Before we give you a little insight into the goings on at Flax Mill (in Ireland and in Brandenburg/Germany), let me and the small team wish you only the very best for 2023!
“Wherever your shuttle may fly, I wish a long life to your loom…” (Colum Sands).
To describe our situation, I suppose the old “. up to our ears.” is a fitting phrase.
After 1 ¼ years of the “Lauchhammer – adventure” we have learned that slowing down was not made for us.
The demand for our products, especially linen is extremely high, hand-wovens are certainly top of the range.
For this reason, we are adding two new-comers to our shelves:
– “Big Boy Blue” is the name we have given a completely new hand-woven pure linen fabric. I used the best of Irish yarns only for weaving it. The warp is constructed from a semi-bleached (20s lea) very classic thread. It was spun by Campbell’s – we should be the only mill with some stock of that.
I used three threads in one shuttle for the weft: A strong blue (nanking blue would be a close colour), a fine space-dyed effect yarn and a turquoise.
The result is stunning, I think, we wove the fabric to the full width of our shuttle loom (150 cm) – the very limited run should be gone soon.
– Finer in construction is “Wild Raspberry”, a medium – weight handwoven linen which is on the loom as we write this (ready and finished for the end of February).
The weft – yarn was dyed by the amazing Jeff Swan of Ballymena. The deep pink is something else, I’m weaving it in small bands, 4 traditional patterns used in rotation. Finished, the linen should be a good 130 cms wide. We are making 32 metres only to start with – again: First come first take…
– Certainly not new and definitely not Irish Linen: Our longest running finished product, the hand-woven woollen blankets are back!
Weft yarn was hand-spun and home-dyed by our commission – spinner Christine Casey and as I announced recently: The colours and quality are truly spectacular. The run will be sold in a very short time – if anyone wants one now, we can send them from Germany where they are being kept.
Christine is at the next batch of yarn – I will be in Ireland for a couple of weeks from February 8th and should bring some back with me.
So much for the production – end of things. Personally we are well here and alongside Petra, who is “getting there” speedily, Simone has joined us to learn the basics of weaving. She is a smart kid and won’t take long to catch on, I think!
I gave an interview to the weekly “Unsere Zeit” on the situation of textile – making here and on some of our activities to change it to the better. If anyone wants it, I can send it to them (in German only).
March 17th will see our “coming of Spring” celebration here at the house – young Farah Mullan (our grand-daughter) is going to jet in from Limavady to give our visitors a few traditional Irish dances (nothing changes, a few years ago it would have been our daughters…). Not bad for a 7 –year old, to travel 2,000 km for a dance or two, eh?
I should speak to you very soon, but we couldn’t leave you this time without answering the question so often asked recently: Is it true that you are coming back to Ireland?
Just one sentence at this stage: Yes, it is!
Many more details on that very soon, until then