Linen

Linen is a strong, fast drying textile produced by weaving fibres harvested from the linseed plant. In its natural "raw" state, linen is a neutral beige fabric, though it takes bleaching and dyes very well, allowing dyers to produce fabric in a wide variety of colours. Thread can also be bleached or dyed before being woven into fabric, allowing weavers to produce colour patterns. Linen is primarily used in the Sleeping Lands, due to the region's abundance of agricultural land. Chelestra is widely known for its production of high quality linen, chiefly grown in the Amala province and processed in the regional capital city, Aramala.

History & Usage

Refinement

Linseed is a fast growing plant, reaching approximately 4 feet in its 100 day growing season before it reaches maturity, growing flowers of violet, blue and white. It is uprooted in early summer, and left out in the field for a process called retting. During this period, moisture from rain and breaks down the plant, allowing it to separate into fibres stretching the full length of the plant, including the roots, while the heat of the day dries the fibres. Workers go out and turn the plants regularly to ensure the crop is retted and dried evenly. Once this process is complete, the dried plants are baled up and taken to town for further processing.
The next step is dressing, which involves breaking the fibres apart, scutching, and hackling. This produces long, fine fibres known as line as well as short, coarse fibres known as tow, as well as a woody material called shives. The line and tow fibres, which have a passing resemblance to blonde hair, can then be spun into a variety of thicknesses of thread, which can be adjusted by using combs of varying fineness for the hackling process. Line fibres are typically wet spun, producing a smooth and shiny thread, while tow is spun dry or half-wet, producing a coarser, more structured look. Shives are considered waste in the linen making process, but they can be substituted for wood pulp in paper making and make excellent tinder for starting fires.
Most spools of linen thread go on immediately to be woven into textiles, but it can be bleached and/or dyed at this stage for the production of multi-tone fabrics; additionally, spools of thread subjected to the same dying process as a finished bale of fabric are usually shipped with the fabric, allowing the end user to acquire a suitable matching thread easily.
Weaving can be done by hand, but it is a laborious and extremely slow process, though it has been continuously improved over time through various styles of loom. The simplest of looms simply hold a series of threads in one direction, allowing the weaver to pass another thread back and forth through them. The threads held by the loom, known as warp threads, are often much finer than the weft thread passed through them. As the loom has improved, more and more of the process has been automated, performing tasks like bringing the threads together once woven automatically, making for a more consistent fabric. A recent innovation, called the flying shuttle loom, allows the warp threads to be shifted into alternating positions using a foot pedal while the shuttle, which trails the weft thread behind it, is simply passed back and forth between the sides of the fabric. This can even be done with a pair of weavers standing at throwing distance, allowing for much wider fabrics to be produced.
While the natural beige colour of linen is quite acceptable, demand for dyed fabrics is quite high. To produce lighter colours or a true white, one must first bleach the linen using an alternating process of lye and acid baths. This process takes several months to produce a true white, so it is omitted for dyes intense enough to overpower the natural beige. To dye fabric, it first needs to be carefully washed to remove impurities, then wetted and soaked in a dye bath for a set period of time.
At this point, the linen is prepared to ship. For transportation, the fabric is generally folded in half and wrapped around a wooden board. Each of these boards is first wrapped with a single layer of the coarsest linen produced to protect it from picking up wooden slivers, and the entire bundle is again wrapped in a layer of this coarse material to protect it from the elements.
Some higher end linen producers check their product at various stages:

threads are examined for uniform thickness and run through a testing device to ensure adequete strength throughout its length

freshly woven fabrics are inspected for knots or other weaving faults, which are mended where possible or cut into two smaller lengths in order to exclude the fault

The final product is examined and graded just before packaging it for travel, looking mainly for uniformity in dying as well as any faults that may have made it past the previous quality control step. Uneven dye jobs are graded as patchwork and sold at a cheaper price for use in smaller pieces.