:

1. Spinning with wheel, from hank in hand, moving hand to the right (Z), wet fingers, 32wpi.
2. Spinning with supported drop spindle, from prespliced ribbon kept wet (Egyptian method), spun clockwise (Z), 44wpi (and more consistent).  Tried plying this version, and have been carrying it around as a sample – it hasn’t worn away yet.
3. Spinning with dangling drop spindle, from hank in hand,  spinning counterclockwise (S), wet fingers, 40wpi.  This is the one I tried to sew with: a single disintegrates – I think it untwists.

I’d post pictures, but they all look the same, except the S is twisted the other way.

Before trying the wheel (1) I posted asking for help about spinning fine linen on the Spindlers Yahoo! list and got the following response:

            By all means try your wheel – if you have flax stricks available, use a
dressed distaff and simply try. Spinning flax is easier on the wheel where
you can use both hands. You don’t need a "real flax wheel" any spinning
wheel that goes slowly will be best to start – linen is a low twist yarn.
Elsie Davenport’s "Your Handspinning" and Bette Hochberg’s "Handspinners
Handbook" also have nice information.  You’ll just have to be prepared to have some funky yarn at startup – you really can’t get the hang of it without experimenting a bit.

While this response was coming in, I gave the Egyptian splicing method referred to in Women’s Work  and described by Patricia Baines a try, and got pretty good results (2).

Weavers generally use singles for weaving, but my previous attempt of sewing using a single linen thread (1) didn’t work well – the thread wore away from passing through the fabric.  I could mitigate that problem by using a larger needle, but preserving the delicate low twist ratio might be better done by plying threads meant for sewing.  After seeing Hostess’ work from Vavstaga, and various linen thread samples, I’m thinking that linen is frequently plied to preserve the twist.

I think I need to do a lot more spinning, so I can try some weaving.  The advantage of the wheel is clear – for both speed and control.  When I fill up this bobbin I’ll ply the whole thing and try to weave with it.

I still haven’t managed to dress a distaff in a way that I like.