At the end of August, the Wisconsin Permaculture Convergence will be held at LTI. The heart of this event is sessions led by a group of facilitators on topics ranging from saving seeds to raising rabbits. Today, we’re highlighting “Flax to Linen: Unlocking Fiber from Straw,” facilitated by Leslie Schroeder.
Flax to Linen, Unlocking Fiber from Straw
Have you ever imagined you could grow your own clothes? This 1½ hour hands-on workshop on the basics of transforming flax to linen includes information on cultivating and offers participants an opportunity to experience hand processing the fiber.
Leslie is a co-founder of Wisconsin Linen Revival which is endeavoring to establish flax for fiber as an environmentally sustainable crop in the Midwest. Her background in textiles is self-taught and includes sewing, knitting, weaving, and hand processing deer hides into buckskin. Leslie’s current work is transitioning her curiosity with the flax plant at a garden scale into developing the potential for market-scale production in the Midwest.
Leslie has been “officially” involved in flax and linen production for three years, since she took a workshop at LTI in 2021: “I first saw flax being processed though at Old World Wisconsin twelve years ago and was floored both by how magical what I was seeing was and total incredulity that I somehow hadn’t known about flax already. I turned a corner. I could never go back from when I was introduced to making cordage from wild foraged bast plants, that was probably seven or eight years ago. Breaking the dried stem of a plant open and hand twining simple rope, I realized I had never felt more connected to humans through history.”
She finds every part of the flax-to-linen process exciting, “from establishing the very beginning of a seed breeding program in order to develop a Midwest-specific, climate-change resilient seed, to stepping into scaling up processing, to imagining all the wonderful garments and textiles local producers might some day make from Wisconsin linen. Just telling people about it is exciting — just saying the words ‘you can grow your own clothes’ and describing the steps to people makes them light up. The most challenging thing is being a primary parent and household manager at the same time. It’s crushing, actually.”
Leslie considers some of the difficulty we have as a society is our lack of sense of belonging: “The clothes we wear are literally so intimate with our bodies and so deep into our identities. But right now there is a profound disconnect between us and the producers and sewers of the garments we wear. I think shortening the journey from seed to shirt is part of culture repair. Add to that knowing our current textile industry is remarkably environmentally detrimental, from energy consumption to toxic chemical treatments to microplastic waste – the very realistic alternative offered by flax is roundly a win for everyone.”
The Wisconsin Permaculture Convergence takes place August 23–25 at the Low Technology Institute in Cooksville, Wisconsin. Find out more information at the event website: wisconsinpermacultureconvergence.com
Registration includes access to the sessions, meals, and limited camping! Although day-of registration is available, it is best to sign up right now! This helps us get our food and other logistics ready to make this a great weekend for everyone involved. Don’t wait!