Linen thread/fibers

[luvswool and dyestuff]

I was combing through one of my embellishment/fabric boxes and came across a handmade piece of linen I bought while in Scotland a couple of years ago.  That got me to thinking about using linen threads or fibers in felting.

Have any of you experienced linen as a fiber add-in to wool felting?

[maisie]

I use linen oddments and cotton strips cut from old clothes and add wisps of wool, the same as I do
for silk to hold it on the felt. Did you mean to mix threads with the roving as you lay it out?
I haven't tried it that way.

[zed]

Yeah, I use raw linen/flax fibre all the time. I've not tried a thick piece of linen fabric, but have used loose/unravelled threads too.

[luvswool and dyestuff]

Maisie, I was thinking firstly of incorporating linen thread into wool roving as a structural or embellishment fiber, possibly in landscapes.
Zed, how have you found the linen fibers to felt…easy or difficult?

[zed]

Linen fibre is similar to hemp, kind of looks like dried grass. It is thicker than some other embellishment fibres. This is how it comes:

flax/linen by zedster01, on Flickr

But, it doesn't look like grass after felting, it has a golden foil look to it. It's 4th row down on here:
Finnish wool with 'other' speciality fibres by zedster01, on Flickr

This size will give you a better idea: www.flickr.com/photos/zedster01/7038153777/sizes/l/

Like any embellishment, it depends which wool breed you use it with a how you felt it that affects 'how' it felts.

Brown Finnish with flax: feltingandfiberstudio.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/brown-finnish-and-flax-3.jpg

It is nice blended in too, especially with natural wools

[luvswool and dyestuff]

Zed, thanks for sharing your experiments with linen and flax. The enlarged photos really help to see the effects. I do have hemp and have used it before sparingly.
I may put this experiment on the back burner while I “play” with color.

[zed]

You can dye it with fibre reactive dyes really easily too, I have green, blue and grey that all look really nice.