After practising my spinning at home, a month later I was finally on my way to Cornwall to meet Amanda in person for a one-to-one spinning day. The train trip to Cornwall as such a beautiful start to the day. Rolling hills, patchwork fields, and cosy cottages.  And: would you believe in the Dawlish and Teignmouth area, the train goes parallel with the water front!

When I arrived at Amanda's cosy cottage, I was greeted with a friendly welcome and a hot cuppa and  plus a few encouraging biscuits, 

Then we went straight into the flax, business, or rather flax processing. The first lesson of the day: every time you spin flax, flax needs to be re-hackled to make sure the fibres run smoothly side by side for spinning. 

Next we started the spinning itself. It would be difficult not to get into the zone in Amanda’s living room. Imagine a magical exhibition of spinning wheels, bobbins, drop spindles, and colourful yarns. Amanda even owns a double flyer flax spinning wheel - a flax wheel where you spin flax with both hands simultaneously! And if that wasn’t impressive enough, she also owns a spinning wheel that almost operates like a bowling lane on a track. I could have spent all morning, exploring all these spinning wheels and bits and bobs!

After asking about my spinning wheel, Amanda set me up with a very similar version she owned: a double treadle with a 7.5 ratio. So far, I’d only inch-wormed my way through shorter fibres (drafting an inch at a time), so working with the very long flax fibres was quite a change. It took me all morning to get my head around drafting long fibres and keeping the twist out of the spinning triangle. No matter what I tried, the twist kept slipping through my fingers.

Amongst many helpful tips, Amanda eventually handed me some hand cream as my hands were simply to dry. There you go, who'd thought... your hands must be in good shape for spinning too, not just your flax. It's all in the preparation and not just the flax preparation.

Another surprise was discovering that I spin like a left-handed person. Who knew? After struggling through countless distaff spinning courses and never quite getting the drafting right, Amanda suggested swapping my drafting and fibre hands. The difference was immediate and remarkable. The eyes of a master indeed!

After practising with fibres about 6-8 inches long, we moved on to the longer fibres - a good two feet - and spinning them from the towel. Finally I understood how to wrap flax in a towel, as although looking at many online images, it never quite clicked. Also, Amanda uses a 'terry towel', i.e. a fluffy towel with lots of little loops for a better grip on the fibre. All these little tricks!  Spinning from the towel is an excellent method for working with long flax fibres, especially if you don’t have a distaff or want to keep the process as fuss-free as possible. I absolutely loved learning this technique.

However, it turns out spinning from the towel, you also need to spin "across the top," another new technique for me. So much to learn, but luckily Amanda has the patience of an angel.

By the end of the day, my head was buzzing with new techniques, tips, and tricks, and my hands were well on their way to becoming expert flax spinners. There's still so much to learn, but with Amanda's guidance, I’m confident that I’ll be spinning the longer flax fibres to s decent standard. Luckily, I only need to take care about the weft yarn, or filling as the industry calls it.

Amanda was kind enough to share her thoughts about flax as a fibre crop and our project. Have a little look below :-)