the whole nine yards
“the whole nine yards” is an attempt to gain an embodied understanding of the time, labour, and materials required to produce a length of linen yardage - from seed to final cloth.
The question is simple: how much linen yardage can be woven from a plot of flax? The numbers are infinite: How many seeds? How many pounds of flax fibre? How much time? How many yards of yarn? How many turns of the wheel? How many times does the flax pass through your hand before the cloth is finished?
The resulting data provides one version of an answer: 13,960 yards of linen thread was spun from the 40’ x 21.5’ plot of flax grown at Eventide Gardens in Granville Ferry, Mi'kma'ki (Nova Scotia). 9 yards of cloth (29” wide) was woven from this linen thread. To read these numbers is merely the beginning of understanding and honouring the labour of this cloth, and in turn, the labour of our collective textile ancestries.
The patterns in the woven cloth are based on “Spinn, Spinn, Spinnerin”, a 19th century German folksong about the balance of labour & rest when trying to complete the year's spinning quota. Each note in the melody is associated with a specific number on the scale, which determines the number of threads in each reversal of the herringbone pattern.
Nested below the cloth installation is a cassette player, inviting viewers to listen. Jenna Kessler (of Eventide Gardens) and Anita Cazzola sing “Spinn, Spinn, Spinnerin” in harmony, reflecting the symbiotic & supportive relationship between the agricultural & textile labour required in a sustainable future of textile production.
This project was created through the Flaxmobile Project. Flaxmobile received funding from Research Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
phase 1: sow seeds
Seeds were planted on May 2, 2023 at Eventide Gardens. The plot was 21.5' x 40'.
FLAX FLOWERING
By mid-july, the flax plants were flowering in their beautiful shades of blue. Flax plants have a 90-100 day growth period. Flowers close up at night and open again in the morning sun.
phase 2: harvest and ret
Plants were harvested on August 11, 2023 and laid on the grass to be dew retted.
Dew-retted flax ready to be brought in to dry. August 30, 2023.
phase 3: processing
Breaking flax stalks - November 2023. Breaking the flax removes the outer woody core (called shive) so that the long, soft fibers can be released. The last image shows the flax broken halfway down the stalk. It is a physically demanding process and creates a considerable amount of this shive waste. The Flaxmobile project is working with some researchers at Dalhousie University to turn this shive into biochar. It can also be used to make Flax-crete.
Broken flax awaiting scutching - November 2023
Scutching flax fibers - November 2023. Pictured here: Jenna Kessler (farmer at Eventide Gardens). Scutching removes the remaining shive from the fibers, as well as some of the shortest tow fibers that are of lowest quality.
Hackling flax fibers - Novemebr 2023. The final processing stage, prior to spinning the flax, is Hackling. Seen here with Jenna Jessler's expert hands. This combs out all the tow fibers and untangles the fibers so they can easily be drafted and prepped for spinning. The combing of these fibers feels like combing very tangly hair. l'm drawn to the poetry of untangling in this moment - it feels good to make sense of something that is out of control. I've been brushing my hair with more intention than ever, and calling on gentle, patient, kindness.
Hackled flax fibers ready to be spun - November 2023.
Hackled flax fibers - November 2023
phase 4: spinning
The longline fibers were handspun in my studio from December 2023 - June 2024. This was my first step into the world of spinning, and I certainly noticed improvement as I worked through the 1.5kg of longline fibers.
Longline flax awaiting spinning.
By the end of June, 2024,13,960 yards of flax had been spun.
Flax yardage handing from the arms that spun it all. I think of Claude Debussy's composition "the girl with the flaxen hair" when I see this image.
Photo by Sam Boer.
Reflection upon the completion of the spinning:
approximately 200 hours of spinning over 6 months, resulting in 17 skeins.
this flax has seen me through three significant losses in my life this year - so much grief has been stored in the energy of so many twists of the fibers. spinning is new to me as of feb 2023, and oh, what a wonderful thing to be able to participate in. spinning is a meditation, it is medicine, it is a practice of patience, it is stillness & constant motion at once.
at points I found myself feeling stressed about getting this all spun so I could move to the next stages of the project. what a 17th century problem to have! but now that the spinning phase is completed, I find myself feeling a bit lost. the wheel has been a constant companion throughout this process, and it is now tucked away. there are many phases left before the flax becomes yardage, and then garments, and it feels a bit overwhelming to move into these next stages. these skein friends need to transform - but I’ll sit with them a little longer before more change comes.
I feel so much gratitude to these plants, and the people who have been part of the many processes that have led to this stage of production - especially Jenna Kessler (Eventide Gardens) and Jennifer Green (Flaxmobile)
phase 5: weaving
The warp threads were pre-treated with a flaxseed sizing to strengthen them on the loom, and reduce fuzziness and dust.
Cloth on the loom - August 2024.
Detail of cloth off the loom - August 2024.
Cloth off the loom - August 2024.
phase 6: washing
The linen yardage was washed in the river - August 2024. Image by Jenna Kessler.
Image by Jenna Kessler.
Image by Wiebke Schroeder from Flax Ecologies at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts, 2024.
Image by Steve Wadden from Flax Ecologies at Cape Breton Centre for Craft and Design, 2025.