As I already shared with you last year, we are finding it increasingly difficult to source organic flax, which is now in great demand by the large Chinese textile companies in particular, who are exerting strong pressure on this new market.
The organic flax currently available on the European market comes either from the Netherlands in raw form, with very limited quantities and therefore fewer possibilities for assembly between batches (which leads to a drop in quality homogeneity and more breakage in the fibres); or from China in the form of yarn, which is then dyed and put in balls up, mainly in Italy, to obtain a European manufacturing label.
In response to these difficulties, the Italian spinner with whom we manufacture Antigone has recently developed an alternative project with the cooperative Terre de Lin in Normandy with the aim of producing a high quality, ecological and local flax yarn.
This project brings together the farmers of the cooperative who commit to not using any chemical product on their plots and to rehabilitating traditional cultivation methods to create a healthy material with a positive ecological impact, designed to meet the quality requirements of the luxury textile industry. The raw material is then spun according to the same production standards as organic certified linen with specially adapted machine settings to reproduce the slower, softer spinning that was possible at the beginning of the last century. This special care in spinning enhances the natural beauty of the fibres by preserving their length and brightness.
Antigone’s new production has been spun from this ecological linen and we are really happy to share it with you today! The yarn of the first balls we received is soft and shiny with in our opinion a slightly better regularity than our last productions, a lovely drape and a particularly pleasant touch.
We are delighted to be able to support this local initiative while benefiting from this exceptional quality and I sincerely hope that you will share our enthusiasm for this yarn!
For this new production, you will find the colours of the current range except for the ” violine ” colours which are replaced by new colours developed this season and which will be presented to you in a few weeks.
In the meantime, to highlight the raw beauty of this living and precious material, we welcome to the range a new colour “lin” which corresponds to the natural shade of the yarn without dye.
A very natural warm beige that will delight lovers of neutral and timeless shades and that will combine nicely with almost all the colours in the range.
Antigone can be knitted with a sample of 22 to 24 sts per 10 cm (2.5 to 3.5 mm needles) for a regular result or up to 18 to 16 sts (4 to 5 mm needles) for a more transparent and soft result.
Here are a few ideas of pretty knitting and crocheting patterns to start dreaming the shinny days :
