What is linen?
LINEN, made from the small and beautiful little plant known as Flax or Linum or by it’s full Latin name Linum Usitatissimum and from which the cellulose fiber linen is obtained. The stems of the plant are processed into long, strong fibers by hackling, retting, and scutching processes. This is one of the most elegant, beautiful and durable refined luxury fabrics historically known to us. Linen was used in the wrapping of mummies in Egypt and to this day these linen wrappings remain intact and strong on newly discovered mummies. Linen is the strongest of the vegetable fibers and has 2 to 3 times the strength of cotton. Linen table cloths and napkins have been handed down generation to generation. Not only is the linen fiber strong, it is smooth, making the finished fabric lint free. The soft and subtle luster of linen only gets softer and finer the more it is washed. Linen is made from flax, a bast fiber taken from the stalk of the plant. The luster is from the natural wax content. Crea
Linen is one of the oldest woven fabrics in human history. Made of fibers from the flax plant, this material was once considered suitable only for royalty. Purple linen was the material for a king’s robe. The Bible mentions linen coverings used in the Tabernacle and the Temple, and references to “fine linen” are found throughout. Linen is an expensive fabric to manufacture. Flax is a temperamental plant to grow, and the quality of the finished linen depends largely on the quality of the plant itself. The flax fibers are found in the stalk, which is picked by hand to preserve the fibers’ integrity — another reason flax is expensive. Separating the fibers is also a long and tedious process if performed correctly. Some flax is processed on cotton machines, but this results in a lower-quality finished fiber. Most fabric flax is grown today in Western Europe, and the finer quality linen comes from there, as well. Good quality linen is soft and largely free of the “slubs” or small knots ofte
Linen is a yarn or fabric made from the cultivated flax plant, named Linum usitatissimum. This domesticated species is believed to have been developed during cultivation. It is a cellulosic plant fibre, or bast fibre, and it forms the fibrous bundles in the inner bark of the stems of the plant. The plant is an annual that grows to a height of about a metre and the fibres run the entire length of the stem and help hold it upright. The fibre strands are normally released from the cellular and woody stem tissue by a process known as retting (controlled rotting). In Ireland this was traditionally done in water, rivers, ponds or retting dams. Flax was grown in Ireland for many years before advanced agricultural methods and more suitable climate led to the concentration of quality flax cultivation in northern Europe (mainly northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands). Since the 1950’s the flax fibre for Irish Linen yarn has been, almost exclusively, imported from France, Belgium and the Ne
Linen is probably the oldest textile fiber. Samples of the plant and rudimentary fabrics made from it date back to 8000 BC. Samples of linen fabrics have been found in Egyptian tombs frequently as shrouds for mummies. And linen and its industries are part of the political and cultural history of several western European countries, especially Ireland’s. Linen is a bast fiber; it comes from a stringy part of the plant’s stem that nestles between its inner and outer core. Linen fibers range from 2″ to 36″ the longer fibers are used for fine linen fabrics, the shorter fibers for coarser fabrics and yarn. Linen is often pictured as a stiff, unyielding fabric, but in fact, spun from the longer fibers, it can be smooth, lustrous, and soft. And as it ages, as it is worn and washed–and this is true for linen yarn as well as woven linen fabrics–it grows softer and more pliable. Linen is a great warm weather fiber; it’s cool to wear. Because it takes up moisture rapidly, it wicks away dampness
