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Spinning in the Roman World

The Ancients

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The Great Benefits of the Ancients

Professor susanna lipscom explains how to grow flax and linen. Linen was a very expensive fibre in the classical world. Flax can be spun very finely, but you have to take care as those little plants are growing. To get rid of that outer stem, you've got to literally rot it. The reading process is usually done by leaving bundles of your flax in running water for some time. Once this bundle of fibres has been left with no water or wind they begin to rot. You then need to dry them out so they're all nice and dry now. Now you can see why i hant even the fibry sort of break off that outer coating. That

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