School: Anabla
- Location:
- Anablaha, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Seán Ó Súilleabháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0454, Page 066
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- XML Page 066
- XML “Spinning and Weaving”
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- The old people set the flax in the month of May. When the flax was ripe in the months of August and September it was pulled and made into sheave's like the oats. Then they took it to a flax-hole and they put it into water. They did this to steep it and make it soft.
They took it out again and they ripped the sheaves and they spread it out to dry. They spread it very thinly. When it was dry which was after ten or eleven days they made bundles of it about the size of four or five sheaves, and they put them up on the shafters to dry and harden. When it was dry and hard men took it down from the rafters and pounded it on a flat stone with a wooden mallet to make it fine. Then the women made taheens of it to make it fit for cloving.
When the women had it cloved they got a hackle to clean it and take the fine flax away from the coarse flax. The coarse part was called "tow" and the fine part was called flax for the linen thread. Then it was spun in a spinning-wheel to make thread of it. When it was spun they wound it up in a hand-reel. They took it off the hand-reel and they made(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Pat Kerrisk
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Inchicorrigane West, Co. Kerry
- Informant
- Mrs Kerrisk
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Inchicorrigane West, Co. Kerry
