First, a disclaimer - I am a fairly experienced weaver but this is my first time weaving with linen. I have wanted to try linen for a while and this yarn was a reasonable price and came in nice colors, so it was time. First, this yarn is VERY slubby. There are easily 6-10 slubs per yard. Some are small and are easily picked off, but some of the large ones cannot be. Also some of the larger ones are not dyed completely through and leave light spots if you remove them. I was hoping for a smooth, elegant yarn and this is definitely more rustic. When weaving, the yarn would jump off the bobbin and wind around the shuttle spindle, but after following advise from Tom Knisely and soaking the wound bobbins in water for a while and squeezing them out, they behaved nicely. Beaming and weaving was easy and smooth with no frayed or broken ends. I used two darker colors in a twill at 20 epi and during the wash the colors ran quite a bit. The cloth also created a LOT of lint in both the washer and the dryer. I knew that linen needed to be washed to soften up, but after the first wash the towels were still very stiff and scratchy. I will wash them again and hope that they will improve but right now, I don't feel that they would sell well. I bought quite a few cones and now wonder how I will use them. Maybe I will mix them with some cotton, but that was not my plan. I hate to give GIST a bad review because I really support what they are doing, but this yarn was a disappointment.
